Lightning Risk Assessment Checklist
A free two-page checklist for facility managers and property owners. It covers what to gather before a lightning risk assessment, what to look at on a system you already have, and what to ask a contractor. Leave your name and email and download it as a PDF.
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What is inside
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The structure
Dimensions including the tallest roof feature, frame and roof construction, and what has been added on the roof since any system went in. Height moves the numbers more than anything else.
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Location and strike density
Where to find the flash density for your area and how to describe what stands within three building heights of yours, the two location inputs of the NFPA 780 simplified method.
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Contents, occupancy and consequences
What is inside, who is inside, and what an outage or a fire would mean, with the coefficient ranges the simplified method uses and the two formulas it compares.
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Existing protection to look at
The five parts of a system (air terminals, conductors, bonding, grounding and surge protection) and the faults inspections commonly find on each.
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Inspection and maintenance records
The paperwork worth keeping, ground test readings to compare over time, and the events that call for a fresh inspection, such as re-roofing or digging near the building.
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Questions to ask a contractor
Edition, drawings, listed components, bonding, third-party inspection and maintenance guidance: what to get in writing before work starts.
Where the checklist comes from
Every item comes from our own articles and the sources they cite: NFPA 780, the Lightning Protection Institute, the National Weather Service and the Oklahoma Mesonet. The full source list is printed at the end of the checklist. For the reasoning behind each item, read how a lightning risk assessment works, NFPA 780 explained for building owners and what is tested during a lightning protection inspection.
The checklist is general guidance. It is not a design or a formal risk assessment, and the coefficients come from the simplified method in earlier NFPA 780 editions, so have a qualified designer confirm the inputs against the edition your project references. To talk about your own building, call (940) 641-0781 or send us a message.