28 TAC § 34.620 requires an installation label after the completion of an installation of new fire alarm equipment or a new system, OR the extension, alteration, or modification to a fire alarm system already in place. That second half matters as much as the first: the same work Chapter 4 established is planning, and Chapter 8 established requires a certificate, also requires a label. It is affixed to the INSIDE of the control panel cover or, if the system has no panel, in a permanent location. It is white with black lettering, approximately three inches square, with adhesive on the back.

What it must carry is a compressed version of everything this book has been about. Alongside DO NOT REMOVE BY ORDER OF TEXAS STATE FIRE MARSHAL and the words INSTALLATION RECORD, both in capitals in at least 10-point bold face type, the label bears the registered firm’s name, address, and telephone number, and the CERTIFICATE OF REGISTRATION NUMBER of the office that performed the installation — main or branch. Then the installation date, the LICENSEE’S SIGNATURE, which may not be stamped, and the license number. And finally the NAME AND LICENSE NUMBER OF THE FIRE ALARM PLANNING SUPERINTENDENT or residential fire alarm planning superintendent, as applicable, or the professional engineer’s name and license number, WHO PLANNED THE SYSTEM. That middle name is the rule’s own, and it needs flagging: 28 TAC § 34.611 issues no license called a residential fire alarm planning superintendent — the residential planning class Chapter 4 set out is the residential fire alarm superintendent. Which of them 28 TAC § 34.620 means is not something these rules settle. What is clear is the shape: two licensees on one label, because the plan and the installation are two authorities and the panel records both.

The rule then does something unusual: it prohibits two labels rather than requiring one. YELLOW OR RED LABELS MUST NOT BE ATTACHED for the installation of a new system, or for new equipment used in the extension, alteration, or modification of an existing fire alarm system. Read on its own that looks like housekeeping. Read against § 9.4 and § 9.5 it is a statement about what those labels MEAN. They report that an existing system has fallen short of a standard it is supposed to meet, or that it is not working. Neither statement can be true of work being handed over as complete — and a firm that tags its own new installation yellow because a detail is outstanding has said something on the panel that the rule does not permit it to say.