our services - fire door inspections

  We offer a professional and expert fire door inspection service,  Our Fire Door Inspectors are fully competent to carry out the inspection of your building’s fire doors and prepare a detailed survey and report on the condition and function of the fire doors on your premises. 

What is a Fire Door?

A fire-resisting door assembly or fire doorset, commonly known and referred to as a fire door, can be defined as a door or shutter, together with its frame and furniture, provided for the passage of people, air or goods, which when closed is intended to restrict fire and smoke to a predictable level of performance.  Most of the time, a fire door is like any other door. But if a fire breaks out, it is there to perform vital and specific tasks in containing or limiting smoke and flames, enabling people to safely evacuate and prevent the effects of the fire from spreading unchecked through compartments, so that the majority of the building and the activities that take place within it, can continue shortly afterwards, or even during the fire occurring, as is the case in a building with a ‘Stay Put’ evacuation strategy, such as most purpose built blocks of flats.  

So why flat doors? And why now?

Whether the front doors of flats are demised to the leaseholder or the landlord, they are an essential part of the passive fire protection systems of a block of flats.  The Grenfell inquiry highlighted the importance of fire doors in maintaining compartmentation and protecting parts of the building other than that in which a fire has occurred and made recommendations for change in relation to inspection of fire doors and self-closing devices. In terms of ‘ownership’ of flat doors, and the responsibility for such checks, (which has always been contentious), the Chief Fire Officers' Association [CFOA] in their Guidance Document ‘Collected Perceived Insights into and Application of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 For the Benefit of Enforcing Authorities - 2015 Revision’, otherwise known as the ‘Enforcers’ Guidance’ state:

 “For the purposes of clarity, the front doors to flats are considered to be a common protective measure, typically under the control of the occupier as an article 5(4) duty holder, because an early failure of the door can pose a serious risk to the safety of other relevant persons on the premises.”

The guidance states that:

· Flat entrance fire doors leading to a shared or communal area are required to provide fire and smoke protection and are critical to most fire strategies for buildings. 

· All fire doors, including their closers, should be routinely inspected by a competent person. 

· Residents should be made aware of the importance of a working self-closing device on all fire doors.

 · Flat entrance fire door sets should have test evidence demonstrating they meet the performance requirement in Building Regulations for fire resistance and smoke control from both sides 

· Test evidence used should be carefully checked to ensure it is to the same specifications of the doorset being installed. 

· Landlords or building owners should replace flat entrance doorset if they suspect they do not meet the fire or smoke resistance performance in the Building Regulations guidance.  

And goes on to say that, where a building contains two or more sets of domestic premises, the things to which this order applies include - (a) the building’s structure and external walls and any common parts; (b) all doors between the domestic premises and common parts (so far as not falling within sub-paragraph (a)). 

What’s Involved in the Inspection?

The inspection will look at the entire door assembly and include up to 90 checks, depending on the configuration of the doorset including: 

· Certification and/or markings

· Checking the door leaf, frame and installation

· Testing the functionality and closure of the door within the frame

· Check gaps including the threshold

· Check intumescent seals and smoke seals/brushes

· Check the apertures including vision holes, letter boxes, air transfer grilles

· Check the hinges, including the configuration and screws

· Check the furnishings including lock, latch, and handle

· Fire resistant glazing· Self-closing device

· Checking the signage (Not required for flat front doors)  

An inspection checklist (the BWF checklist amended by the Fire Protection Association and again amended by Hunter Fire Safety) will record the door assessment and include photo evidence of the entire doorset.  Where applicable, gap testers, measuring instruments and force testing equipment may be used to meet the criteria of the assessment, no damage will be caused to the doorset, and no repairs will be made on the day. 

Recommendations for remedial works or further invasive inspections will be identified against the assessment criteria and any ‘accepted repair techniques’, and will be included within the documented inspection reports, following completion of the survey.