Are your Fire Doors Compliant?
Welcome to the weird world of Working From Home and social distancing, we hope everyone is staying safe and sane! This is an ideal time to catch up with things we might not ordinarily find time for and returning to work will be a great opportunity to introduce some new routines that may have been missing or neglected – namely, regular inspections of your fire doors! This simple Five Step Check for Fire Doors will help give you an idea of whether or not you need to call a certified inspector.
Fire door maintenance is essential for fire safety and mandatory in law and it starts with thorough inspections to establish what condition they are in to start with. Below is a simple 5 STEP CHECK that will help you recognise if your doors are in need of specialist inspection or maintenance – we think it would be great idea to introduce it as monthly routine when everyone gets back to work!
It’s up to you as an individual with Fire Door responsibilities to ensure you are up-to-date and compliant with all things relating to your Fire Doors.
Shirking your fire responsibilities, either as a boss, a landlord or a ‘responsible person’ can lead to grave consequences. From heavy fines to loss of life, you do not want to fall victim of faulty fire doors.
Fire Door Compliance Checks
Luckily, we’ve devised 5 simple steps you can take to check if your fire doors are compliant. We should say that this is no substitute for having a fully-certified professional check your fire doors. However, it is a good way to gauge if you should call upon the services of an expert.
Check for certification
Is there a label or plug on the top or side of the door to show it is a certificated fire door? The ‘selfie’ function on your smartphone can be put to good use here to check… or you can do it the old-fashioned way with a mirror. If you do see a label or plug that’s good news, otherwise report it to whoever is in charge of your building.
Check the gaps
Check the gaps around the top and sides of the door are consistently less than 4mm when closed. A £1 coin is about 3mm thick, so if you have one handy you can use this to check the gaps. If you can see light under the door, the threshold gap is likely to be too big. If the gaps are too big smoke and fire can get through very quickly. If in doubt, get it checked!
Check the Seals
Are there any intumescent seals around the door or frame, and are they intact with no sign of damage? These seals are vital to the fire door’s performance, expanding when heated to ensure fire, holding the door in place and preventing the passage of fire and smoke. If the seals are missing or damaged the door will not do what it is intended to do and you should have it repaired.
Check the Hinges
Are the hinges firmly fixed (three or more of them), with no missing or broken screws? If you see problems, report it – the door is obviously not properly maintained and in the intensity of a fire may not perform and hold back the fire for long enough. These are one of the hardest working components of any door and could be opened tens of thousands of times each year. This puts enormous pressure on the mechanism of the hinge and on its fixings.
Check the door closes properly
Open the door about halfway, let go and allow it to close by itself. Does it close firmly onto the latch without sticking on the floor or the frame? If not, report it. A fire door only works when it’s closed. A fire door is completely useless if it’s wedged open or can’t close fully.
Accredited Fire Door Inspectors
We always recommend using a Third Party Accredited fire door inspector. This gives you peace of mind that your fire door specialist has the required knowledge and skills to undertake the work.
Failure to carry out these checks can result, as many places are now discovering, in large reparation costs as they seek to restore historically neglected fire doors to proper working function.
Here at Worksmart we are registered with two UKAS accredited schemes – the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS) and BM Trada Q Mark. We undergo regular reassessment and bi-annual audits of our training and business processes as well as the work we have done on site, which includes fire door inspection, maintenance and installation.
By using our expertise and experience, you know you are doing everything you can to safeguard your building and its occupants.
Get in touch to arrange a free phone consultation about your needs.