If you’ve been following us on social media and keeping up with our blog, you’ll notice we speak about intumescent seals quite a lot. But what exactly are they and why are they so vital to your fire doors and passive fire protection strategy?

Intumescent seals – also known as fire door seals – are fitted to the door or frame and will expand with heat. This means that in the unfortunate event of a fire, the seals will react by expanding and filling the gaps in the door frame. By doing this, they prolong the time it takes for flame and smoke to spread from room to room.

Intumescent Seals are a vital fire door component

It’s pretty safe to say that the fire door seals are a very important aspect of a fire door. Without them, the fire door would fail very quickly. Flames would be able to easily spread to the next room and the building would be compromised before long.

Inhabitants of the building would also be given less time to make their escape, as smoke and fire would be left unchecked. According to research carried out by the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS), the most common way fire doors were found to be failing was due to faulty intumescent/smoke seals.

During this research by the FDIS, more than 60% of the doors inspected failed on this point alone!

Make sure your fire door seals are up to scratch

Without smoke seals that have been correctly installed by a certified fire door specialist, fire doors have no chance of holding back fire and smoke. Compromised fire door seals leave the occupants of the building at risk and those responsible open to prosecution.

We strongly recommend getting a certified fire door specialist to check the intumescent and smoke seals around your fire doors. The intumescent seals around the door or frame must be intact with no sign of damage.

Without functioning fire door seals, your fire door’s performance will be compromised. With no intumescent strips to expand during a fire, smoke and fire will be able to move through the cracks.

 

If you want to get in touch to find out more, please contact Mark McQuade at [email protected] or call 01563 53 55 11

In the meantime, feel free to browse our website.

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