Like many of our fire safety colleagues, we’re sure, we have noticed an increasing trend of requests from contractors for us to oversee/sign off fire door installations because their clients are specifying that the installation must be signed off by an accredited, third party specialist and the contractors themselves are not accredited.
We welcome this work because it is an opportunity to increase awareness and understanding of the standards and tolerances within the construction industry.
Many of the joiners we work with are skilled and experienced and we always make clear that the guidance (or corrections) we give are not a negative reflection on their skills – but it can still be quite a delicate process to get them on board! The lack of understanding of why the tolerances are so fine is, perhaps, the biggest hurdle to overcome. They are makers, adapters, used to making things work within more flexible boundaries and, for many of the things they make ‘THAT’LL DO’ is absolutely fine because it looks great and works.
Even when the contractor has purchased factory assembled doorsets or factory milled door assemblies these skilled joiners have been challenged to achieve consistent and compliant gaps between door leaf and frame, whilst ensuring the doors close properly and can be opened easily – especially on 54mm thick doors.
Now, given time and experience –they will obviously get quicker as they get more practiced at achieving these standards, but what is abundantly clear is that, contrary to popular belief, installing a fire door is not as easy or quick as hanging a normal door and no, you are not going to be hanging 10 of them a day!
THAT’LL DO DOESN’T DO when it comes to installing fire doors!
If you would like some guidance, advice or just a chat to help you understand why, please get in touch.
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.
We are great believers in keeping our architectural heritage alive wherever possible and are always delighted to be involved in projects in listed or historic buildings where conservation of the original features and fabric are required.
Working with specialist conservation architects and surveyors and using techniques and materials approved by organisations such as Historic Scotland, The National Trust and English Heritage, we are experienced in the refurbishment and upgrade of listed buildings of all categories and are always proud to assist in the conservation of our historic buildings.
Passive Fire Protection (PFP) is the term given to products and practices that are intended to slow or prevent the spread of fire. The purpose of PFP is to maximise the time available to evacuate a property or prevent a fire from taking hold in the first place.
Passive Fire Protection essentially creates fire resistant compartments within a building – a process known as compartmentation – by using appropriate materials and methods in the construction of the separating walls, floors and ceilings. This contains fire within the individual compartment for a certain period of time, dependent on the design criteria. The main purpose of this is to give occupants time to escape, but also to give the fire services a better chance of containing and extinguishing the fire and possibly saving the building.
Fire Compartmentation
Poor Fire Compartmentation
It stands to reason that if a compartment is working properly, it will contain a fire for the prescribed period of time – say, 60 minutes – before the fire spreads to the next compartment – and so on. As part of a fire strategy this delay in the spread of the fire allows for safe evacuations, even when phased (in hospitals, for example) and will assist emergency services in planning their response to fires in large buildings.
It further stands to reason that if, for any reason, the Passive Fire Protection elements within a building (or it’s compartmentation) fails, then the evacuation and fire containment strategies will be compromised.
Fire doors and ‘fire stopping’ are critical Passive Fire Protection elements within any building and are absolutely key in maintaining effective compartmentation.
Fire Stopping
Fire Stopping is the sealing of weak points in a compartment wall caused by, for example, service pipes or cables passing through a wall, or a linear joint between fire resistant sections. We see so many examples of buildings that have had modifications or repair work done that has resulted in these seals being compromised, or entirely new holes formed and not sealed – and it only takes a matter of minutes for fire to break through even the tiniest of holes. It is crucial that these fire-resistant seals are installed as part of any new or remedial work.
Fire doors are intended to provide the same level of fire resistance as their surrounding walls – but they can only do this if they are closed – and if their fire-resistant components and properties are fully compliant and functional AS A WHOLE. As with fire stopping, even the tiniest flaw in the complete door assembly can be exploited by fire very rapidly.
Although they are classified as ‘passive’ fire safety equipment, fire doors probably need more attention and maintenance than any of the ‘active’ elements (fire alarms, sprinklers and extinguishers). They are complex engineered products that are effective only when all the components are compatible and functional and, because they are in constant use, they really do need regular attention – like any mechanical product.
Lack of Understanding of Passive Fire Protection
Unfortunately, our experience shows us that many organisations and ‘duty holders’ have an alarming absence of understanding of PFP in general and, specifically, fire doors and fire stopping.
The question is – are you, the ‘duty holder’ (or agent/consultant), confident that your Passive Fire Protection is compliant and functional? When was it last inspected by a competent person with relevant, recognised accreditation? Will your insurance pay out if you can’t prove due diligence? Can you afford the loss of your assets, business revenue and reputation caused by a fire like this? Do you want to be prosecuted for fire safety breaches? Most of all, do you want have a fatality or injury on your conscience?
If the answer to any of these questions is NO, then you need to take action.
Fire Door Inspections in Scotland
Worksmart Fire Door Inspection Vans
So how can Worksmart Fire Door Inspection help you avoid these scenarios?
We provide a range of services from one off inspections to complete turn-key maintenance contracts – freeing up your time and energy and guaranteeing that you are being duly diligent.
Worksmart is affiliated to and certificated by two UKAS accredited bodies – the FDIS (Fire Door Inspection Scheme), the BM Trada Q Mark Fire Door Maintenance Scheme and the BM Trada Q Mark Fire Stopping Installation Scheme – so you can be sure you have entrusted this safety critical work to properly competent people as defined by law.
All our surveyors and tradespeople are specially trained in the specific requirements for these disciplines and we adhere to strict procedures, including spot checks and verification of methods and materials at key points of every project. We are also regularly audited to ensure our processes and work comply with the requirements of these schemes, but also, and most importantly, comply with the regulations and standards.
Worksmart have developed these services to provide peace of mind to people like you – with responsibility for fire safety – allowing you to focus on driving your business safe in the knowledge that you have done everything you can to ensure the fire safety of your buildings.
Things have really been heating up here at Worksmart Fire Door Inspection in recent months. We recently achieved accredited status for our very own CPD Seminar. Since then, Mark has been delivering the seminar to businesses up and down the country. We sat down with him to get a feel for what exactly it is he is doing when delivering these seminars and why information surrounding fire doors so important.
What is this Accredited CPD Seminar about?
Our CPD Seminar is titled FIRE DOORS – FUNCTION, RESPONSIBILITY & COMPLIANCE. It is an overview of the role and function of fire doors, who is responsible for them, how they exercise that responsibility and how they ensure they are being compliant.
There are many misconceptions in the property sector about what duty holders (or responsible persons) must do to comply with fire safety regulations and many people undertake some of their responsibilities very well (for example, fire extinguisher testing). Our aim with this CPD seminar is to:
Spread the word that fire doors are absolutely crucial elements of fire safety and that, due to the fact they are in constant use, NEED regular maintenance.
Explain to specifiers, developers & contractors the importance of correct installation – coming out of the factory with a certificate is worthless if the door is not installed correctly.
Clarify that ‘responsibility for fire safety measures’ means ALL fire safety measures – not just fire alarms and fire extinguishers. The penalties for failing to ensure that fire doors are compliant are the same as any other failure to comply with fire safety standards.
Raise awareness of independent accreditation schemes for fire door inspection specialists, which are the best way to ensure your contractors can be shown to be ‘competent’ to work with fire doors as defined by the law.
Who needs to know about Fire Doors?
Everyone in the property/construction sectors needs to know this information.
Worksmart is a very successful interior fit-out and refurbishment contractor with numerous major clients, but we wanted to make sure – and give our clients confidence that – what we were installing was fit for purpose and compliant. Since starting that process we have been shocked at some of the things we’ve seen and the lack of awareness and understanding around fire doors.
So we created our seminar, which is intended for all property professionals – architects, surveyors, specifiers, contractors, facilities managers, estates managers, hoteliers, care home providers, student accommodation providers – the list is long!
We want to encourage EVERYBODY in the chain to add it to their agenda – the more people that are talking about it, the more people will take action and the sooner it will become best practice.
I would encourage EVERYONE reading this to contact us to arrange a seminar – after all, why wouldn’t legal compliance with fire safety standards be on your agenda?
What kind of reactions/feedback have you received on the CPD seminar?
Reaction has been very positive. We always try to tailor the seminar to our audience’s world by getting an understanding from them where they sit in the ‘chain’ of responsibility and always have lively discussion during the session. There are is usually something that raises a few eyebrows and makes people review their practices. There have even been occasions where our candidates have realised they are providing services they have no recognised accreditation to provide!
How has your daily work schedule changed since you began doing the seminars?
Fortunately, I have a very efficient colleague who manages the appointments diary, so that side of things is taken care of for me! Typically, on a seminar day, I may fit in an appointment or two in the morning, but always aim to arrive at client’s office at about 12 midday to set up. The seminar itself lasts a little over an hour and I will spend some time in the afternoon completing the administration for the session – logging contact details for delegates and sending out CPD certificates for their records.
How often does Worksmart Fire Door Inspection Run Seminars?
We try to have one seminar a week so that I still have time to do my ‘day job’ of actually inspecting fire doors, but it doesn’t always work out that way. We have been delivering an average of one seminar a week since we launched the CPD in January, most of these have been to individual companies, but we have also been invited to deliver two sessions for the RICS in Glasgow and Edinburgh, details of which can be found on their website.
We’re really keen to keep getting the word out there about our fire door inspection services, so give us a call if to arrange a seminar – or to discuss anything to do with your fire doors!
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.
Being in the hotel sector, you will be acutely aware of the challenges of managing all the elements of fire safety in often complex buildings, but how sure are you that your fire doors are compliant and are you fulfilling all your Passive Fire Protection requirements?
Two catastrophic hotel blazes in the last month, at Bristol and Walsall, completely destroyed both hotels and have raised serious questions about the Passive Fire Protection systems within them.
Passive Fire Protection essentially creates fire resistant compartments within a building – a process known as compartmentation – by using appropriate materials in the construction of the separating walls, floors and ceilings. This contains fire within the individual compartment for a certain period of time, dependent on the design criteria. The main purpose of this is to give occupants time to escape, but also to give the fire services a better chance of containing and extinguishing the fire and possibly saving the building.
It stands to reason that if a compartment is working properly, it will contain a fire for, say, 60 minutes, before the fire spreads to the next compartment – and so on. For fires to spread so rapidly in two relatively modern buildings that they were completely destroyed within hours – even considering the lack of sprinklers – is extremely concerning.
Fire doors and ‘fire stopping’ are critical elements of the compartmentation of buildings.
Fire Stopping is the sealing of weak points in a compartment wall caused by, for example, service pipes or cables passing through a wall, or a linear joint between fire resistant sections. Many buildings have had modifications or repair work done that has resulted in these seals being compromised – and it only takes a matter of minutes for fire to break through even the tiniest of holes. It is crucial that these fire-resistant seals are installed as part of any new or remedial work.
Fire doors are intended to provide the same level of fire resistance as their surrounding walls – but they can only do this if they are closed – and if their fire-resistant components and properties are fully compliant and functional AS A WHOLE. As with fire stopping, even the tiniest flaw in the complete door assembly can be exploited by fire very rapidly.
Although they are classified as ‘passive’ fire safety equipment, fire doors probably need more attention and maintenance than any of the ‘active’ elements (fire alarms, sprinklers and extinguishers). They are complex engineered products that are effective only when all the components are compatible and functional and, because they are in constant use, they really do need regular attention – like any mechanical product.
Unfortunately, the available data tells us that, despite the existence of fire risk assessments and in-house maintenance teams, fire doors remain a significant area of concern. Over 61% failed compliance checks due to improper installation, downgrades on the specification, insufficient maintenance, damage and inappropriate repairs – indicating a widespread lack of understanding of the regulatory standards that apply to fire doors and the problems that commonly arise with them.
The investigations in to these two hotel fires are in their early stages, but few in the fire safety sector are going to be surprised if Passive Fire Protection, compartmentation and fire doors feature prominently in their outcomes.
The question is – are you, the hotel owner or operator, confident that your Passive Fire Protection is compliant and functional? When was it last inspected by a competent person with relevant, recognised accreditation? Will your insurance pay out if you can’t prove due diligence? Can you afford the loss of your assets, business revenue and reputation caused by a fire like this? Do you want to be prosecuted for fire safety breaches? Most of all, do you want have a fatality or injury on your conscience?
If the answer to any of these questions is NO, then you need to take action.
So how can Worksmart Fire Door Inspection help you avoid these scenarios?
We provide a range of services from one off inspections to complete turn-key maintenance contracts – freeing up your time and energy and guaranteeing that you are being duly diligent.
Worksmart is affiliated to and certificated by two UKAS accredited bodies – the FDIS (Fire Door Inspection Scheme), the BM Trada Q Mark Fire Door Maintenance Scheme and the BM Trada Q Mark FireStopping Installation Scheme – so you can be sure you have entrusted this safety critical work to properly competent people as defined by law.
All our surveyors and tradespeople are specially trained in the specific requirements for these disciplines and we adhere to strict procedures, including spot checks and verification of methods and materials at key points of every project. We are also regularly audited to ensure our processes and work comply with the requirements of these schemes, but also, and most importantly, comply with the regulations and standards.
Worksmart have developed these services to provide peace of mind to people like you – with responsibility for fire safety – allowing you to focus on driving your business safe in the knowledge that you have done everything you can to ensure the safety of your staff and guests.
I would be delighted to come along to do a presentation if you would like, or simply have a chat and leave some information for you.
If you would to get in touch to find out morem, please contact Mark McQuade at [email protected] or call 01563 53 55 11
In the meantime, feel free to browse our website.
You can find us on Twitter and LinkedIn with the following hashtags: ProtectingLivesPreventingLoss #Worksmartworksafe #Firedoormaster #MakeItWorksmart
For obvious reasons, there has been a massive amount of coverage of fire safety matters in the press and social media over the last few months. So much has been said about product testing and certification: Who is responsible for what? Does anyone know about Fire Door Responsibility? Where’s the money going to come from? etc. Most of this is related, of course, to high rise residential buildings – both social housing and private sector – and much in relation to external cladding and sprinklers.
But is there a problem with how this discussion is being conducted?
Our specialism is fire doors and we’re happy to see awareness of their role growing as a result of recent coverage. However, I notice a worrying trend amongst people I meet that, whilst their understanding of the role of fire doors might be growing, their grasp on the details of their responsibilities is not. It seems to me that many people are waiting for some kind of directive from someone in authority to tell them if they need to take any action or not.
The problem, as I see it, with the way the discussion has been conducted so far is that many participants have either been deflecting responsibility or making excuses for inactivity; specifically in relation to fire doors we have seen doubt cast on the test houses and the certification process. This has resulted in a concerning loss of faith in the system. These Fire Door Responsibility concerns need to be addressed.
Then, when this was clarified, we had government & local authorities prevaricating and disputing who should be paying for replacing fire doors and some (Kensington & Chelsea) even claiming that they couldn’t source certificated fire doors because they had been removed from the market (a claim swiftly rebutted by the British Woodworking Federation).
The reason this a problem is that this discussion affects only a small proportion of relevant buildings (as defined by legislation), but most of the people I meet are in the commercial sector and their views are influenced by it. Many ‘responsible persons’ out there actually have limited understanding of what they actually need to do in order to comply with their legal obligations for fire safety (as I did when I was in their position many years ago), but they seem to have adopted a limbo like state while they wait for some kind of clarity on the subject. Very few people fully understand Fire Door Responsibility.
The truth is there has been clarity for the last 14 years – since the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (England & Wales) and the Fire (Scotland) Act, both of 2005.
Under these two laws, if you are responsible – to any extent – for a relevant building then YOU MUST TAKE GENERAL FIRE PRECAUTIONS.
Specifically, you must:
Implement a suitable maintenance regime to ensure relevant equipment is kept in an efficient state
Appoint one or more competent persons to assist in undertaking preventive and protective measures
No “ifs”, No “buts”
None of the recent discussions have any bearing on this and if you haven’t done either of these two things then you are not only compromising the safety of the occupants of your building, but you are exposing yourself to prosecution – and as tolerance wears thin, the frequency of prosecutions is rising.
Like everyone else, I watched in horror on the 14th Of June 2017 as Grenfell Tower burned – knowing that people were dying. Knowing also, because we have become used to the pattern, that the subsequent investigation would reveal ignorance, incompetence, cost and neglect as major factors in the tragedy.
I was overwhelmed by grief for those people, but also by anger and frustration that I – we – allow this pattern to keep repeating itself. We watch, experience all those emotions, then – usually – tell ourselves that we’re powerless to do anything.
This time it’s different. A few months later I joined the Make It Worksmart Group and found myself talking about how we could make a difference.
In the intervening months we have undertaken training and accreditation programs to develop our knowledge and have been horrified by the catalogue of avoidable fire disasters that we have found in our research. We have also been genuinely shocked by some of the compromises and failures we’ve seen – I have been guilty of some myself in the past (see my blog ‘What’s To Lose?’ https://worksmartfiredoorinspection.co.uk/2018/10/18/worksmart-fire-door-inspections/ ).
So, what started from a sense of responsibility for ensuring that our own work was ‘proper’ is growing in to something of a mission – to improve fire safety in Scotland and the UK. We want to feel sure that nothing we do ourselves will compromise fire safety, but the sense of responsibility we have always felt to our workforce, customers and community drives us to use whatever influence we have to improve fire safety in any way we can.
Nobody wants to die in a fire. Nobody wants to be bereaved by fire. And nobody wants to feel responsible for either of those things.
So let’s not accept it anymore. Let’s call it out wherever we see it. Let’s lead by example. Contractors, facilities managers, customers, tenants, employers, hotel guests – everyone – let’s take responsibility for preventing another avoidable death.
We believe we can make our buildings safer for everyone by raising awareness and understanding. We believe public awareness can change attitudes and actions. And we believe everyone should be safe in our public spaces and buildings.
Contact us for information on how you can help wherever you work (or play).
