Fire doors should be checked at least once every six months by a competent person.
A competent person is someone who has sufficient training and experience or knowledge. The level of competence required will depend on the complexity of the situation and the help you need.
All fire door assessors at Firecom Safety Systems have had necessary industry training and qualifications in order to assess the integrity of fire doors within your building. For simplicity the assessment also, asset tags all fire doors within the complex to enable easier identification of each door, its location, and whether is suitable and sufficient or whether its effectiveness in a fire situation has been compromised. For example, this could include intumescent strips painted over, fire doors not closing correctly into its rebate, self-closer not working correctly, fire rated door hinges.
Every fire door is therefore required to act as a barrier to the passage of smoke and/or fire to varying degrees depending upon its location in a building and the fire hazards associated with that building.
The main categories of fire doors are FD30 and FD60 fire doors which offer 30 and 60 minutes fire protection.
Experience and Accreditation
In commercial properties, the Responsible Person may be the owner, landlord or occupier. In shared premises, there is likely to be more than one Responsible Person and these people must work together to ensure they meet all relevant requirements of the Fire Safety Order. Our team are happy to coordinate these checks as part of the company's fire safety strategy.
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The act will require Responsible Persons of multi-occupied residential buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises to update their fire risk assessment to include an assessment of the building's structure, external walls, and flat entrance doors.
- The most effective way to identify a fire door is to check its certification label. All fire doors are required to have a certification label as it acts as proof of whether the doors are tested enough to determine their fire resistance level. These labels are usually found on the top edge of the door leaf.
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To confuse matters some fire doors do not have a label on them and this is where the experience of our assessor can help you identify whether the fire doors in your building are compliant or not.
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As bathrooms and cloakrooms are considered low risk, even if they're fitted off the stairwell in a three story house, fire doors are not required.
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While it is not commonly known, fire doors can have glass in them, and glazed fire doors are becoming increasingly popular. Again, fire rated glass in fire doors should be marked accordingly to help identify that the glass used has been tested under fire and smoke conditions.
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Fire doors can be painted using regular paint, as long as the coats aren't too thick. This is to prevent anything from reducing the efficiency of the door. For example, if the layers of paint prevent the door from closing properly, this could render it ineffective.
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Fire exit doors in the UK should have green signage indicating an exit. Fire exit signs are green because this has become the universal colour for “go”. Every fire exit sign should be suitably illuminated via a reliable source of light and if not, should light up.
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- Never lock a fire door
- Never leave a fire door wedged open
- Never allow a fire door to be blocked
- Never remove the self-closing device from a fire door
- Paint over intumescent strips or smoke seals installed in the door frame rebate
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In the event of a fire, without the intumescent strips, the door would not prevent the spread of fire for half as long, thus putting the residents or occupants of that building at much higher risk of injury and/or death. Fire doors play a crucial role in preventing the spread of fire and smoke.