A fire door inspection is a review of the building’s fire doors which determines if they are fit for purpose and compliant with fire safety standards. In the event of a fire, a building’s passive fire protection system plays a vital role in reducing the rate at which fire and smoke spreads throughout the building.
Fire doors are an essential part of a building’s fire protection, ensuring that the building is compartmentalised. Correct maintenance and regular inspections in any commercial building is necessary in reducing the risk of loss to life and property. An inspection will look at all elements of the doorset which, if not maintained, can significantly reduce the effectiveness of the system and its ability to stop the spread of fire.
A fire door inspection survey will check that your building’s fire doors are compliant with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 which makes it a legal requirement to ensure that fire resisting doors are correctly installed and adequately maintained to be fit for purpose. It states that the responsible person for non-domestic buildings must ensure fire doors and frames are correctly installed so they can effectively prevent the spread of fire. According to the BWF-CERTFIRE Best Practice Guide, as a building owner or responsible person you should check your fire doors once every 6 months.
This includes an inspection of the vision panels, glazing, cold smoke seals, intumescent seals, the fire resisting qualities of the doorset including its thickness and gaps between the leaf and door frame, the condition, fitting, and operation of the hinges and hardware, and checking for relevant markings, for example from the British Woodworking Federation to identify the fire rating of the doorset.
Who can inspect fire doors?
As laid out in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) 2005, a competent person should carry out an inspections on your fire doors. Fire door inspectors should be approved and qualified to carry out the assessment of your doorsets competently. The Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS) is a recognised qualification by the British Woodworking Federation that ensures competence when carrying out fire door inspections.
A comprehensive visual inspection should be carried out for each fire doorset including a review of:
- the hinges and all door hardware
- the condition, fitting, and operation of the hinges and hardware
- the signage
- the operation of any hold open devices
- the door closer and its ability to effectively close the doorsets
- the relevant markings to identify the fire rating of the doorset
- the locks and latches to ensure they are operational
- the vision panels, glazing, and a review of their suitability
- the cold smoke seals
- the intumescent seals
- the gaps between the leaf and frame
- the door frame
- the door leaf
- the materials used in the installation of the doorset and their suitability.
How to obtain a fire door inspection
Doors can be inspected as part of a fire risk assessment, or through a fire door survey as an independent service. The FPA’s fire door inspectors conduct comprehensive, non-destructive fire door surveys and deliver detailed reports on the condition of the entire doorset. The report will outline their existing condition and adequacy of the fire doorsets, and where necessary, recommend improvements that should be undertaken in order to make your buildings compliant with statutory requirements and best practice guidance, or to meet a specific business resilience objective.
Find out more about the FPA’s Fire Door Inspection Surveys. If have you have any questions, please email surveys@thefpa.co.uk or call 01608 812 500.
Please be aware that considerable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained within this article at the time of publication, however any legislative (or other) changes that come into effect after this may render the information out of date until it is reviewed and updated as part of the FPA’s content review cycle.