Fire Door Inspection: What You Need to Check
Fire doors offer a line of defence when faced with fire. By holding back fire and smoke, they allow anyone in the building to evacuate safely and can aid with compartmentalising of the building to give local fire brigades time to attend and tackle a blaze.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 states that, if you’re the responsible person for your building, you should take adequate steps to protect lives. This includes fire doors as they can make a significant contribution towards fire safety measures in your building. With this in mind, ensuring your fire doors are in good, working condition is essential to saving lives.
You can perform regular checks on your fire doors, and to help you keep them in top condition, we’ve created a guide to fire door inspections for you and your business.
Fire Door Checklist
The first thing to have at hand is a checklist for when you carry out your own checks on internal fire doors. You can download this handy check sheet to help you conduct these checks – use a checklist for each and every door in your building.
Download Our Free Fire Door Checklist Here
Signage
All fire doors should be properly signed, indicating their designation as a fire door. Specialist fire doors, such as those directly linked to the fire alarm or fire doors protecting the building’s services, require specialist signage relating to their use. Signage should be present on both faces of the door.
Hinges
Check that you have three hinges and that they are in good condition. This means checking that screws are all in place, there’s no oil leakage, no damage and that they have the right CE stamp.
Seals
The seals around your door should be present without damage and should not be painted over. You should check that seals run all around the door and that smoke seals are in contact with the door to give the protection required.
Leaf
The leaf is the door itself and should sit against the doorstop, flush with the frame. All veneers or lipping should be affixed firmly with no peeling, while the door itself should be free from damage.
Frame
When checking the frame of your fire door, ensure it is firmly attached to the wall, free from damage. If there is a planted doorstop, you should check this is also firmly in place.
Threshold Gap
This is the gap under the door which allows for the door to freely swing closed. You should ensure nothing blocks this and that there is a gap of 8-10mm between the floor and the door when it is shut. Where a door requires a cold smoke seal, the maximum gap permitted is 3mm.
Closers
If your fire doors have closers, check them for damage and oil leakage, as well as checking they are still firmly attached at the door and the frame. Check also that when closed, the door is allowed to close in line with the frame (check both doors if you have a double set). Closing time should be 5-20 seconds depending on application – if there is too much tension and the door closes too quickly, this could be a trapping risk.
Glazing
Should any of your fire doors have a glazed window, check there is no damage or cracking. Also, check the beading is firmly attached on both sides and ensure there is an intumescent seal around the glass and beading. Glass below 1500mm should be safety glass.
Fire Door Inspection Cost
Professional fire door inspections involve some of the above and more. A fire door inspector will have the relevant qualifications and training to assess your doors in even greater detail, highlighting where any improvements should be made (if any are required). The cost of a fire door inspection will vary greatly since no two buildings are ever alike and the number of sites and doors may impact this cost.
The important thing to note is that you can contact City Fire Protection for a quick quote using our handy quote button at the top of this page. Tell us how many fire doors you have across how many sites and when you last had them inspected and we’ll get in touch with you to discuss it further.
If you’d like any more information about professional fire door inspections anywhere in Birmingham, Essex or London – including Croydon – simply contact us today and we’ll be happy to help.
