Fire doors should be inspected periodically for safety and legal compliance in existing buildings, and it is crucial to inspect new fire doors during and post-installation works.
A professional fire door inspector can provide these services. The sectors that commonly require fire door inspection services include: Housing, healthcare, education, leisure, commercial and industrial properties.
With regard to existing doors at these buildings, it is important to identify the fire-resisting doors and escape doors that are key to the safety of the people that use the buildings; a professional fire door inspector should be able to help you identify the most critical fire doors and help you set-up an inspection and maintenance program to meet your obligations and help to keep the fire doors in safe, efficient working order and good repair. The inspector’s reports should be easy to understand and clearly identify which doors are compliant and which are not. They should not bombard you with unnecessary jargon but where doors are found to be non-compliant the reports need to be clear about describing the necessary work required in order to make them compliant.
The period of time between inspections should reflect the importance of the particular doors in terms of how critical they are to safety of the people at the building and the type of wear and tear they are subject to. By helping you to plan inspection intervals and by providing clear and concise inspection reports the inspector can help you target resources to where they are needed and help you to avoid unnecessary expense.
Where property owners and managers engage contractors to carry out refurbishments and to install new doors the professional fire door inspector can help to ensure the works are carried out correctly so that the doors meet compliance requirements and that the contractor delivers in accordance with the specification. Very often, new fire doors are not installed correctly and the building owner or operator is left with unsatisfactory fire doors and has to meet the cost of the necessary remedial works.
Many building owners and managers now engage fire door inspectors to undertake post-works inspections so that contractors may be held accountable and brought back to rectify non-compliances. Building operators are now consulting Inspectors to assist with specifications so that compliant installation can be better achieved.
What is a professional fire door inspector?
The ‘Fire Safety Order’ became law in England & Wales in 2006 and the fire & rescue authority ceased to provide fire certificates. Any certificate previously issued under the Fire Precautions Act 1971 is no longer valid. This means building owners, occupiers and managers carry the legal responsibility for fire safety at their buildings. Once the completed building is handed over the person or organisation that controls the building must by law take reasonable precautions to ensure people are adequately protected, in a fire.
So, where fire doors have been incorrectly installed at the construction stage it’s the building owner, occupier or manager that is potentially liable where issues come to light. This may be due to a fire at the building or because of a visit from the local fire and rescue authority. Any search of media stories covering prosecutions under fire safety law will reveal that such breaches can be severely punished and more common than you might think. Especially where there is sleeping accommodation such as in the housing and hospitality sectors.
Professional Fire Door Inspectors services are in demand to help building owners, occupiers and managers to improve standards. Their inspection reports should comprehensively detail any installation faults, non-compliances and maintenance issues. Inspector’s findings are that the most common faults with fire doors stem from poor quality installation.
Why do Professional Fire Door Inspectors findings matter?
Inspectors’ reports show that often installation faults are so basic that fire doors fail to self-close correctly and that the smoke seals, although installed in the door assembly, would fail to correctly restrict the spread of smoke. So, the Inspector is the Competent Person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order that can bring these important issues to light.
Where such faults exist, the building could be unsafe in a fire and a threat to life may exist. Thick black smoke could spread and have a huge effect on the safety of people trying to escape. If the fire door fails to self-close it’s not just the smoke that may spread and cause death or injury, the fire itself would be allowed to spread and may render the escape route unusable. Where stay-put or staged evacuation strategies exist people seeking safety would be placed at risk because the spread of thick smoke is allowed to reach so-called places of refuge.
An inspection of newly installed fire doors at a high-rise block of flats revealed that the contractor performed so badly that they had to be brought back for a large program of remedial works. The fire door inspectors report revealed that:
– Door and frames were badly misaligned.
– Door to frame edge gaps too large.
– Doors failed to self-close because the self-closing devices were installed incorrectly.
– Doors of unsuitable quality to meet the severity of use in communal areas.
– Glazing not securely held in place.
– No fire stopping to gaps behind the door frames.
Here problems stemmed from a combination of incorrect specification, incorrect product selection and poor installation. The same issues as highlighted by the Hackitt Review following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Fire door consultancy
Of course, the best way to achieve compliance is to ensure the fire doors are specified and installed correctly from day one.
Consultancy services can provide building owners and operators with an efficient way to help ensure that the doors will be compliant with the necessary standards and regulations and to ensure that the doors will be durable enough to meet the demands of the building users. Too often, the specification is not sufficiently detailed and unsuitable fire doors are supplied and installed. Again, the end result is often that the building owner or operator is left with unsatisfactory fire doors and has to meet the cost of the necessary remedial works.
Suitable consultancy services can help to ensure new or replacement fire doors are suitable for the type of use to which they will be put.
Suitable consultancy services can help to ensure new or replacement fire doors are suitable for the type of use to which they will be put.
Fire door inspectors’ credentials
Of paramount importance is that building owners and operators find themselves in a safer and more legally compliant place as a result of the fire door inspector’s services. Inspectors should always work hard to do their best for their clients and help them to avoid the pitfalls of non-compliance with legal requirements, regulations and standards. So the inspector should possess suitable experience and the necessary qualifications. Clients would be well advised to discuss their particular requirements in detail before engaging the fire door inspector and to insist that suitable credentials are provided by the inspector at the outset.
So, by engaging a competent and diligent professional fire door inspector the building operator can achieve legal compliance and make their buildings safer for those that use them.
Whatever your needs regarding timber-based or composite construction fire-resisting doors and escape doors, AFDI is here to help. Building operators may contact the Affiliation of Fire Door Inspectors to help find a suitable professional fire door inspector. Web. www.afdi.org.uk
