Fire doors! Such an important fire engineering device yet from the many fire risk assessments I have carried out many fire doors I have inspected 70% are not passing. Why? Here are a list of reasons: 1, The gap between the leaf (door) and the frame exceeds 4 mm. This is critical in making sure the fire door works and seals itself during a fire. If the gap is more than 4 mm the intumescent strips will not seal the door and the fire can quickly envelop door. 2. Fire doors wedged open. This is nearly always in the kitchen and dining areas. If you are finding these are being wedged open by tenants, there is a solution you can fit Dorgard devices. 3. No door closers or fire door will not close under its own weight. Fire doors are designed to prevent fire entering the protected route if there are no door closers fitted then this will increase the likely hood of them being left open, also if they do not close fully then the intumescent strips wont work correctly and the door will not seal. 4. No Intumescent strips and cold smoke seals. If these are not fitted to fire doors then they will not seal in a fire and protected route will no longer be protected. Cold smoke seals are fitted to prevent smoke entering the escape route they should be fitted on all fire doors that lead on to the escape route. 5. Hinges. These must be CE approved and 3 hinges must be fitted to fire doors unless the manufacturer specifies otherwise. Fitting a fire door is not the same as fitting a normal door. If your chippee/building contractor hasnt fitted them before I would strongly advise using someone else, maybe an approved fire door installer from TRADA/BWF/ASDMA or somebody who knows exactly what they are doing. Have a look at previous work done by them or get them to send images of past work. Ask them open questions such as What is the permissible gap on the bottom of the door for fire doors? If they dont know, dont use them. Its 8 mm by the way. Ask if you need cold smoke seals? If they cant give an answer straight away dont use them. All HMOs need cold smoke seals on fire doors that open onto the escape route. This will then solve you the headache of getting things rectified once they have been inspected by a fire officer or the fire risk assessor you employed. It will also give you the peace of mind knowing you have done your best to protect your investment and more importantly the lives of your tenants.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 16:47:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015