Fire Doors and Accessories

Hi, I am a director of an RTM company which represents a block of flats set in a grade 2 listed Georgian building built in the 1700s. The building was converted into 7 flats around 1990 and spans over 3 floors. We employ a managing agent to take care of the day to day running of the building and they refer back to us for any important decisions. We recently had an FRA conducted which recommended that each flat entrance door is replaced by a 30 minute fire door. Our agent wants to send to legal notices to each leaseholder saying that there doors are required to be replaced to meet this new standard and enforcement action will be taken for non-compliance. They wa…

New to the forums and have a quick question. In a building that I work in there is a fire door which is 1 x full leaf and 1 x half leaf. Where the doors meet when shut there are 2 x gaps (top and bottom 20cm approx in length). Both edges of the door are fitted with smoke seals etc; however the gaps mentioned are where the locking devices are located on the sides of the door and are significantly more than the 3mm required, thus in my opinion making the door relatively useless? Door 1 Door 2 Door 3

Hello, I have a query about fire door standards for a front door, from an open living room kitchen on the ground floor. Do these typically have to be FD30 or FD30s? Where there is an egress escape route above a door or window, what minimum standards should the door or window below the escape route satisfy? Many thanks, Peter

Dear Sirs/Madam, Would you be able to tell me if one can use pieces of felt (felt pads) on corners of frame to allow a fire door to close quietly. I should much appreciate your advice. Should you be unable to help could you advise me where to get this information. Thanking you for your kind co-operation. M. Cuthbert

I live in a 3 storey town house with an integral garage. I am considering a garage conversion to a sitting area. Can I change the existing fire doors on the ground floor to normal doors with glass windows to bring light into the ground floor.

Hello, we're a carpentry contracting firm who provide labour only works, including installation of timber fire doors. We've been advised by the main contractor on one of our jobs that we need to provide certification regarding fire mastic. No one really knows what certification we need, including our H&Safety consultant and the main contractor! Please can someone contact us to advise? Kind regards, Laura

I have beens asked to replace a fd30 double vision 16g fire door, this door is part of a set if double doors, am i allowed to replace just one door or do I need to replace both?

Hi, A contractor has installed a 20mm wide groove in the door frame head for the intumescent smoke seal, whilst on the jambs it's only 10mm. We only require a 30 minute fire rating so I thought 10mm was acceptable on jambs and head. However they have said new regulation state that doors over 2040mm high must have a 20mm wide groove? Is this correct? Many thanks, Eddie

We have moved into a three storey town house, is it a legal requirement for all internal doors to have door closures fitted.

Hi, I have been asked if our maintenance team can retrofit a fire resistant viewing panel within a solid fire door. I have said it is possible but only by an approved installer. They have now asked me to substantiate my statement with a reference to a standard or guidance note. Can you assist me, please?

I have a question regarding Fire Doors and Smoke Detection. When to fit smoke seals to a fire door and when to fit an additional smoke detector? As we know smoke alarms are activated when they detect smoke, but what happens if that flow of smoke is prevented by a fire door with cold smoke seals? As an example there are a number of fire alarm designs that have smoke detection in the escape routes, some rooms immediately off the escape route may have detection and some may not, but the rooms could all be fitted with fire doors. If a fire breaks out in a room with no detection the door to the escape rout could prevent the travel of smoke to the nearest detector whi…

Our company specialises in Damp Proofing, but one of our Clients has asked us to complete the following: Provide combined intumescent strips and smoke seals Provide self-closers Provide seals to doors were there are none at this time Investigate and provide fire/smoke seals to electrical cupboards as required Provide cold smoke seals to various Provide upgrade of all flat entrance doors to ensure they have appropriate fire and smoke seals, closers and fire rated glass Provide smoke seals to main doors to stairwells as not fire rated/fire sealed and risk to communal evacuation in event of fire Ensure that self closing device…

With reference to EN 1634-1, is it possible to applied uninsulated fire rated glass for fire door assesmblies? Are there any size limits for glazing of fire door assemblies complied with EN 1634-1?

Hi there. I am renovating a house and as part of that, the kitchen will be open plan in the same area as the means of exit. As such I need to add egress to windows, smoke detectors and upgrade the doors to fire doors. The house has 2'6" doors and frames (which I believe are inch thick timber). However, if I want to fit a fire door frame, I'm looking at at least 30mm thick timber. Fire doors are pretty standard sizes (i'm looking at 1981 x 762) but with the opening I have in the brick wall, I would need to trim the door down more than the 4mm allowed in the specs. What should I do? I can't believe I am the first person to upgrade door sets in a renovatio…

Hello there! I'm trying to establish whether I can apply lead to a fire rated glass. Is that possible. Many thanks, Christina

Hi there, I am an HES Emergency Response Specialist, My colleagues from the Maintenance Team and SCM use to perform on their daily basis, the maintenance of the Generator located beside one of our Office Exit doors and mostly that exit door is used as normal door during the maintenance of the generator. The reason advanced by both team (SCM and Maintenance) by using the emergency exit door is due to the distance separating the Generator area to the main entrance of the office. My question is to know if it is illegal to use the emergency exit door as normal service door? If the answer is yes, so what should be the additional precautions to be taken while the door is …

Hi, I am a leaseholder in an ex-council flat. It is 4th floor but the entry to the flat is from a 5th floor open walkway, so you go downstairs to the living area. The stairs come down to the hall in the centre of the flat with living room and enclosed kitchen on one side separated from the hall by an old fire door. The bedrooms are off the hall on the other side. The overall length of the flat is about 12m so it does not quite fall within the minimum escape route distances. I want to replace the fire door with a glazed screen comprising a glazed door, glazed side panel and glazed fanlight above. This would widen the frame opening, though the door would be the same si…

Hi Tom, A set of double fire doors in my workplace has recently had a change in door hardware. Magnetic locks have been removed and replaced with door closers and a digital lock. The doors now have exposed penetrations due to the removal of the magnetic locks. Would it be possible to plug the holes or would the fire doors require replacing? Regards Dave

Hi there , I am a time served carpenter & joiner of 34 year doing the job I love. Hung, swung , fitted countless doors of all shapes and sizes . Can someone out there please tell me I'm not going mad but I've been told that to hang and fit fire doors I need to pay £2500 for a licence before I can do the work .?

Is there any regulation on how deep to chop the 4 inch butt hinge, does it have to have one leaf chopped into the door and one into the Frame? Or is it ok to chop the hinge double depth into the door and screw the other leaf to the frame and not chop into the Frame

Set of stairs leads top of building. End of stairs there is a 5 metre walk to the front door of apartment. Should there be a fire door in between top of stairs and front door? Also opposite the front door is a final exit door that could can lead to a horizontal escape to next buildings terrace. This door has no push bar but a key in a glass box. Alsoooo...The stairs don't have any manual or automatic ventilation, is this place in need of some work???

In my 6 storey building of offices on floors 5 to 6 there are no automatic fire detection systems on these floors but call points. The fire doors on these floors have a 8mm gap with no Instumicent strips or cold seals. However the landing past the fire door do have sensors. Do the doors conform??

Hi I have been asked from a care home to reduce the gaps down to 3mm sides and top, on 30 Mon fire doors. Is adding a 10mm hardwood lat to the door edge still pass a certified fire door thanks John.

Dear All, Can I finish a fire rated timber door leaf with a stainless steel finish? Does this affect the fire rating? Thank you.

Hello, we own a 4 storey town house, built in 1999. Every internal door has self closing chains fitted. This appears to be a requirement on your web site. The Building Regulations 2010 were amended in 2013 and state 'other than doors between a dwelling house and an integral garage, fire doors need not be provided with internal closing devices'. Does this mean we can remove our self closing chains? Is the situation different if we let the property to tenants in future? It will not be an HMO let. Thank you. Regards, Steve