Evening all,

We are currently installing some new fire door sets and carrying out fire door remidals on a live scheme.

While carrying out remidal work to the glazing / beading overhauls. We found that the glazing had been done after install and a router has been used on the corners leaving  small circular gaps.

What would be the appropriate way to close this off??

1. Intumescent Sealant

2. Blue 60 foam

3. Envirograph FR filler

Should the fire consultant not offer guidance on the best practice in this instance as we have recommended to change the whole door???

Thankyou

Matt

Matt

The cut out for a vision panel in a timber door will most likely have radiused corners, this helps to spread the stresses though the door and prevent the door cracking at the corners. If you are confident that the cut outs were carried out on site, then the certification will almost certainly have been invalidated. Doors with vision panels are commonly tested with rounded corners, the glazing systems and beads offer suitable protection in the event of a fire. You need to ensure the glazing system complies with the fire certification applicable to that door. It sounds like this is not the case. The recommendation to change the whole door may well be the best practice in this case. Adding products that have no evidence of performance for use in this situation would not be a suitable solution.

Blue 60 is for frames not glazing, so that's out - it ideally needs to be a solution designed & tested for glazing such as Envirograf Products 79 & 109.

If the doors are third party certified blanks with the glazing being added later on site then in most cases that's the certification gone out of the window (excuse the pun!) as most manufacturers only allow glazing to be added by the manufacturer themselves during production or by accredited installers at their workshops to a defined spec.

Depends on the remit of the consultant - if just risk assessing, then solutions would potentially be out of their scope (& training), if specifically carrying out fire door inspections then you would be more entitled to expect a detailed action plan - although the training of some door inspectors seems to be so brief that 'replace everything' seems to be their only answer to all problems!