Requirements for Flat Fire Door - Special case

[ART]

Hi,

I live on the ground floor and have a question regarding the door inspection in my building, specifically concerning my situation.

Adjacent to the entrance of my flat is a very small area (see attached figure). This area allows the neighbor to access the trash chutes near my entrance.

All the doors in our building are fire doors. After the last inspection, additional work was performed on doors 2 and 3 to reduce their gaps to comply with the 4mm limit.

My question is: Should the gap on door 1 (the entrance to my flat) also be adjusted to be fire compliant, as it has gaps larger than the mandatory 3-4mm? I would assume doors 2 and 3 are meant to protect the lobby, right?

Additionally, I am concerned that due to the pressure differences in this small area, it will become very inconvenient to open and close the doors. Even without adjusting the gaps in door 1, since the adjustments were made to doors 3 and 2, it has become common for either door 3 or 2 not to close completely unless pushed firmly."

 

Thank you for your answer and help.

Regards,

A. TR

[AnthonyB]

Who ever did the work on 2 & 3 needs to come back & think again as the works are useless if the doors aren't shutting flush of their own accord - a fully competent firm would be expected to be able to recognise and deal with this issue.

Does the lobby contain a staircase, how many floors are there & how many flats per floor?

The default is to remediate your door but I can see your point - depending on the overall set up in the premises would determine how critical this would be.

[ART]

Hi AnthonyB,

Thank you for your quick answer that confirmed my concern with non shutting doors (based on simple logic and reading online).

So the building has 7 floors, with around 3 flats per floor (the ground floor has only 2 flats)

And yes the staircase are at the right of the door 3 when leaving my flat and there is also an elevator in front of the entrance.

So is remediation of my door then mandatory if both door 2 and 3 already protecting the communal area from any fire from the flat ? as i see the having both door 1 and door 3/2 protection redundant no ?

to give a better idea of the very small area that is between the door (which make the complete shutting of doors difficult due to pressure)

 

[ART]

Hi,

I raised the problem to the developpement management company and someone came and 'tuned' the overhead door closer and now the door closes very loudly 😞 knowing that i didn't make the adjusement on my flat door yet ... So i am worrying that if i make the adjustement to my door, the pressure will increase and the closer will need to be tuned even stronger with louder closing sound ...

Any advice on what should I request from the management company ?
Thank you for your support and for this informative forum.

[ART]

On 13/03/2024 at 19:47, AnthonyB said:

Who ever did the work on 2 & 3 needs to come back & think again as the works are useless if the doors aren't shutting flush of their own accord - a fully competent firm would be expected to be able to recognise and deal with this issue.

Does the lobby contain a staircase, how many floors are there & how many flats per floor?

The default is to remediate your door but I can see your point - depending on the overall set up in the premises would determine how critical this would be.

Hi,
 

The building has 7 floors, with around 3 flats per floor (the ground floor has only 2 flats)

And yes the staircase are at the right of the door 3 when leaving my flat and there is also an elevator in front of the entrance.

So what would be the requirement and the need in this case to remediate my flat door if the 2 others one are compliant with fire standard ?

 

Thank you again for the helpful answers.

 

[Guest Stephen]

Hi, newbie with little experience. I'm quite interested in the doors not closing fully due to pressure. Had a few sites I worked at with the same problem. The pressure kept changing each day so when you adjust the closer the door use to slam hard on occasions. 

I was wondering if compliment to the fire door manufacturer instructions, if a intermisent grill at the bottom of door 3 would be acceptable or would this leave an issue open for cold smoke? 

[AnthonyB]

On 22/04/2024 at 17:49, Guest Stephen said:

Hi, newbie with little experience. I'm quite interested in the doors not closing fully due to pressure. Had a few sites I worked at with the same problem. The pressure kept changing each day so when you adjust the closer the door use to slam hard on occasions. 

I was wondering if compliment to the fire door manufacturer instructions, if a intermisent grill at the bottom of door 3 would be acceptable or would this leave an issue open for cold smoke? 

You've answered your own question. As a front door has to be an FD30S with cold smoke seals an intumescent grille is not suitable as it gives no cold smoke protection, you would need a combined fire and smoke damper and associated detection which would be unrealistic.