Hello

I purchased a newly constructed, purpose built, ground floor flat in a block of 5 in 2010. The flat has FD30 fire doors throughout with an automatic closer on the front door. There have been no changes or alterations to the door or frame.

The management company has had a fire door safety review and has reported that my flat's front door (in common with all of them) has no intumescent strips and it has a gap of 6mm on both the top and side of the door. Apparently the gap should be 2.4mm.

On checking the regulations it seems that where a door never had a strip fitted this might not actually be necessary? Also I am not sure if the gap issue is actually something that the builder failed to do properly in the first place and so if I should approach them first?

Would you be able to tell me please if I now have to make changes to, or perhaps replace, the door and whether either of these issues were actually in breach of the building requirements in 2010 so I know if I should approach the original builder for assistance.

With many thanks

 

 

If it's a 2010 build and is as you describe (& the front doors are into internal common lobbies/corridors/stairways) then it was never compliant with Building Regulations as it's recent enough to have required 4mm(ish) gaps and intumescent strips and cold smoke brushes.

The 'no strip' notional door guidance is aimed to avoid unnecessary cost burdens on residents of small blocks who have fire doors to older standards but in good condition and compliant with the standard at the time of installation.

Are there channels in the door frame where the strips should have been fitted or did the builders not even get as far as the correct frame to accept strips? 

If it's a small block it may be seen as a lower risk issue (especially if working closers are fitted) but it wasn't right originally and is symptomatic of the slack standards of the 21st Century building industry and the ineffectiveness of the building control process - if an obvious defect like the doors got through, I'd want to carefully investigate fire stopping & compartmentation as these hidden issues are usually even more often poorly completed!