NFR Rated Door - Remedial Works

[Guest Stu]

Good afternoon,

We have come across 6 Doors on site which wasn't picked up by another company surveying the building. Doors have Fire Door signage and all smoke seals installed. 

O&M's have been provided for these 6 doors so can confirm all Non Fire Rated. (Stickers on top of door) These doors are 54mm thick and on an escape corridor on the Ground floor. Small office behind each door. Furthermore we have found another 34 doors that are the same but these do not have Stickers on the top confirming what door they are. There are no O&M's for these doors.

Obviously the 6 doors would need changing to regain the certification across site. In regards to the other doors what options do we have? Do these all need to be replaced as this would be an extortionate cost for site that may not have the budget for. Or is that irrelevant and need replacing. 

If no stickers were found then all these would be assumed "Nominal Doors"? which is the current situation.

Can any of these doors just have remedial work carried out to bring up to standard without O&M documentation? 

 

Thanks, Stu - (Always Learning)

[Neil ashdown]

Make some intrusive surveys of a sample percentage of the 40 doors. If the cores are the same as fire doors, it may be possible to retain them and upgrade as necessary. "NFR" on a sticker on top of the door doesn't mean the core is unsuitable, it may be the same core as the fire doors.  

[Guest Stu]

Hi Neil, Thanks for your response.

So yes this is what I was thinking myself but we then have conflicting issues.

Accreditation says replace doors as NFR

Site are worried they will be responsible should a fire happen and they know they are NFR (Large costs of new doors are panic)

Would we hold responsibility?

If we carried out intrusive tests how do we move forward in explaining this may be ok? (I presume this would be us stating we assume this would stand  30mins?) Does a Fire Risk Assessor work with us on this for site? How can we sign of compliance on our part and who is the responsible person for this at the end of the day?

 

Hope I'm kind of clear in explaining the above.

 

Your advice is much appreciated.

Stu

 

 

[Mike North]

Check the original as built fire strategy as office doors do not usually need to be fire rated (except dead ends, high risk areas etc).  It may be that at some point in time someone has put fire signage on the doors

Protected corridors

2.24 A corridor serving as part of the means of escape in any of the following circumstances should be a protected corridor.

a.      Every corridor that serves bedrooms

b.      Every dead-end corridor (excluding recesses and extensions a maximum of 2m deep, as shown in Diagrams 2.7 and 2.8).

c.      Any corridor shared by two or more occupancies (paragraph 2.17).

Enclosure of corridors that are not protected corridors

2.25 If a corridor is used for a means of escape but is not a protected corridor, even though the enclosing partitions may have no fire resistance, both of the following should be met to inhibit the spread of smoke.

a.      Partitions should continue to the soffit of the structural floor above, or to a suspended ceiling.

b.      Openings into rooms from the corridor should be fitted with doors, which do not need to be fire doorsets.

Open planning will not inhibit the spread of smoke, but occupants can become aware of a fire quickly.

[Neil ashdown]

On 18/11/2025 at 08:39, Guest Stu said:

Hi Neil, Thanks for your response.

So yes this is what I was thinking myself but we then have conflicting issues.

Accreditation says replace doors as NFR

Site are worried they will be responsible should a fire happen and they know they are NFR (Large costs of new doors are panic)

Would we hold responsibility?

If we carried out intrusive tests how do we move forward in explaining this may be ok? (I presume this would be us stating we assume this would stand  30mins?) Does a Fire Risk Assessor work with us on this for site? How can we sign of compliance on our part and who is the responsible person for this at the end of the day?

 

Hope I'm kind of clear in explaining the above.

 

Your advice is much appreciated.

Stu

 

Understandable reaction.

You could engage a fire door specialist as a consultant to inspect and report, they would 'own' the content of their report.  If you are making intrusive inspections and can demonstrably compare the construction and core of a NFR door assembly with that of a fire door assembly, then you can make a decision based on that evidence.