Mr

[Guest Jason brownett]

Hi I need some clarification on fire door closure bars in our social housing flats,the flats have 3 levels.when i first moved in 14 years ago the wood and glass fire doors would close quietly with no banging, a couple of years ago the doors were referbed and alot of the old closure bars were removed and new ones fitted. All the doors with new closure bars now slam and the closure bars fail within months sometimes weeks, they are half the size of the old closure bars.whenever workmen come to repair the doors or replace closure bars I always ask if they are correct as they don't seem man enough as the doors are very heavy,they all say that they ain't good enough for these doors and are for domestic doors like your upvc flat front door but they say its what they are told to fit. The last tradesmen I spoke too last week said they had told the housing association that the closure bars were incorrect and thats all they can do. I'm in building trade myself and even I can see these aren't the correct ones. Now we have slamming doors all through the block which is a real noise issue due to flats having poor soundproofing.is their a British standard that these closure bars have to be for heavy stairwell fire doors. Please help thanks.

[Neil ashdown]

Yes, like most things there are various types of self closing device and there will be a limit to the size and weight of door that a given self-closer is suitable for. 

So the self-closing device should be selected based on minimum power size 3 for the size and weight of the door and should have a dampening mechanism so that the door meets the rebate stop of the door frame without slamming.