At some point in your life, you will have noticed fire doors in a building, most often given away by their blue and white badges – and a stern reminder to keep them shut.
These aren’t to be confused with fire exits and their grey, push-to-open bars, but are equally important in fire safety, and meeting the government’s fire door regulations.
You’ll also remember fire doors as the ones that require a lot more strength than you’re willing to exert in an un-caffeinated state at 9am – but there’s a good reason for that.
Why do we need fire doors?
Whether they’re in your office, your old school, or even your own home, fire doors are integral to health and safety within a building, and it’s thanks to the door closers – those grey gadgets at the top of the door – that you need to push a little harder.
These door closers, as the name would imply, help keep the doors closed in the event of a fire. Thanks to the sturdy and flame-resistant design of these doors, fires are unable to spread further into a building, and people also needn’t worry about closing them by hand mid-evacuation.
Fire doors are also essential in preventing smoke and toxic gases from spreading throughout buildings, helping to further mitigate and contain the harm a fire may cause, allowing for safer evacuation and extinguishing.
Fire doors and fire laws
Since the Grenfell Tower disaster, fire safety has become a huge priority in health and safety laws, in hopes that similar tragedies will never happen again.
The UK government has cracked down on their safety requirements in recent years, with stricter calls for fire door checks – especially in multi-occupied residential buildings.
Amongst the many requirements for viable fire doors, some of the most salient examples include the door closers we mentioned earlier, along with proper signposting and width regulations.
The height of fire doors isn’t specified, but width must correlate to the number of persons a building can contain. For example, if a building’s maximum occupancy is 60 people, the door must be at least 750mm wide. For 110 people, 850mm, and any population above 220 is scaled by 5mm per person.
This is to ensure a smooth evacuation process, allowing crowds to easily escape in emergencies, and it’s also something you can easily measure yourself.
How do I know if my fire doors meet fire door regulations?
Although you can find a full list of fire door regulations on the government website, we can save you the hassle of combing through tonnes of legal jargon by coming out to assess the quality ourselves – whilst also fixing any faults or issues during the same visit.
You’re not expected to know whether the door hinges meet intumescent standards, or whether the door closers use an automatic electromagnetic system – but we are, so let us help you out.
How often do fire doors need to be checked?
By now, you probably don’t need us to keep telling you how important fire safety is, but at an absolute minimum, fire doors should be checked every six months to ensure they’re up to regulation standards.
Not only that, but legal investigations may be conducted to check that fire doors are installed and maintained properly. Failure to meet the criteria for fire door regulations could result in large fines or even jail time.
We’re sure you’d rather have a member of our fire door inspection team showing up at your (fire) door rather than a legal investigator, but in case the latter shows up, being fully prepared for a check will put your mind at ease.
If you notice any issues that clearly don’t seem right – door closers not functioning, visible damage to the door or frame – or it’s been a while since you last had them checked, get in touch and we’ll conduct a full assessment of them.
