Fire Door inspections
Fire doors are a very important fire safety asset, playing a critical role in protecting spaces and escape routes from fire and smoke travel.
Fire doors are crucial to fire safety. Their purpose and design is to impede the spread of fire and smoke in order to facilitate safe evacuation. However, their effectiveness relies on proper installation, maintenance, and inspection.
Unlike other passive fire safety assets, fire doors are frequently opened, closed or wedged and are subject to damage and daily wear and tear. This necessitates regular checks by a qualified individual/individuals (mandated by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005).
As a business owner and thus ‘Responsible Person’, ‘Accountable Person’ or ‘Duty Holder’, you have a legal obligation (in all business premises, residential blocks of flats, and HMOs) to obtain, store (and in some cases share) information about your fire doors with relevant persons (including residents).
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In response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, UK government regulations now require more stringent regular inspections of fire doors. This entails regular documented inspections by a qualified person (followed by remedial action to rectify any faults).
Business: 6 monthly – all fire doors.
Residential: 3 monthly – all communal fire doors (i.e corridors, stairwells, lobbies, plant rooms, service cupboards etc).
Flat entrance doors (i.e individual front doors) – 12 monthly.
How can Fire Door Inspections help business owners?
A fire door inspection is a comprehensive check of all fire doors in your building to ensure compliance with fire safety regulations. The inspection of each door involves an extensive check of a door’s fire rating, gapping, frame, handles, hinges, signage, and more – the details of which can be found across many regulatory documents. It is therefore imperative that fire door inspections are carried out by competent/qualified persons, the qualifications of whom should also be documented.
Employing the services of a competent/qualified person is your first step to ensuring the compliance of your Fire Doors.
Why choose Benfield Fire Safety's Fire Door Inspection Service?
Our Fire Door Inspectors all hold qualifications for Fire Prevention Association C17, C17c and C17d (specifically for fire doors).
We also hold additional accreditations, registrations and memberships for your assurance.
Our inspectors are all former Fire Officers with over 30 years of experience and are DBS-checked for your reassurance.
Our Fire Door Inspections align with all the regulatory requirements. Your report will include a pinpoint of each door on the plan’s view of your building, QR code door identifications (where required), defect descriptions with photographs and recommended actions.
Depending upon your requirements, our Fire Door Inspection reports can be provided in either PDF or via a digital ‘live’ online portal.
We do not carry out fire door maintenance, ensuring no conflict of interest – we will only highlight genuine, non-compliant faults with your doors.
You can trust Benfield Fire Safety to ensure your Fire Door Inspections meet the highest standards, helping you to safeguard your occupants and premises by assisting you with your legal compliance.
Requirements for This Service?
- Please provide us with floor plans for your building.
- Please let us know you preferred report type (PDF or electronic access).
Fire Door Inspection F.A.Q's
UK fire safety laws such as Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and Building Safety Act require fire safety assets (including Fire Doors to be in good working order and inspected accordingly. Fire Door Inspections should be carried out by qualified/competent persons and recorded. Repairs must also be carried out by competent persons.
All business premises and shared residential properties need to carry out Fire Door Inspections. Residential properties include blocks of flats and HMOs.
Ensure the Inspector is qualified/certified by a recognised body for Fire Door Inspections. You should also ensure they can provide a report in a format that works for you – a PDF may work for you if you do not have too many doors. However, if you have multiple doors you may find an electronic-based report is more manageable. If your building meets the ‘high-risk criteria, then you will need to meet the requirements of the Golden Thread, in which case your records must be electronic and therefore you must check the report will be provided as such.
- Business: 6 monthly – all fire doors.
- Residential: 3 monthly – all communal fire doors ie corridors, stairwells, lobbies, plant rooms, service cupboards, etc.
- Flat entrance doors (ie individual front doors) – 12 monthly.
- For a business premises, the ‘Responsible Person’ is the individual who has control over the premises, such as the Director/Employer/Owner.
- For a block of residential flats, there are types of persons – ‘Responsible Person/Principle Accountable Person/Accountable Person/Entity.
- These persons are legally responsible for ensuring that Fire Doors are inspected and maintained to the standard required by UK regulations. In some circumstances, you may also need to provide information on such asset inspections to residents.
Given the complexity of fire door regulations and the importance of compliance, this is not advisable. There are many regulations that apply to Fire Doors such as British Standards BS 8214 and BS 476 and Building Regulations, particularly Approved Document B and you must consider if you have the full knowledge and competency to do so. You should engage a qualified Fire Door Inspector to carry out inspections. The same applies to maintaining the doors.
Yes. If your doors are old, they do not have to be replaced, but they do have to meet the requirements of their purpose and are still subject to key regulations such as:
- The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
Building Regulations Approved Document B - British Standard BS 476 or BS EN 1634 for fire resistance
If your old fire doors do not meet current standards, you may need to carry out works such as upgrade intumescent seals, hinges, screws, or closers to improve performance to the required standard. If not viable, you may need to replace the entire fire door assembly.
