Neil Ashdown MAFDI

The document Hardware for Fire & Escape Doors available at http://firecode.org.uk/Code_of_Practice_hardware_for_fire_and_escape_doors.pdf contains some very useful information about hinges including Critical Recommendations at section 2.2. The information therein should enable you to decide an appropriate course of action. For metal faced timber-based fire resisting doors it will be necessary to consult the technical manual for the 'specific fire door leaf' to find out what is permitted in terms of fire resistance performance. eg

The recommendation is 2mm to 4mm. More than 4mm could be an issue affecting the restricted spread of smoke and potentially premature failure of the door in a fire. Less than 2mm could mean that the door fails to self-close and latch correctly (eg. due to binding on a smoke seal), therefore inspect each door to make sure any tight gaps do not affect the ability of the door to self-close completely.

Me too. NickT said the core was circular whereas these have a tree. As NickT said this might be an early forerunner.

Or maybe they refer to the architrave? Table 2 at section 9 of BS 8214: 2016 requires architraves to be 15mm thick in some situations.

Good work. Have never come across a black plug so thanks for sharing.

Are you sure it's black and not blue? Blue plug with red centre indicates FD60 with intumescent seals required.

Interesting. Thank you for posting 🙂

Hi Maddy, Find a person that has experience and can demonstrate competence relevant to the type of fire door you have. Ask for their credentials.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-approved-document-b

No but assuming the door/frame is timber, stainless steel would be best. Before you go ahead make sure the groove for the seals is clean and consistently of the right depth and width to match the seals.

If the finger guard manufacturer cannot provide this, it is likely that the reason is that in the event of a fire they would burn quickly and fall away from the door assembly. Thus not affecting the fire integrity performance of the door when these are fitted to the fire risk side. On the non-fire risk side, the inherent insulating characteristics of the timber door should mean that the plastic-based finger guards will not be affected.

If you use adhesive it will make it difficult to take them out if necessary. Instead you could you short panel pins to hold them in place.

You could ask https://www.facebook.com/PhilPropertyTurtle/

Its OK. The intumescent strip & smoke seal may be interrupted at lock and hinge fixing points. If the inspector/assessor disagrees, ask them to provide specific evidence that the seal must be continuous and uninterrupted.

Are the intumescent seals installed in such a position that they are directly opposite each other?

There are various types of smoke & acoustic seals. Eg: https://www.lorientuk.com/products/acoustic-smoke-and-fire-door-seals/acoustic-smoke-and-fire-seals Safelincs most likely supply a similar range of seals.

Without identification of the glazing, in terms of the gaskets and the door leaf in the case of the MDF frame its difficult to answer your questions. Are there any marks on the glass that could be used to identify the product? Also are there any stencil marks on the top edge of the door? Begin there to try and trace the products to the relevant installation data sheets, failing that you could engage an experienced and knowledgeable fire door inspector for consultancy. Alternatively, a suitably experienced fire risk assessor may be able to provide 'risk-based' advice.

On the basis that there is still part of the integral garage present (but smaller than it used to be), then the separating wall needs to be suitably fire rated and if there's a door in that wall it should be minimum FD30(s) self-closing. Refer to Approved Document B of the Building Regulations in England. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-approved-document-b

You could ask them to provide evidence of performance for fire resistance and restricted spread of cold smoke.

The double leaf doors, if fire doors, should have intumescent seals and smoke seals at the meeting edges too. Loss of Certifire labels is a common issue but a competent fire door inspector would usually be able to identify the doors using residual pieces of label and manufacturer marks on the doors. There are 45 doors so there's a reasonable chance that enough information is still present, assuming all doors are the same. More of an issue, usually is where the door has been incorrectly installed thus invalidating the product certification.

If you go for an 'off the shelf' fire door leaf, be aware that trim allowances are often very tight. It may be necessary to use thicker door frames to comply with fire door leaf installation instructions, where the surrounding wall to door frame gap would otherwise be too large. So my guess would be no better than 50 / 50, depending on the type of property, and I would be ready to expect to have to order custom made doors or fabricate them from door blanks. However, there are some 'off the shelf' fire doors (Premdor CF625 solid GDC chipboard for example) that permit significant trimming off the bottom edge.

As Mike says, that's the whole point of the survey. So that you can order the correct sized door and if you can't get what you need 'off the shelf' you can get them custom made. Clearly, if you did have a workshop you could fabricate the doors using certificated fire door blanks. But you need will also need the knowledge to do it correctly to retain that certification.

If you carry out a full on-site survey for each door before you purchase the door-sets and order them accordingly, you should be OK.

So clearly you have identified risks that the doors may not be adequate in resisting fire and smoke spread. Therefore these need to be considered carefully and addressed appropriately. The performance required from those doors may very well depend on how the building is used. For example if there's sleeping accommodation then the risk could be high but if its an office the risk could be low. For best effect prioritise your remedial works according to the risk to people at the building. All of the defects you describe can be resolved but some may be challenging.

The 4mm max gap is specified by the fire door manufacturer based on their evidence of performance from fire resistance tests to BS 476-22 and/or EN 1634-1. So its a requirement otherwise the fire performance certification becomes void. Obviously, once the door is installed at the building those gaps might change when the door is subject to high humidity or excessive temperatures. Then it becomes a maintenance issue and the Fire Risk Assessor/Fire Safety Officer for the building should be consulted where there are issues around maintaining the 2mm to 4mm gap. Prioritising the cold smoke spread issue might well be a suitable strategy but its a decision for the FRA/FSO rather than the maintenance team. There is also guidance at BS 8214: 2016 stating gaps should be 2mm to 4mm for optimum fire resistance performance.