Can any joinery make fire doors?

[Guest WBlack]

Good afternoon
Could you please advise on the following: A Firedoor/set can be made by any joinery company using a fire door blanks(certified with Global Assessment)providing that the door is manufactured in strict accordance with the Global Assessment. They do not have by law to belong to either the BWF or TRADA "Q" mark to do this

Bill

[Guest Neil Ashdown]

That is correct. A competent person can purchase fire performance tested products and manufacture a fire door assembly or fire door set. A couple of things to bear in mind though.................

1) The person should be competent to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in England and Wales. Building Regulations provide guidance about fire doors, types, certification and installation. There are British Standards that must be adhered to and there is fire door training available from the Fire Door Inspection Scheme.

2) All products used should be fire performance tested, full instructions adhered to so as to replicate the fire performance test. Remember that compatibility of components is a very important issue here. Not all glazing sizes, door configurations and door hardware are suitable for every fire door leaf. Also if you make a fire door set it may need to be CE marked and whatever you do you must provide certification or evidence of performance.

[Tom Sutton]

First of all, I am new to Global Assessment and I need to do more research.

However the legislation does not stipulate how you achieve standards it simple states what you are required to do in general terms. It will say "in the event of danger, it must be possible for persons to evacuate the premises as quickly and as safely as possible" it is the guides that show you how to achieve it.

The guides will recommend you use a 30 FD but it is the British or European standards that will recommend how you should achieve it.

Finally it is the enforcing officers (Building Control Officers or Fire Safety Officers) that decide if you have achieved that standard. They would accept any fire door certified by the BWF or Trada schemes but other fire doors, termed nominal fire doors, you would need to convince the enforcement officer that it would achieve the required standard.

Fire doors certified with Global Assessment will have the documentation approved by a reputable test establishment which should convince the enforcement officer but I cannot speak for them.

The way I understand it is the following Global Assessments belong to Stoke Fire Doors Ltd and if any other joinery company wished to use Global Assessments would need to check it out with Chiltern International Fire Ltd but the problem is, I do not fully understand how it works.

Check out http://www.stokefiredoors.co.uk/document-downloads/ http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-doors/

[Tom Sutton]

I have done more research and it appears if someone constructs and installs a door set to the specification in one of these 'global assessments', then it may well satisfy the recommendations in the Approved Document -B , the assessment itself becomes the evidence of fire resistance performance as mentioned in Appendix A of that document. To the best of my knowledge this would mean a Building Control Officer should accept the door sets as being in accordance with the Building Regulations regards integrity.

However there are other approved documents you would need to conform to, which is outside my limited experience.

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/approveddocuments/partb/bcapproveddocumentsb/

[Guest Susan]

For 25 years plus my Joinery Company  has bought in fire door blanks and reduced and re lipped them for   sale to the trade ie builders, interior design Co's etc for offices schools ,factories etc.

We are very competent in what we do, generally we do not fit the doors. As the middle man between manufacturing and fitting do we require certification to give to our buyers and what is it and how do we get it if the answer is yes.

Great if you can help

[Guest Susan]

Forgot to say that the doors are not our main work. We are a bespoke joinery company.

 

[Neil ashdown]

Clearly, if you are fabricating a fire door blank to produce a fire door then you must do this work within the scope of the evidence of fire resistance performance that relates to that particular door blank.   You must pass the evidence of fire resistance performance, including the installation requirements therein, to your customer.