door closing, not fully closing

[Guest guest]

i recently carried out a FRA of a converted house, which a local authority bought over and changed the use to a hostel/ temp accomodation for homeless. Several fd's were nit closing fully, i stated the closers require adjusting to allow the door to close fully. This did not work and an engineer is saying its must be a vacuum in the room. Has anyone came across this and have any possible solutions?

[Tom Sutton]

I have been involved where wind pressure on one side of a building and low on the opposite side has prevented the doors on the high pressure side not to close properly. However I can see see in a well insulated room with an extractor fan or something similar, a partial vacuum could be created, preventing the closer properly closing the door, but if you open a window this will equalize the pressure and the door should shut normally.

[Guest dennis field]

I work on maintenance in an old peoples retirement home where door closers on each room operate at fire emergency times.as you can expect many of the old folk need their room Windows closed at all times which means closers won't close completely because of vacuum/air pressure.I am trying to solve this problem with spring loaded air flaps on inside of airbrick.l need to locate flaps.any help would be appreciated.  Regards dennis

[Tom Sutton]

I would suggest you surf the web for "air vents with anti draught excluder" and I came up with http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/anti-draft-vent.

[Guest Carpenter]

I'm having this exact issue--fire door with commercial closer will shut fully, but won't latch when there is no airflow available--but when an adjacent door is cracked to allow air flow, the fire door latches fully.

[Tom Sutton]

I would think the solution for dennis will apply to you.

[Safelincs]

If the fire door does not close due to the resistance of the latch/air pressure you need a fire door closer with "latching action". The Geze TS4000 for example has the latching action as well as plenty of power to close even heavier doors reliably. However, there are many other makes and models as well.

Harry

[Guest Vacum problem!]

I took your advice, Safelincs. I fitted Geze 4000 to the doors. Set to very near maximum. It only went and worked on the non-ventilated rooms. The firedoor did not slam badly when the window was open.

Thank you.

[Guest WINDY]

Communal door to block of flats does not self close in windy conditions. The door opens inwards.

If the door opened outwards would it close because the wind would push it shut ? 

Should communal doors act like fire doors and self close in windy conditions ?

[Neil Ashdown MAFDI]

The door must self-close. Therefore efforts should be made so that it does self-close and remain closed accordingly.

[Tom Sutton]

When you say, "Communal door to block of flats"  do you mean the final exit door to the public thoroughfare.   

[Neil Ashdown MAFDI]

Good point, Tom. In which case, it would most likely not be a fire resisting door and therefore would not need to self-close.

[Guest JAck]

wouldn't you want front doors to the communal to close to ensure no access for a wannabe Arson.. ?

[Tom Sutton]

I agree with you Jack but the RR(FS)O is about escaping from fire not security.

[Guest David]

I've had 3 fire doors fitted. Two are closing fine but one wont close fully and closes very slowly. I've changed the perko but it made one difference. All 3 are close to each other on the same landing. Any ideas?

[AnthonyB]

Whilst still sold most models of Perko chain are not to current standards for fire doors and have indeed been advised against since the 90's because of their unreliability - an EN1154 compliant device should be used.

A lot of fire safety products are miss-sold and many adverts for 'fire door compliant' chain style closers are only tested to BSEN 1634-1 for fire resistance and do not meet the actual standard for closers BSEN1154

[Neil Ashdown MAFDI]

Useful document http://firecode.org.uk/Code_of_Practice_hardware_for_fire_and_escape_doors.pdf 

[Guest Sandesh]

If the door facing is a fire retardant ply, you can install a fire rated door grille.

[Guest Jav]

Hi 

we came across this in a living room 

 

installed 2 fire door with closer in a small living room 

with one door open the other door works fine and vice versa 

but with one door closed the other will not close fully unless the closer it set to max and then it slams shut 

anyone have fix for this pls 

 

 

 

[Neil ashdown]

This can be difficult to resolve, you may need to invest in a high-power-size cam action self-closing device with an adjustable latching action.  Speak to a competent architectural ironmonger or a self-closer manufacturer for advice.

When adjusting the closing speed its best to set the speed to quite slow so that the air can escape more easily (reducing the vacuum) as the door closes.