Gap around fire doors

[Guest Dave Quin]

Hi

I've recently done a fire door course (online) and wanted to clarify a couple of points if possible:

 

1) The intumescent strips if damaged must be replaced with a full set and cannot be mixed, so I have a door where someone has replaced the strips but they are not 1 piece, they were obviously short and there is a join, is that ok?

2) The gap between door hinge, top, bottom and opening side must be 3-4mm, and the gap between the opening leaf on a double door requires a smoke seal but the course just states the gap between leafs are to be uniformed and no gaps in the seals, is there a maximum gap for this?

Lastly is is possible for intumescent strips to become worn, I'm not sure how to identify worn strips or will it become obvious when I come accross them?

Thanks

[Neil ashdown]

When the doors are fire resistance tested the intumescent seals would be continuous in one piece.  Therefore they should be installed the same way.

Gaps should be between 2mm and 4mm generally, but abide by the particular requirements for the installation instructions for that door. The smoke seal should close the gap but the tip of the smoke seal brush/blade should only lightly contact the surface of the door leaf edge or door frame reveal in the closed position.

Intumescent strips, if installed correctly, should not become worn. If they become damaged, replace them with the correct strip.

Smoke seals may become worn so replace them with the correct seals.

[Mike North]

For a FD30 door the intumescent strip may be broken by the hardware, (hinges and lock). For a FD60 and above at least one of the seals must be continuous. The strips cannot be mixed and matched, we use a single manufacture and specify the seal so that we can replace a single edge of a door, like for like. If you change the fin type seals for brush, then be aware of part E and the acoustics.

As a rule of thumb, the gap should be 3mm ±1mm at the head and jambs for any door, refer to the doors test certificate for the actual gap dimensions

The life expectancy of an intumescent seal is a minimum of 20 up to 100 years dependant on the environment.

[Guest Jamie]

Hi, 

We've recently had a fire door survey carried out and I queried the fact that there was gaps around the hinges where they've recently been replaced with a different style of hinge therefore it's left gaps around the hinge. 

I've been told by the contractors that this isn't an issue because they've put intumescent packing behind the hinges. Can someone confirm if this is acceptable? 

In addition, the contractor also advised this has only been done for the 60 minute FD not the 30 minute FD's as it's not required for them... Again, can someone confirm if this is correct? 

 

Thanks 

[Neil ashdown]

I am not aware of any evidence of fire performance that deals with gaps around hinges but clearly the expectation would be that the mortice work for any door ironmongery should be as tight as possible with no large gaps.  Below is from https://www.falconpp.co.uk/media/1328/09_strebord_v91_section_9_hardware_rev_a.pdf  so applies to that particular door.