Fire doors are the commonest finding we make, and most of what is wrong with them costs nothing to fix.
A fire door only works if it is closed, if the gaps are right, and if the bits that expand in a fire are still there. Here is how to check yours without any equipment.
Look for a label or plug on the top edge or the hinge edge. No mark does not automatically mean it is not a fire door, but it does mean nobody can prove it is, and an inspector will treat it that way.
Around three millimetres all the way round, consistent. Run a coin down the gap. If it swallows the coin at the top and pinches at the bottom, the door has dropped and the seal will not work.
A strip in a groove in the door edge or the frame, sometimes with a brush alongside it. It should be continuous, unpainted and undamaged. This is the part that swells and closes the gap in a fire.
Three hinges, firmly fixed, all screws present and not missing or replaced with something shorter. Two hinges on a heavy fire door is a finding.
Open it to about forty-five degrees and let go. It should close fully and latch, on its own, without a shove. If it stops short or bounces off the frame, it is not doing its job.
It is the most common thing we photograph, and the reason is almost always practical: the door is in the way, the room gets hot, the deliveries need to come through. Those are real problems and there are real solutions, from hold-open devices linked to the alarm to simply moving where the door sits in the layout.
What does not work is telling staff to stop wedging it. We have never seen that hold for more than a fortnight.
The usual benchmark is a consistent gap of about three millimetres between the door and the frame, and no more than about eight millimetres at the threshold unless the door is rated for more. A gap you can post a pound coin through at the top is too big.
Doors that have to be shut to protect an escape route do. That is not every door in a building, and fitting closers everywhere is a common way of wasting money and getting them wedged open. The assessment says which doors matter.
Not with a wedge. If a door genuinely needs to stand open for the building to work, the answer is a device that releases it when the alarm sounds, not a fire extinguisher used as a doorstop.
Usually yes, but layers of paint can bridge the gap or clog the intumescent strip. Paint in the seal groove is worth cleaning out.
Tell us the building and we will give you a price on the phone. Most assessments are booked within the week.