Fire Doors & Fire Stopping

Fire Doors

Just like other passive fire protection systems, it is essential for a fire door to perform as intended in the event of a fire. Any slight alteration to the door or its surroundings can affect its ability to restrict the spread of fire or smoke, which in turn could impact on the safe evacuation of a building’s occupants.

As with any similar life safety product, a fire door should be subject to periodic checks. These checks should be undertaken at least on a six-monthly basis to ensure the door functions correctly and will perform to its designed standard in the event of a fire. If a fire door is in high use, it should be checked more frequently than other doors in the building, e.g., weekly/monthly (depending on level of use). Regular inspections should be carried out by a suitably trained, competent person as this will ensure the identification of any defects to the fire door that need to be addressed through maintenance will be reported.

The components of a fire door that are inspected are the door leaf and frame, glazing, intumescent fire, and cold smoke seals, closing and opening devices, all ironmongery and signage.

Through our specialist contractor we can provide you with inspection and repair of your fire doors to assist you with compliance of Article 17 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, where it is a legal requirement to ensure that fire resisting doors and escape doors are correctly installed and adequately maintained for them to be fit for purpose.

Fire Stopping

Why is Passive Fire Protection Important?

Passive fire protection enhances a building’s fire resistance. This means that the structure of the building will be preserved, and escape routes kept clear for a period in which occupants can safely evacuate and will allow the emergency services to take control of the situation.

Should a fire break out in a building it is critical that measures are in place to contain the blaze to prevent the spread of flames, smoke, and potentially harmful gases.

The goal of passive fire protection is to create a system which will resist fire for a specific period of time. The resistance ‘window’ can be anything between 30 minutes to 4 hours, but the system design must demonstrate specialist consultation and knowledge. For effective compliance, all products used in the installation should be fire resistance rated according to the current British standard.

The Building Regulations 2010, Fire Safety, Approved Document B. Requirement B3 states:

“Where reasonably necessary to inhibit the spread of fire within the building, measures shall be taken, to an extent appropriate to the size and intended use of the building, comprising either or both of the following –

(a) sub-division of the building with fire-resisting construction.

(b) installation of suitable automatic fire suppression systems.

The building shall be designed and constructed so that the unseen spread of fire and smoke within concealed spaces in its structure and fabric is inhibited.”

Requirement 10.2 of the Building Regulations in part states that fire stopping, or sealing, is applied to joints and openings between fire-separating elements. This refers to pipes, cables, or conduits.

With this in mind, it is equally important that PFP is subject to regular inspection and any issues found are rectified to ensure that it will perform as the manufacturer of the product stipulates.

Breaches to fire compartmentation can occur when data cables, pipework, electrical cables, etc. are run from one compartment to another and when this occurs the penetrations, or breakthroughs should be sealed with suitable fire-resistant material. This type of work should only be carried out by a suitably trained and competent person and through our specialist contractor we can provide you with fire compartmentation surveys and reports and the repair of areas which may have breaches in fire compartmentation.

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