Fire Door Inspection Services
Artius FP® Door Inspectors are fully accredited to undertake a range of fire door inspections and certifications. We regularly undertake inspections in hospitals, high-rise residential buildings, office blocks, university campuses and student halls of residence with the aim of keeping occupants safe by helping to prevent fires spreading.
How often should Fire Doors be checked?
Regular inspections and maintenance will ensure your fire doors are compliant and fit for purpose and should be considered in the same way as regularly testing a fire alarm or a fire extinguisher. Due to general use, traffic flow and wear and tear, all fire doors should be checked by the appointed competent person/contractor every 6 months to ensure that they function correctly. Any defect, damage or fault with the door should be reported and rectified immediately.
Our experts check a range of things, including whether each door:
- Has the correct fire rating for its location
- Is fitted properly, without the type of gaps that can damage the building’s compartmentation
- Is not damaged in a way that would impair its performance in the event of a fire
- Has the right hardware and closers, and that they function correctly
- Has the right intumescent strips
- Is properly identified on both the door signage and in the building’s asset register
- Where appropriate, has the right type of glazing and that it is fitted correctly
On completion of your fire door inspection, you will be provided with a detailed report describing each door’s condition and highlighting any necessary remedial work. Where doors are found to be non-compliant, we also supply a detailed quote for the work required to rectify the defects.
Fire Door Certification
Artius FP® fully-trained and accredited team offer fire door certification services for both new builds and older sites, including tall buildings and large multi-building campuses.
For new builds, our specialists assess the quality of the initial fire door installations before handover to ensure your site complies with Building Regulations and satisfies your insurer’s requirements. The work includes assigning each door a unique tag number and certificate, which can then be used as the basis of the fire door section of the site’s asset register.
In existing buildings, our inspectors check the condition of the fire doors and recommend any repairs required to improve safety and achieve full RRO compliance. Once faulty doors have been replaced or defects repaired, our team will issue the appropriate new certificates.
As part of our commitment to achieving the highest possible safety standards at all our customers’ sites, we have in-house Technical Compliance Auditors who monitor and report on our installation work.
These internal audits are over and above those provided by the certification bodies, giving you greater peace of mind about passive fire protection compliance at your properties.
Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM)
Artius FP® offer fire door PPM and ongoing inspection services tailored to meet the precise needs of the site you are responsible for and to help maintain compliance with the RRO.
Fire doors in some locations are subject to heavy usage and are likely to suffer damage due to everyday wear and tear or vandalism. For example, doors in hospital corridors are liable to be damaged by trolleys, while closers are often damaged in delivery areas and residential blocks due to doors being jammed open.
In such settings, a PPM programme will help to identify and rectify non-compliance issues at the earliest possible time, while also assisting with budget management.
Almost all tall buildings and multi-building campuses have hundreds (and in some cases, thousands) of fire doors, making designing an ongoing inspection regime that complies with the legal requirements of RRO and managing the associated record keeping a complex task.
Artius FP® have all the expertise and resources needed to handle this task on your behalf. In addition to accredited staff, we have a bespoke software system that simplifies record keeping and, because it allows issues to be recorded in a visual form, helps to prioritise repair work and with the forecasting of maintenance budgets.
Records compiled and managed by Artius FP® as part of ongoing fire door inspections, can also be used to demonstrate compliance to Fire Service Enforcement Officers, Building Control, insurers and other external bodies.
Do you know?
If you are the “Responsible Person” for fire safety, you have a legal duty to ensure that occupants are protected from fire.
Article 17 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 makes it a legal requirement that all equipment and devices (including fire resisting doors and escape doors) are correctly installed and adequately maintained for them to be fit for purpose and to safeguard the safety of persons in your premises. The authorities have the power to enforce the Fire Safety Order and may serve a prosecution against those responsible when breaches are discovered.
