Fire door repairs

[The Colonel]

Fire Door repairs. Some advice please, I would like to pass onto a client advice on how to reduce excessive gaps between wooden fire doors and frames without compromising the integrity. The client concerned has a quote from an electrical contractor to reduce the gaps between doors and frame by packing out hinges where possible, replace damaged hinges and to fit intumescent strips to the doors in order to meet the smoke seal in the frame. i do not see how fitting an intumescent strip to a door is going to help unless they are not going to sink the strip into the door by its full 4mm thickness. Any pointers would be appreciated, at the very least I am going to suggest that a company with suitable credentials and 3rd party accreditation should undertake the work not an electrician.

[Mike Buckley]

Difficult to say without actually seeing the situation.

Your first step is correct, get a company that works in the field of passive fire protection to do the work. If things go pear shaped at least your client has some protection.

Fitting intumescent strips to the doors on their own will not help but a combined intumescent and cold smoke seal may reduce the gap to an acceptable distance. However it is difficult to say without seeing the job.

Packing the hinges may only succeed in moving the gap.

[Fishy]

Why on earth would the client have asked a Sparky to fix a fire door?  Do they get Chippies to do their PAT tests?

Anyway...

Repairs should be done in accordance with BS 8214: 2008 - "Code of practice for fire door assemblies".  Ideal gaps are 2mm - 4mm, according to this standard.  Packing hinges will only work if the gaps on the hanging stile are too small & on the closing stile they're too big, will only give you a mm or so at best.  Replacing hinges can work if they're worn & it's causing binding at the top of the closing edge or excessive gaps at the top of the hanging edge.  

If the gaps all around are too big then re-lipping the leaves and re-hanging might be possible, but this is a specialist job - I'd be looking for a FIRAS or TRADA Q-Mark approved contractor to advise - not something to entrust to a local chippy.  There are loads of these all over the UK, so choice isn't normally a problem (see http://www.bmtrada.com/personnel-certification/bm-trada-q-mark-personnel-schemes-members/Fire+Door+Registered+Installer & http://www.firas-database.co.uk/registers/fire-door-maintenance.html). If the doorsets already have intumescent seals around them, then putting more in could make the performance worse, not better, & would certainly invalidate any guarantees/warranty from the suppliers & installers of the existing doors.  If the doors are fairly new & are labelled, then it should be possible to ascertain the manufacturer & get their advice.

If there's nothing special about them & the gaps are nowhere near the size recommended in the BS, then it might be cheaper/easier to replace?

[William 29]

Are the strips and seals actually needed for life safety purposes?  Where are the doors located, on to protected routes/stairs or just office doors etc?

[The Colonel]

Guys, thanks for the leads and Fishy thanks for the links. Turns out the electrical engineers where subbing to a fire extinguisher company to do the work on 25 fire doors on protected routes/stairs. So I have advised the client to check that the company has third party accreditation or is a member of the Trada list, Certifire or Warrington schemes etc, they are now off to ask the right questions and check certified lists. Somehow I doubt the ext company will be messing with these doors.

[AnthonyB]

I echo the above, and work with a FIRAS member on sites where doors and passive works are involved. They only upgrade where appropriate and will replace if appropriate. The big advantage is the certification of the work at the end which keeps fire officers happy and along with  the industry body membership helps the client show due diligence.

Whilst sparkies and general builders can bung a seal on a door it doesn't mean it will perform & I've seen some doors where you'd just have the strip left on the floor after a few minutes if you exposed them to a fire.

As to whether the doors need to be fire doors and if they do whether seals and brushes are needed or just a 25mm rebate, that is a thread in itself!