Fire door inspection and maintinance in communal areas of flats

[The Colonel]

Gents, has anyone any experience of inspection and maintinance of fire doors within communal areas of flats.

A housing association I know of has all fire doors of flats given a visual inspection once a month by their maintenance officers, however this is without having access to the flats so cannot tell if seals are damaged etc. Current guidance as we know recommends inspection and maintenance every six months. Is there any one out their that actually gets access to the open doors, inspecting the seals etc six monthly would be a logistic nightmare and thats just for their tenants, where they have leasehold flats it would be even worse. Surley the flat Tennant/leaseholder must have some responsibility to inspect and report any defects or have repairs carried out.

Any experience would be useful, this has all been sparked off by a company that has informed the Housing association that it is legislation that the inspection is carried out, we of course know better than to use scare tactics!

[kurnal]

If the door is not opened then the inspection can be little more than a box ticking exercise. We recently assessed a building that had such an inpection scheme in place for fire doors and found a large number of the doors we sampled had serious and unreported defects. Similarly the mothly emergency lighting test actually comprised nothing more than a visual check that the fittings worked on the primary supply. The staff had no knowledge of charger LEDs, test key switches or batteries. So much for the use of competent staff. At least we have now been instructed to provide their staff with some training so there has been a successful outcome.

[nearlythere]

If the door is not opened then the inspection can be little more than a box ticking exercise. We recently assessed a building that had such an inpection scheme in place for fire doors and found a large number of the doors we sampled had serious and unreported defects. Similarly the mothly emergency lighting test actually comprised nothing more than a visual check that the fittings worked on the primary supply. The staff had no knowledge of charger LEDs, test key switches or batteries. So much for the use of competent staff. At least we have now been instructed to provide their staff with some training so there has been a successful outcome.

Sounds familiar.

[colin todd]

Big Al, is the mothly test one where they switch on the lights at night and see if the moths hover over them?

[nearlythere]

Big Al, is the mothly test one where they switch on the lights at night and see if the moths hover over them?

Think Dot is drunk on Belfast humour again. Benidicts have shutters up again.

[The Colonel]

Has anyone any experience of gaining access or not to service/maintain the doors, seals, self closing device etc.

[Tom Sutton]

Check out http://www.crisis-response.com/forum/index.php?topic=6597.0