Fire Door Keep Shut Signs in Blocks of Flats

[Rackman]

Hello to anyone out there.  Im new to the forum so go easy on me.

I work as a safety adviser for a housing association,  up until now the fire brigade have been more than happy with the fire risk assessments,  we have done for  our sheltered living schemes and care homes.  We have been moving through with our flats and masionettes. and have hit a small problem.

All our fire doors through the common areas have no fire door keep shut signs on them.  

AP Doc B  as you all are very aware tells us to have signs.

On looking around not just our flats but other associations flats,  I found only 2 doors out of about 100 to have a sign.

I now have the problem of convincing a director that he needs to buy possibly 400 + signs and have them fixed to the doors.

The signs could well just be ripped off by yobs  and may also encourage the yobs to wedge them open.

Any advice would be most welcome.

[John Dragon]

Cheap self adhesive ones, then if they rip em off, they are cheap to replace.
Beware of the big sign companies - they charge the earth!

[mark Simmonite]

Hello to anyone out there.  Im new to the forum so go easy on me.

I work as a safety adviser for a housing association,  up until now the fire brigade have been more than happy with the fire risk assessments,  we have done for  our sheltered living schemes and care homes.  We have been moving through with our flats and masionettes. and have hit a small problem.

All our fire doors through the common areas have no fire door keep shut signs on them.  

AP Doc B  as you all are very aware tells us to have signs.

On looking around not just our flats but other associations flats,  I found only 2 doors out of about 100 to have a sign.

I now have the problem of convincing a director that he needs to buy possibly 400 + signs and have them fixed to the doors.

The signs could well just be ripped off by yobs  and may also encourage the yobs to wedge them open.

Any advice would be most welcome.

Wev'e just moved into residentail management and a risk assement, undertaken by a so called expert, has not identified a need for signage on the doors of the flats themselves. is this what you are refering to or to fire doors that  protect corridors?

[kurnal]

Generally people dont need to be asked to keep their flat main entrance door closed for obvious reasons. So there is not normally a sign placed on these, likewise hotel bedrooms.

Of course we used to say the same thing about self closers until it was found that in the panic as a result of a fire people rushed out and forgot to close the door. So self closers became the norm, but I dont think signs ever will.

The blue 50mm signs are available for coppers if you buy enough at once.

[slubberdegullion]

This one's risen from a long slumber - hope the advice gets through...

Kurnal's got it covered really - just wanted to add that front doors to flats don't need signs - who leaves their front door open? Especially at night (when we're most concerned about it)?  Similarly bedrooms if they open directly off the common areas you talk of.

If some resident does leave their front door open habitually then a sign isn't going to make them stop but a discussion of the risks and some adaptation of the door closing mechanism (swing free?) might.

You do mention that this is about doors in common areas though and you may have kitchens or lounges or day-rooms or dining rooms - generally common rooms - that open off these common areas.  They should be fitted with signs so that no one is in any doubt.

Hopefully you can cut down on the required number of signs now.

If not too late...

Stu

[mark Simmonite]

Thanks to the last two posts; you've confirmed my opinions.

[nearlythere]

Hello to anyone out there.  Im new to the forum so go easy on me.

I work as a safety adviser for a housing association,  up until now the fire brigade have been more than happy with the fire risk assessments,  we have done for  our sheltered living schemes and care homes.  We have been moving through with our flats and masionettes. and have hit a small problem.

All our fire doors through the common areas have no fire door keep shut signs on them.  

AP Doc B  as you all are very aware tells us to have signs.

On looking around not just our flats but other associations flats,  I found only 2 doors out of about 100 to have a sign.

I now have the problem of convincing a director that he needs to buy possibly 400 + signs and have them fixed to the doors.

The signs could well just be ripped off by yobs  and may also encourage the yobs to wedge them open.

Any advice would be most welcome.

You would have to be sure that there is a problem with signs being ripped off. If the doors are being wedged open then you could consider hold open devices as part of a RA. You could put plastic signs on the doors which are screwed on. I remember these being very common. In any case you cannot make an assumption that there will be a problem with yobs ripping off signs or wedging open doors. The problem has to exist.

[rb health and safety]

You can get signs online cheap, providing your happy to install them yourself, rather than getting the extinguisher engineer to install, will save a lot of money.