What Is an FD60 Fire Door?
An FD60 fire door is a doorset that holds back fire for at least 60 minutes in a fire test. FD stands for fire door, and the number tells you how many minutes the complete door lasted in the test furnace. That is the short answer. However, it hides most of what matters. The rating […]
What Is an FD30 Fire Door?
An FD30 fire door is a doorset that resists fire for at least 30 minutes in a fire test. It is also the most common fire door rating in the UK. You will find FD30 doors on flat entrances, communal corridors, stairwells, HMO bedrooms and the escape routes of most commercial buildings. Because they are […]
What Is Approved Document B (Fire Safety)?
Approved Document B is the government’s official guidance on meeting the fire safety rules in the Building Regulations for England. It covers how buildings should warn people of a fire and let them escape. It also covers how to limit fire spread inside and outside the building, and how firefighters get in. It is one […]
Fire Door Survey vs Fire Risk Assessment: What Is the Difference?
Building owners are often told they need a fire risk assessment, then told separately that they need a fire door survey, and reasonably enough they want to know why one is not enough. The two documents sound like they cover the same ground. In practice they answer very different questions, and having one does not […]
Common Fire Door Defects Found During Inspections
Inspect a hundred fire doors in a British building and you will fail most of them. That sounds alarming until you look at what actually fails. The same handful of defects accounts for the overwhelming majority of failures. Almost all of them arise after installation rather than during it. A joiner can correct most of […]
What Happens If a Fire Door Fails an Inspection?
A failed fire door sounds alarming, but not every failure means you need to replace the whole door. In many cases, a missing hinge screw, damaged seal or poorly adjusted closer causes the problem. The word “fail” can describe anything from a minor defect that takes minutes to fix to serious damage that requires a […]
Fire Door Hinges: How Many Are Required and Why?
Hinges are the least interesting component on a fire door and one of the most consequential. Nobody inspects a building and worries about hinges. They worry about closers, seals and certification labels. Then you meet a door that somebody hung on two hinges four years ago. It has twisted far enough that the gap along […]
11 Flat Entrance Fire Doors Remediated Following Failed FRA in Peckham
CFP Carpentry & Fire Prevention recently completed a programme of fire door remedial works to 11 flat entrance doors at a residential property in Peckham, London, following defects identified during a Fire Risk Assessment. The project involved correcting excessive door gaps, adjusting existing door frames and ensuring the self-closing devices operated correctly across the affected […]
FD60(S) Fire Door Set Replacements Following Water Damage at Deloitte, Central London
CFP Carpentry & Fire Prevention recently completed a programme of FD60(S) fire door set replacements at Deloitte in Central London, following water damage within the basement of the building. A leak in the basement had caused significant damage to the lower sections of a number of the existing fire door sets, with moisture damage extending […]
Double Fire Door Remedial Works Following Failed FRA in Maidenhead
CFP Carpentry & Fire Prevention recently completed remedial works to two double fire door sets at a site in Maidenhead after defects were identified during a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA). Both door sets had been fitted without suitable intumescent smoke seals where the two door leaves meet, leaving the meeting stiles without the required seal […]