A fire door is an engineered assembly, not a heavy door. The leaf, the frame, the intumescent and smoke seals, the hinges, the closer, the latch and the glazing are certified together, and changing any one of them for something uncertified can void the whole set. That is why so many fire door failures are the result of ordinary maintenance done by somebody who did not know what the door was.
What the door has to do
Hold back fire and smoke for its rated period, normally 30 or 60 minutes, written FD30 and FD60, with an S suffix where smoke seals are fitted. It has to do that while closing itself fully into the frame from any angle, every time, which is why a wedged open fire door is not a door with a minor fault. It is an opening.
Fire door regulations: how often a door must be checked
In a building containing two or more sets of domestic premises and above 11 metres in height, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require the responsible person to check any fire doors in communal areas at least every 3 months, and to use best endeavours to check fire doors at the entrances of individual domestic premises at least every 12 months, keeping a record including where access was refused. Below 11 metres and in other premises, the interval comes from the fire risk assessment and from the article 17 duty to maintain.
What a fire door survey looks at, from intumescent fire seals to hinges
Certification evidence, meaning a label or plug and a traceable specification. Gaps around the leaf, measured. The condition and continuity of intumescent and smoke seals. Hinges, their number, their fixings and whether they are CE or UKCA marked. The self closing device and whether it closes and latches from any angle. Glazing and beads. Signage. Any holes cut for cables or letter plates. And the frame and its fixings, which are the part nobody looks at.
Fire door maintenance: the repairs, and when a door is beyond them
Many findings are repairable: a new closer, replacement seals, correct hinges, filling an over-cut aperture with an approved product. What is not repairable is a leaf that has been planed down beyond tolerance, a door with an uncertified aperture cut into it, or a set with no traceable evidence of what it is. Remedial work should be done by somebody with third party certification, because the evidence that the door still performs is the installer's competence.
Fire door installation: do fire door fitters and installers need accreditation?
There is no legal requirement for a certificated installer. There is a practical one: the assessment and the certification only hold if the door is installed to the manufacturer's instructions, and third party schemes exist because that is hard to prove afterwards. On new build and on material alterations, Building Regulations approved document B is the governing standard for where fire doors are required at all.
Questions people ask about fire doors
How often are fire door inspections required?
In buildings with two or more sets of domestic premises above 11 metres, communal fire doors at least every 3 months and flat entrance doors on best endeavours at least every 12 months. Elsewhere the interval comes from the fire risk assessment.
What is the difference between FD30 and FD60?
The rated period of fire resistance in minutes, 30 and 60. An S suffix means the set includes smoke seals.
Can a fire door be held open?
Only with a device that releases it on the alarm, such as an electromagnetic hold open or an acoustic closer. A wedge or a hook is a breach, because the door cannot perform if it is not closed.
Is fire door certification needed?
The door set has to perform to its rating, and certification with traceable evidence is how that is demonstrated. A door with no evidence of what it is cannot be shown to comply.
What is the maximum gap allowed under a fire door?
It depends on what is at the bottom of the door. Where the assembly relies on a threshold seal or a drop down seal, the gap is whatever that product was tested with, and the manufacturer's instructions are the specification. Where it does not, the gap at the bottom is normally larger than the ones at the sides and head because smoke rises, but it is still limited by what the door was tested as. The one answer that is always wrong is a number read off the internet and applied to a door whose certification nobody has looked at.
How to identify a fire door on site
Look for the label or plug on the top edge or the hinge edge, which names the certification scheme and lets the door be traced. Failing that, the signs are circumstantial and worth reading together: intumescent seals let into the leaf or the frame, three hinges, a closer, a latch, and a leaf that is heavy and thick. Circumstantial evidence tells you what the door was meant to be; only the label tells you what it is certified as.
Can a fire door contain asbestos?
Older ones can. Doors were faced or cored with asbestos insulating board as fire proofing, and HSE lists removal of an insulating board door with asbestos fire proofing among its examples of non-licensed work. A fire door in a building from before 2000 is checked against the asbestos register before anyone planes, drills or replaces it.