Advice · block management
Fire door checks for managing agents: what to look for
Fire doors in blocks of flats are now checked more often and recorded more carefully than ever. This is the ten-minute version of what the rules ask for, what fails, and how to get it fixed without three different contractors.
What the rules ask for
Since January 2023 the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 have required the responsible person for a residential building over 11 metres to carry out quarterly checks of all fire doors in communal areas, and to use best endeavours to check every flat entrance door at least once a year. In every building with two or more sets of domestic premises, residents must be given information on the importance of fire doors and keeping them shut. Underneath all of that sits the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which requires fire doors to be maintained in efficient working order in any block, whatever its height.
In practice this means someone has to walk the building, look at each door properly, write down what they find, and have faults fixed. The checks themselves are not complicated; the discipline of doing them and closing out the faults is what inspectors look for.
The check, door by door
- Certification. Is there a label or plug on the top edge or hinge side showing it is a fire door? Has the door been replaced by a resident with something that isn't?
- Gaps. Around the top and sides the gap should be consistent and normally 2–4mm; under the door, up to about 8–10mm depending on the certification (less if a smoke seal is required). Use a pound coin as a rough 3mm gauge.
- Seals. Intumescent strips and cold-smoke brushes or fins should be present, continuous and not painted over or damaged.
- Closer. Open the door to about 5 degrees and let go: it should close fully and latch under its own power. Then from wide open: it should close without slamming and without stopping short.
- Hinges. Three hinges, all screws present and tight, no oil leaking from the hinge, no obvious wear.
- Door and frame. No splits, holes, missing glazing beads or damaged glass. Letterplates and viewers should be fire-rated.
- Signage. "Fire door keep shut" or "keep locked" signs present where required.
- Hold-open devices. Only electromagnetic hold-opens linked to the fire alarm are acceptable; wedges, hooks and fire extinguishers are not.
The faults that come up most
From the blocks we look after in Basingstoke, the same handful of problems appear again and again: closers that have weakened or been wound down by residents fed up with a heavy door; seals painted over during redecoration; gaps that have grown as a door has dropped on tired hinges; and flat entrance doors quietly swapped for a nice new composite door that is not fire rated. None of these is expensive to put right if it is caught in a routine check. All of them can fail an inspection.
Who fixes what
The frustration for property managers is that fire door faults tend to sit between trades. A locksmith is the natural person to adjust or replace a closer, refit ironmongery and sort the lock; a passive fire specialist is the natural person to replace seals and certify a door set. As NAPFIS members we do both, alongside the door-entry and key-control work you probably already use us for, and we photograph every door before and after so your records are complete.
Keeping the records
For each door, record the date, who checked it, what was found and what was done. A simple spreadsheet is fine; what matters is that a fire officer can see the routine happening and faults being closed. We provide a report after each visit in whatever format your system needs.
Questions we're often asked
How often do communal fire doors have to be checked?
In residential buildings over 11 metres tall, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require the responsible person to check communal fire doors at least every three months and to make best-efforts checks of flat entrance doors at least every twelve months. In lower buildings the general duty to maintain fire doors under the Fire Safety Order still applies.
What are the most common faults you find?
Closers that don't shut the door fully into the frame, missing or painted-over intumescent and smoke seals, gaps over 4mm at the edges, damaged or missing hinge screws, wedged-open doors, and flat entrance doors replaced by residents with non-fire-rated doors.
Can you fix faults and do the locksmith work in the same visit?
Yes. That is the point of using a NAPFIS-member locksmith for fire door work — closers, seals, ironmongery, locks and door-entry can all be dealt with by one contractor, with photographs and a report for your records.
Do you replace whole fire door sets?
Yes, where a door is beyond repair or a resident has fitted a non-compliant door. We supply and fit certified FD30 and FD30S door sets and provide the certification paperwork.
This guide is general information for property managers and is not a substitute for a fire risk assessment of a specific building.
Fire door faults on your next inspection?
One visit, one report, closers, seals, locks and door-entry all dealt with.