How often should fire doors be inspected?
In residential buildings over 11 metres, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require the responsible person to check fire doors in communal areas at least every three months, and to use best endeavours to check flat entrance doors at least every twelve months. Outside that specific duty, guidance for workplaces and other buildings is periodic inspection at intervals suited to use, commonly every six months for busy doors. Whatever the building, the two things that matter are that checks actually happen and that they are recorded.
What does a fire door survey actually check?
Each door is checked as an assembly: certification plug or label on the leaf, condition of leaf and frame, perimeter gaps measured against the 2mm to 4mm tolerance, intumescent and smoke seals present and unbroken, a minimum of three firmly fixed hinges with no missing screws, a closer that shuts and latches the door from standing, compliant glazing and signage, and no unauthorised alterations like trimmed leaves or fitted cat flaps. Every door gets its own record with photographs, so the report reads as an inventory of the building, not an opinion.
Who is the Responsible Person for fire safety?
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 it is whoever has control of the premises: in a block of flats usually the freeholder, resident management company or managing agent; in a workplace the employer; in mixed-use buildings sometimes more than one party sharing duties. The responsible person must assess fire risk, maintain precautions including fire doors and compartmentation, and since 2023 record their fire risk assessment in full. Our surveys, inspections and remedial reports exist to give that person the evidence their duties demand.
What did the Fire Safety Act 2021 and the 2022 Regulations change for flat entrance doors?
The Fire Safety Act 2021 made explicit that flat entrance doors, the building's structure and its external walls fall within the Fire Safety Order, so the fire risk assessment must cover them. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 then added concrete duties in residential buildings over 11 metres: quarterly checks of doors in common parts, annual best-endeavour checks of flat entrance doors, and information for residents about the importance of fire doors. Together they turned flat entrance doors from a grey area into a scheduled, recorded obligation.
What are the most common defects you find on inspection?
Gaps outside tolerance, usually at the head or the latch stile, are the most frequent. After that: smoke seals painted over or missing, closers disconnected or too weak to latch the door, hinges with missing screws, unrated hardware, letter plates and spyholes with no test evidence, and doors wedged open as a matter of habit. Most of these are inexpensive to put right, which is the argument for inspecting regularly: caught early, a defect is an adjustment; caught late, it is a replacement doorset.
Can you inspect the doors and then do the remedial work as well?
Yes, and it is the way most clients run it: one firm surveys, prices the findings, carries out the remedials and issues the completion report, so nothing is lost between a surveyor's spreadsheet and a contractor's quote. The survey stands on its own if that is all you want, and the findings are recorded objectively either way; a door that only needs its closer adjusted is written up as exactly that.
