Essential terminology for understanding UK fire door regulations
Understanding fire door terminology is essential for landlords, property managers, and building owners. This glossary explains the key terms you'll encounter in fire door compliance and regulations.
These are the ratings that provide information on the number of minutes that a fire door can withstand fire. The typical duration of protection of an FD30 door is 30 minutes, and this is the standard of most HMO bedroom doors, and residential flats. FD60 (60 minutes) is predominant in high-rise corridors, lift shafts and boiler rooms.
The S represents Smoke. A smoke-sealed fire door also needs to be provided in a number of UK regulations, especially those regulating HMOs and buildings over 11m. This implies that it has incorporated brushes or fins that ensure that cold smoke; the largest killer in a fire, does not get through the holes.
A mechanical seal fitted to the bottom of a fire door that automatically drops down when the door is closed, sealing the gap between the door and the floor to prevent the passage of smoke and flames. It is essential for smoke-rated doors (e.g., FD30S/FD60S) where bottom gaps exceed 8-10mm, ensuring compliance with UK fire safety regulations such as the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022.
These are narrow strips that are mounted in the edges of the door or the frame. At some point when they reach a specific temperature (typically around 200 degree celsius) they will increase to many times their original size, closing the gap between the door and the frame to block flames.
A mechanical tool, typically mounted on the top part of the door, which ensures that that door closes consistently regardless of the angle. A closer in fire door assembly should be able to give the door an overcoming force over any latch or smoke seals so that the door is closed completely into its frame.
A fire precautionary method in which a building is subdivided into cells or compartments by using fire rated walls and doors. The aim is to control the spread of fire in the room where it begins to save the other part of the building and escape routes.
A digital document of the safety information about a building which should be archived during the lifecycle of the building. In buildings greater than 18m, this thread should be able to demonstrate that fire doors have been checked and kept in maintenance as provided in the Building Safety Act.
Provider of the professional body of fire door inspectors in the UK. NAFDI accreditation ensures that an assessor has gone through a tough form of training and examination to determine any flaws that a layman eye would not detect.
The main source of legislation on fire safety in UK premises that are not domestic. It shifts the legal liability of safety to the Responsible Person who is normally the landlord or owner of a business.
A special device of Inferno Fire Partners to determine the distance between a door and a frame. The gaps normally have to be between 2mm to 4mm to be compliant.
This is the lock in which a door can be unlocked inside it without using any key. These are required in the HMO bedrooms and flat entrance doors so that the residents of the residential block can escape fast during a fire without the need to search for keys.
Our NAFDI certified inspectors can explain how these requirements apply to your property.
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