Doors & Windows Feature
Building Fabric; Groundworks
located in a corridor and exit through another riser door in a different area or floor of the building is eliminated because both sides of the door have been successfully tested and fire integrity accredited to the required fire door requirements. However, for manufacturers to completely fulfil their duty of care, and for
social housing providers to also ensure they are taking all reasonable measures to ensure the building is compliant, safe and suitable, third party testing must be undertaken for the complete doorset, including each individual component, to successfully futureproof the project.
manufacturers can prove they have fulfilled their duty of care in terms of best practice. Tis can be done by providing evidence that the solution is not only fit for purpose, but goes above and beyond current requirements to offer the highest possible standards in quality, performance and safety. With regard to riser doors in particular, the extensive testing process will
guarantee a manufacturer is superseding the guidance outlined in BS EN 1634 to ensure complete compliance with the legislation defined in Annex B of Approved Document B2.
THE BENEFITS OF BI-DIRECTIONAL TESTING Social housing providers should also look at specifying riser doors that have been bi-directionally tested by an independent test centre. Because bi-directional fire testing physically tests the riser doors in both directions, it offers the highest levels of fire safety as it provides the riser door that will withstand exposure to fire and smoke from both directions for the allotted time period. Tis adequately prevents the spread of fire throughout a multi-storey dwelling; the opportunity for the fire to enter the riser shaſt through a riser door
SUCCESSFULLY RETROFITTING RISER DOORS Beyond the testing of the doorset, it is also critical that it is installed into an approved wall construction in a method consistent with the sample originally tested. In practice, the installation process poses a number of risks to the overall fire integrity of a construction through variables such as the packer type and intumescent mastic bead application. To overcome this potential gap in compliance, professionals should
specify steel riser doors that are supplied as standard with adjustable frame systems that enable the frame to be precisely adjusted to the specific dimensions of each structural opening, without the need for traditionally used packers during installation. Not only does this reduce fitting times by up to 30%, but it also eliminates
the need for intumescent mastic bead application as a secondary operation on site, due to utilising a factory applied integral all-in-one smoke, intumescent and acoustic FS1000 seal. Tis provides fire stopping between the frame and the wall, while also eliminating the reliance of the correct thickness of intumescent mastic bead. Most importantly, it also ensures the compliance and adequacy of the entire
installation, as its fire integrity performance has been sufficiently documented by an independent assessor. As a result, this also subsequently increases the efficiency of installation and removes any potential margins for error.
Marcus Parnham is commercial director at Profab Access
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMMDecember/January 2024 | 25
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