FOCUS
Fire doors/glazing
the integrity of the compartmentation in the building, helping to keep people and valuable assets safe. Being able to demonstrate full compliance with the regulations can also lead to lower insurance premiums, as the cost of damage remediation from a fire contained in a small area could potentially be significantly less than the repair bill from a sprinkler being deployed.
Correct specification
For new builds and major refurbishments, the process needs to start at specification stage. Too often, the specifications for fire doors and glazing are not detailed enough and do little more than state the minimum ratings required for materials to be fitted by the joinery contractor. At the most basic level, the doors must
meet the requirements of building regulations. They state that doors that divide buildings must have a minimum 60 minute rating and match the fire resistance of the walls. In all other locations, a 30 minute fire door will be sufficient for compliance. In addition, doors must meet the requirements of British Standard 476. Some sites may also have to comply
with sector specific minimum requirements. For example, the NHS has its own guidance for its hospitals, which states that main compartment doors should be FD60 rated (unless the building contains sprinklers or is single storey), but that all other doors can be FD30.
46 MAY 2018
www.frmjournal.com
If doors require glazed panels, the right
type of fire resistant glass and beading must be specified. Normal glass quickly cracks and collapses when exposed to high temperatures, rendering the intended compartmentation useless. There are, however, a number of effective fire resistant glazing products now on the market that can offer integrity periods of up to 120 minutes. As well as wired panels for timber doors, the fire resistant products available include wall height panels for glazed offices or meeting rooms and highly durable EI60 fully glazed fire doors. Specifying doors and glazing can
involve more than hitting the minimum legal requirements – ideally choices should also reflect the location and usage. For example, while a geriatric hospital ward may only require 30 minute fire doors to comply with regulations, given how long it takes to evacuate patients with limited mobility, a higher rating is surely a better option.
Appropriate installation
In an ideal world, all installation work based on the detailed specification should then be completed by a specialist third party accredited contractor who understands the requirements for intumescent strips, closers, hinges and leaf gaps. If the budget for the project dictates that
the fire doors are part of a general joinery contract package, there is an additional step that can help to ensure that both the materials and installation are correct before handover. This is to appoint an independent
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