Fire Door Regulations and Requirements
Buildings are specifically designed in order to delay the spread of fire from one area into another. They are split into compartment or zones as they are sometimes known and it is these compartment or zones which are linked by doors in order to allow any people to travel around a building. It is these doors which link the compartments which have to be fire doors so that in the event of a fire they can do two things:
- Closed form a barrier in order to prevent the fire from spreading
- Open provide a means of escape for anyone in the building
Fire doors have to have intumescent strips installed on them in order to provide resistance to a fire should one occur. It is often the excessive smoke which is present when a fire occurs which causes people trapped in a building to pass out and therefore burn as they cannot escape. In order to try and prevent the smoke from entering a zone these strips seal off the door so that smoke cannot creep through. The seals also minimize the overall susceptibility of the door edges so that there is no early damage caused and thus giving any people trapped in the building time to effectively escape to safety before smoke gets into their lungs.
The seals are cut into a groove in the door, as soon as the temperature exceeds a certain level, normally about ten minutes after a fire has started the seal swells and ultimately seals the gap. A soft material which is cellular in structure the intumescent seals are proven to save lives! All of our seals comply with British Standards, BS 476 Part 31.1 or Certifire approved smoke seals to TS21.
Bespoke Complete Services have a full range of FD30 and FD60 certified fire doors and fire doorsets. Our fire doors and fire doorsets have been through rigorous tests which take into account the complete door assemblies, the fire door and framework as well as all the fitted ironmongery. The fire doors are tested in a number of frames as no guarantee can be given of its capabilities under fire conditions. One face of the door is exposed to heat conditions which are as close as can be to those experienced in a real life fire. The same test is then applied to the other side of the door in order to ensure that both sides can cope with fire conditions. When the fire door is exposed to this heat the door is observed for stability and integrity.
- Failed stability of a fire door occurs when the specimen collapses.
- Failed integrity of a fire door occurs when cracks or other openings exist through which flames or hot gases can pass through. It also fails when flaming occurs on the unexposed fire door face.
All of our fire doorsets and fire doors at Bespoke Complete Services have been tested and approved by a fire testing centre, passed and thus certification has been approved. It is important to note that once certification has been approved all other fire doors and fire doorsets feature identification labels which will identify a manufacturer, date of manufacture and the design fire rating of the door time.
The British Woodworking Federation Certifire fire door scheme is a major organization which provides our fire ratings. Our FD30 and FD60 fire doors are their fire ratings which are stated in minutes prefixed by FD.
Commonly used specified integrity levels are:
- FD30 30 minutes
- FD60 60 minutes
- FD90 90 minutes
- FD120 120 minutes
British Standards documents which can be accessed and are relevant to timber fire doors,
BS476:-20: 1987 Fire tests on building materials and structures, methods for determination of the fire resistance of elements of construction.
BS 476 22: 1987 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Methods for determination of the fire resistance of non-loadbearing elements of construction
BS 476: 23: 1987 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Methods for the determination of the contribution of components to the fire resistance of a structure
BS 476: 31.1: 1983 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Method of measuring smoke penetration through doorset and shutter assemblies method of measurement under ambient temperature conditions.
BS 8214:2008 Code of practice for fire door assemblies
BS EN 1634-1:2008 Fire resistance and smoke control tests for door, shutter and, openable window assemblies and elements of building hardware. Fire resistance tests for doors, shutters and openable windows which is an alternative for BS 476 22: 1987
