INDUSTRY NEWS
JOINING THE DOTS
Nicola John , Director of Fire Door Maintenance ( FDM ), discusses the impact of the Fire Safety ( England ) Regulations 2022 on door manufacturers and why a joined-up approach is essential for fire door inspections .
Enforced in January 2023 , the Fire Safety ( England ) Regulations 2022 regulations set new legal duties for those who own or manage multi-occupied residential buildings over 11m high . These include new procedures for checking fire doors to make sure they are still suitable after their original fire risk assessment .
The person legally responsible for a building ’ s fire safety , known as the ‘ responsible person ’ must carry out annual inspections on all flat entrance doors , and quarterly checks on fire doors within communal areas and which cross corridors . A responsible person is usually the building ’ s landlord or manager .
The overall aim is to ensure fire doors are in good working order , including checking for any defects which could undermine their ability to prevent fire and smoke from spreading .
The scale of the challenge For owners and managers of larger residential portfolios , particularly social landlords , the new rules present many challenges . Currently , the majority of housing providers don ’ t have the in-house expertise or capacity to deliver and record the volume of inspections required . With hundreds , or even possibly thousands of doors to check , significant resources will need to be put in place to comply with the regulations .
In response , some social landlords have begun to adopt specialist software to assist with scheduling the checks and reporting . But that still leaves a gap in the process . Fire door inspections require people on the ground with the knowledge and time needed to carry out the checks .
To plug this gap , a growing number of housing providers are turning to door manufacturers to help . Those supplying new doors for residential buildings are
being asked if they can also inspect existing fire doors to help their clients comply with the new rules . However , this approach presents further challenges with many manufacturers struggling to allocate enough time and resources to meet these requirements .
Another key consideration is the quality of the inspection . Although the Government guidance states checks should be ‘ simple and basic ’ the importance of a more thorough approach should not be underestimated . To make sure a door is safe and futureproofed , sourcing the manufacturer ’ s primary test evidence is strongly recommended . In line with the ‘ golden thread ’ policy post-Grenfell , this will confirm if the correct components have been installed on each door , and have not been substituted or changed .
For a new door manufacturer to undertake this task is near impossible as many existing doors are likely to have been produced and installed by a different company .
Raising standards
As the impact of these challenges starts to bite , FDM has been launched by UAP to help door manufacturers provide a holistic service to their clients and enable them to deliver inspections to a higher standard .
As a company with extensive experience of the door industry and with direct links to manufacturers across the UK , we can bring specialist expertise , training and people to the table . This includes the ability to source primary test evidence from manufacturers which may have installed doors several years ago . We can also work with software providers to incorporate this evidence as part of wider fire door inspection solutions .
To overcome labour and skills challenges , FDM can provide a pool of specially trained locksmiths as part of its service . This training has been developed based on our industry knowledge of fire doors and involves practical and theory-based learning . It can also be adapted to meet the specific needs of a housing provider . More than 300 locksmiths are currently available to deliver bespoke inspections to housing associations and local authorities across the UK .
Completing the jigsaw
With the new fire safety regulations now firmly in place , there is an urgent need for housing providers to develop a robust system for carrying out fire door inspections . This requires the appropriate resources , skills and knowledge to be in place across the entire inspection process . By working with a specialist like FDM , door manufacturers can join the dots for their clients , providing an integrated , efficient service which ensures fire doors are inspected to the highest safety standards .
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14 JULY 2023 CLEARVIEW-UK . COM