34 • FIRESAFETY & SECURITY
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Fire Doors: The First Line of Defence
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THE IMPORTANCE OF FIRE DOORS to the safety of a building and its occupants cannot be underestimated. Here, Graham Hulland, Product Marketing Manager at dormakaba highlights the key issues to take into account when it comes to making a robust specification.
Fire doors have an integral role to play in the passive protection of commercial, public and multi-occupancy buildings. The British Woodworking Federation, the organisation behind Fire Door Safety Week, states there are in excess of three million new fire doors bought and installed every year in the UK and yet worryingly, they also remain a significant area of neglect and often one of the first items to be downgraded within a specification.
Although it is acknowledged throughout the industry that a fire door needs compliant door hardware and ironmongery to maintain fire safety integrity, it is an area that is so saturated with complex legislation and a multitude of issues to take into consideration – that making an informed and robust specification has become harder to achieve.
Approved Document B of the Building Regulations states that where fire doors are to be self-closing they should be fitted with an Automatic Self Closing Device defined as:‘ a device which is capable of closing the door from any angle against any latch fitted to the door.’ Any such door-closing device should comply with BS EN1154 Controlled Door Closing Devices and be CE marked to this standard. The product must also have a Declaration of Performance( DoP) detailing the characteristics of the component, as without this the CE mark is invalid.
Furthermore, today best practice is widely considered to mean only sourcing door ironmongery that is third party certified. All parts, including doors, closers, hinges, locks, intumescent seals, panic hardware, door furniture, hold-open and free-swing devices and signage should all be third party approved to provide assurance that products are fit for purpose. This is highlighted in Approved Document B, which states that:
“ Third party accredited product conformity certification schemes not only provide a means of identifying products, which have demonstrated that they have the requisite performance in fire, but additionally provide confidence that the products actually supplied are provided to the same specification or design as that tested / assessed.”
Schemes such as the BWF-CERTIFIRE Scheme provide third party and independently certificated products. This can help provide the assurance that the ironmongery or intumescents are fit for purpose. It is vital that all elements including closers, hinges, locks, seals, and panic hardware as well as any hold-open or free-swing devices fitted to the door are all third party approved. If non-CERTIFIRE approved ironmongery or intumescents are fitted on BWF- CERTIFIED fire doors, the certification of the complete fire door is invalidated. This can result in legal action being imposed and put lives and property at risk.
In all cases and from a legal perspective – all essential hardware should be CE marked as required within the Construction Products Regulation( CPR).
Robust specifications also rely on making an informed and educated choice. This is why it is essential to investigate the test certificates supplied by manufacturers as unfortunately this can be a source of confusion in itself. Should a manufacturer have a certificate
LOCKSMITHJOURNAL. CO. UK | SEP / OCT 2018