The Importance of Fire Door Maintenance

Posted on April 24, 2023 in Building Maintenance

What is the importance of fire door maintenance? – Fire doors play a critical role in commercial and multi occupied residential buildings, helping to prevent the spread of smoke and flames throughout a building. They’re designed to slow the progress or limit the outbreak of a fire thus protecting lives and property – which is why maintaining these essential safety measures must be done on a regular basis.

Doing so not only locks into compliance with building regulations, but also helps assure the people within your building that their safety is paramount.

In this article, we will look at the importance of fire door maintenance for landlords, property managers, and building owners––and discuss why it’s essential for protecting your reputation, your building and the people within it.

Advantages of maintaining Fire Doors in a building

Fire doors are a crucial element of fire safety within any building and the benefits of proactively maintaining them should not be underestimated.

Fire door maintenance helps to ensure that all UK regulations pertaining to Fire Safety are met, protecting all inhabitants in the event of a fire while also avoiding having to spend large sums of money replacing condemned doors down the line.

Fire inspectors conducting fire risk assessments will consider the upkeep of your fire doors during their surveys. No landlord, property manager or building owner wants to hear that all their fire doors have been condemned. This leaves them with a range of dilemmas.

How can I afford to replace 200 fire doors? How can we accommodate this much work whilst keeping our business open? Who can I trust to quote me fairly for the work involved?

By considering fire door maintenance as a pre-emptive solution to this scenario, you are not only going to be securing a safer building for you and your occupants, but also save money, time, and stress in the long run.

Measures to ensure proper maintenance of Fire Doors

Being proactive with fire door maintenance is key; rather than taking the chance of a fire door failing during an emergency, pre-planned inspection and maintenance should take place at regular intervals throughout the year by qualified doorset technicians who have experience in fire safety and 3rd party certification to carry out the works.

Below are six steps you should take to ensure your fire doors and doorsets are properly maintained:

• Pre-plan inspection of all fire doors twice a year by a doorset technician
• Plan any necessary repairs for your fire doors following inspection
• Replace any fire doors which are beyond repair with certified replacements
• Invest in a fixed-term maintenance plan to service your fire doors regularly
• Regularly monitor your fire doors throughout the year
• Educate occupants on correct fire safety procedures and fire door use

The inspection, repairs and replacement of fire doors mentioned above should always be carried out by a competent person, having sufficient training, experience and knowledge to work on fire doors, and backed by 3rd party accreditation. Some fire door specialists offer service packages which ensure all the above checks are carried out on a regular basis.

It is the duty of the responsible person to ensure proper action is taken around fire safety. Following the above steps ensures you are doing your part.

Keeping costs low with proper Fire Door maintenance

When left unchecked, fire doors are subject to long-term damage, and wear and tear that can compromise their ability to hold back fire and smoke, necessitating major repair works or requiring them to be replaced altogether. As well as this, tampering or malicious damage can hasten the rate in which repairs or replacements need to be carried out.

On an individual basis, this is manageable work. However, in a building such as a university or hospital boasting 500+ doors, negligence can result in extremely heavy costs.

Responsible fire door maintenance, when done correctly, circumvents this scenario from ever happening as any repairs are highlighted at an early stage. In most cases, this means the existing fire doors can be restored to their full integrity for a fraction of the cost of a new doorset.

Your business or building can only benefit from being more responsible when it comes to fire door maintenance. Keep costs low by investing in service packages that include regular inspection, repairs and if necessary, replacements of all your fire doors.

Conclusion

Fire safety regulations are in place to protect both building owners and the occupants who use them. Fire doors play a major role in allowing for safe egress during an emergency, and proper maintenance and regular inspections are key in keeping those doors functioning as intended.

Though this process may require an investment of time and money up front, it is ultimately better financially in the long run when compared to the costs that come when fire doors are left unmaintained.

Protech Property Solutions provide bespoke service packages for your business or buildings, including the inspection, repair and replacement of all fire-rated doorsets. For a fixed-term, you are assured that all fire doors are maintained in accordance with British standards, keeping you and your occupants safe.

If you have a building or project that would benefit from a maintenance package for your fire doors, contact an expert at Protech Property Solutions today on 0845 604 1288 or visit Protech Fire Doors for more information.