Fire Door Safety Week is a pivotal campaign that helps educate the public about the crucial role of Fire Doors.
Reflecting on 2023-24
When reflecting on the year at POYNTELL, we can confidently say we have seen record levels of positive engagement from commercial clients regarding Fire Doors.
Whilst it’s safe to say the UK is still in a poor state when it comes to the installation and maintenance of Fire Doors, we are gradually seeing better practices being put in place, without our intervention. This is a clear sign to us, that the awareness of Fire Door safety, through events such as FDSW, is getting through to the public at large.
As we said last year, we are more than happy to come in as a 3rd party certified company to check Fire Doors, however, this isn’t enough. Internal teams can monitor the condition of all door types on a much more regular basis than any external team.
Frequent checks are a bonus for everyone, as faults are highlighted sooner. Minor repairs can take place which significantly reduce the need for more expensive, and disruptive full-door replacements. Budgets are always tight, so being smart with internal surveys are beneficial for all.
It is therefore imperative for everyone to learn about Fire Doors, and to ensure formal scheduled internal checks are in place.
For example, vehicles on UK roads require MOT tests, and boilers require routine checks. Fire Doors, and associated systems are no different.
If an engine check light were to come on, and ignored, for either cars or boilers, then this would be seen as negligence. The same could be said for a hospital Fire Door, or any Fire Door for that matter.
2023 Issues with Fire Doors
According to Fire Door Safety Week “Research conducted in 2023 by the British Woodworking Federation as part of their Fire Door Safety Week campaign ‘Recognise it, Report it’, found that over half (57%) of the UK public couldn’t spot a problem with a Fire Door, leading to a failure to report issues.”
Whilst POYNTELL hasn’t formally published any research, based on our 1000’s of Fire Door surveys this year, we can confidently say that our findings are similar to that of the 2023 British Woodworking Federation report.
That being said, this is normally the case for sites that have not undergone training or supervision. Once past the first hurdle of the initial inspection, and remedial works have been carried out to rectify these problems, we see a vast reduction in survey failures. In some instances, we see large sites with few to no doors failing their bi-yearly 3rd party inspections.
Tips & Advice for spotting issues with Fire Doors
Unfortunately, quite often we find new builds that are in a worse condition than sites that are decades old.
Awareness of issues with Fire Doors therefore needs to happen at all stages of the project. No one wants to be paying double for Fire Doors, and we as a country need to be vigilant as to who we hire to do such work.
Spotting, and highlighting issues is key to this process, regardless of the current lifecycle of the doorset.
The intricate nature of some systems (electrical systems for example) shouldn’t be checked by an untrained person, due to the physical dangers associated.
Fire Doors on the other hand can have basic checks done to them, with inexpensive tools. This, therefore, makes no sense why Fire Doors can’t be checked, internally, on a more regular basis.
For more information and tips, please see the FDSW website https://www.firedoorsafetyweek.co.uk/ We hope that these resources will help people to expand their understanding of Fire Doors.
In addition to this, our Fire Door blog section may also come in handy for commercial Fire Door management https://poyntell.com/blog/fire-doors/
From concern to compliant
Needless to say, if you manage commercial buildings and are looking for a 3rd party certified Fire Door specialist, please get in contact.