Fire Doors are essential in all buildings and must be regularly inspected, tested and maintained to meet the requirements of article 17 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005. These doors are often subject to misuse and, like any other door, will have wear and tear especially in buildings with high volumes of people like hospitals.
Fire doors should be regularly inspected: inspections should be two-fold, carried out visually to check if any preparatory work may need to be done, and a full inspection that must be carried out by a qualified contractor.
Qualified inspectors will cover a wide range of areas within a fire door inspection to make sure it is in good working order. This includes visually inspecting the door and checking:
Under the Fire Safety Order it is a legal requirement for the company or person that has day to day control of a premises to ensure that their fire doors are regularly inspected to prevent fires and ultimately to protect the visitors of their premises. Given these are passive fire prevention systems it’s vital that they are regularly maintained. The British Woodworking Federation Fire Door Alliance recommend “periodic checks should be carried out once every six months although newly occupied buildings may require more frequent checks in the first year of use.”
As a building manager you have a duty of care to those working in the building and those visiting the building to be fully prepared for fire door inspections. These checks should be integrated into your building management plans and processes.
There are a number of ways in which you can prepare for a fire door inspection:
As building manager it’s likely you will have many checks and processes working alongside one another to keep the premises running smoothly. The key with fire door inspections is ensuring they are thorough and there is a record of maintenance and issues so that you’re easily able to notify other departments for repairs.
Increase accuracy - your fire door inspector can complete inspection forms on site in real time leaving less room for error when transcribing notes later on. Mandatory fields also mean they won’t miss any important details.
Geolocation - indicate which fire door your fire inspector is checking.
Photos and image upload - custom fields such as taking photos and uploading straight into a mobile forms app give accurate depictions of fire door condition.
Scheduling - set reminders for future inspections and send pre-filled forms to the necessary team. No missed door inspections!
Reporting - Once fire door inspections are complete, send reports (in a variety of formats) to the relevant team members to action.
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