Regulations for Certified Fire Doors Explained

Fire doors play a crucial role in the safety and fire protection of business premises. Due to the importance of having properly functioning fire doors, they must meet a number of specific regulations including accessibility, sound, ventilation, fire safety and safety glazing.

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at each regulation that applies to fire doors and how BID Group Ltd has ensured all of our fire doors meet each and every one of these requirements to ensure maximum safety.

What Do Fire Doors Actually Do?

Fire doors are designed to save lives and prevent excessive fire damage to a building and its content. They work by containing a fire in the room in which it started and keep escape routes free from fire, allowing anyone in the building a safer escape route and preventing further damage to other rooms.

How Many Fire Doors Must a Business Have?

Fire doors are a legal requirement in all non-domestic properties, such as businesses, commercial premises, and public buildings. They are also required in residential flats and houses of multiple occupancy. 

The government’s guidance doesn’t give any hard and fast rules about how many fires your business premises needs, however, they recommend that you provide more than one wherever possible. These doors should be completely independent of each other and have separate escape routes so there is always a way to exit the building in an emergency.

There should be access to an escape route every:

• 12 metres if it’s the only fire exit and there’s a high chance of fire.
• 25 metres if it’s the only fire exit and there’s a low chance of fire.
• 25 metres if you have several fire exits and there’s a high chance of fire.
• 60 metres if you have several fire exits and there’s a low chance of fire.

Where Must Fire Doors Be Fitted?

There is a requirement for every building to be divided into different compartments. Any escape routed with corridors and staircases must be protected by fire doors. In a domestic setting that has 2+ floors any door that leads to a stairwell must have a fire door if it is leading into a habitable room. 

A fire door must also be fitted between a house and an integral garage and if a building is mixed-use, fire doors must be between the residential and business areas.

Required Fire Resistance Period

Where there is a compartment wall separating two buildings, the fire  door and wall that contains it must have the same resistance period, the fire door cannot have a lower resistance. The minimum fire period is 60 minutes. In most other situations, 30 minute fire rated doors are allowed. 

At BID Group, our fire doors are up to 4 hour fire rated, allowing plenty of time for people to escape in the event of an emergency.

Signage 

Any fire doors located in a non-domestic building must have the correct signage on both sides. The signs must clearly show that it is a fire door and may also feature other safety instructions such as ‘Keep Locked’ or ‘Keep Closed’.

Smoke Seals

Smoke seals are recommended where a fire door protects an escape route such as a corridor or staircase or where there is a fire door between private and common space, such as the front door of a flat. Smoke seals should also be used where doors in corridors lead to dead ends.

Where a smoke seal is being used, it is important that the threshold gap doesn’t exceed 3mm.

Glazing Safety

In both domestic and non-domestic properties, If a fire door is less than 15cm from the floor level, it must have a safety glass.

Building Regulations

Current Building Regulations require fire doors to be tested and certified to BS 476 Part 22 or BS EN 1634 Part 1 (the European equivalent). At BID Group Ltd all of our Fire Roller Shutter Doors are tested to BS 476-22, allowing for that piece of mind on installation.

BID Group Ltd Fire Roller Shutter Doors 

BID Group Ltd’s Fire Roller Shutters are designed to provide up to a four-hour delay on the spread of fire in the unlikely event of such a situation as well as providing protection and security. With their aesthetically pleasing looks and pristine appearance, the Fire Roller Shutter Doors are the most cost-effective and practical purchase for any business. 

Our Fire Roller Doors are tailor-made to each client’s requirements, so you can be sure you have the right kind of fire protection in place wherever you need on your premises. 

In normal conditions the shutter can be opened and closed by using the push buttons (mains power available), however, in fire conditions the shutter will close automatically under controlled descent on receipt of a signal from the in house fire/smoke detection system, or via the fusible link fitted to the motor. 

To slow down the heating process, the angles, endplates, guides, canopy, curtain and bottom rail are galvanised and we offer the optional add-on of a fire interface control panel with shutter closing sign, delay on alarm signal and local heat or smoke activation.

Key Benefits:

• Up to 4 hour fire rated
• 2 Available for openings up to 7m
• Manual or electric operation
• Various finishes available
• Fire alarm activated
• Easy to install and maintain

If you’re looking to improve fire safety for your business with industrial doors, get in touch with our team at BID Group Ltd today to discuss our products.