A fire door only works
if it closes, seals
and fits.
Most fire doors that fail an inspection fail on small things: a closer that does not latch, a gap that has grown, a missing smoke seal, a letterplate that was never rated. We inspect, repair and replace, and every door gets a written record.
The responsible person
has to check them.
Every building with common parts
In any building other than a single private home, the person responsible for fire safety under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 has to keep the fire precautions in working order, and fire doors are one of the main ones. That is usually the freeholder, managing agent, employer or HMO landlord.
Blocks of flats
The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 added specific duties for blocks of flats. In residential buildings over eleven metres high, communal fire doors, including their self closing devices, have to be checked at least every three months, and flat entrance doors have to be checked at least once a year, on a best endeavours basis. In any building with two or more flats, residents have to be told why fire doors must be kept shut and not tampered with, and how to report a fault.
HMOs
HMOs are usually covered by the licence conditions and the council's fire safety guidance, which normally expect fire doors with closers to rooms that open onto the escape route. A fire risk assessment will often list door repairs as actions, and that list is a good place to start.
Gaps, seals, closers,
hinges and glass.
Gaps, seals, closers and hinges
Each door is checked against the same points. The gaps between door and frame along the sides and top, which on most certified doors should be around three millimetres and no more than four. The intumescent strips and smoke seals, which must be present, continuous and undamaged. The self closer, which must close the door fully and engage the latch from any opening angle. The hinges, which should be at least three, fire rated and with every screw in place.
Glazing, ironmongery and signage
Then the details that catch people out. Glazing must be fire rated with its beads intact. Holes from old locks, spyholes or letterplates must be properly made good, not filled with ordinary filler. Ironmongery added later must be rated for the door.
A record for every door
Every door is recorded with photographs and a result: pass, remedial work needed, or replace. That record per door is the evidence the responsible person needs.
Most doors need
adjustment, not replacement.
Repairs in place
The majority of failures are fixed in place: adjusting or replacing a closer, fitting new intumescent strips and smoke seals, re-hanging a door that has dropped, replacing hinges, correcting gaps, swapping ironmongery for rated items and making good old holes properly. Each door is re-checked once the work is done.
Certified replacement doorsets
A door that is badly damaged, was never a fire door, or has been altered so far that its rating cannot be relied on is replaced with a certified fire doorset, installed as the manufacturer's evidence requires. Inspections and doorset installations are carried out by certified fire door inspectors and installers. GMAS runs the programme, keeps the records, and does the making good and decoration around the frames.
For blocks and portfolios, the inspections can sit inside a planned maintenance schedule.
Questions we get
asked most.
Get a written
price.
Monday to Saturday 9am to 8pm, Sunday 9am to 3pm. All London boroughs.
Message us on WhatsAppSend the fire risk assessment action list and we will price the door work on it.
How a fire door inspection programme runs.
1. Agree the scope
Send us the fire risk assessment action list or a list of doors, and we confirm which doors are in scope and how often they need checking.
2. Inspect and record
Certified fire door inspectors check each door and record the result with photographs.
3. Repair or replace
Remedial work is quoted in writing, carried out and re-checked.
4. Keep the schedule
Three monthly and annual checks are booked ahead, and the records are kept per door.
Often needed
alongside this.
Areas we cover.
We take fire door inspections and repairs across all 32 London boroughs. Most of our work is in west London, in Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith, Fulham, Kensington, Chiswick and White City, and in south west London, in Putney, Wandsworth and Wimbledon. We also work in south east London, in Greenwich, Blackheath and Lewisham.
If your property is outside these areas, call us anyway. We travel across London and will tell you honestly if a job is too far to price properly.