How long will fire doors withstand fire?

Fire doors are a critical aspect of your overall fire safety, therefore it is imperative that they are handled with the utmost of care and due diligence. With there being roughly around 3 million fire doors fitted in the UK every year, It is your ethical, as well as your legal responsibility to best secure the safety of the people within your building by ensuring that fire doors are safely installed and maintained appropriately.

So how long will a fire door withstand fire?

Fire doors are often split into 2 main categories, FD30 fire doors, which means that they will withstand and protect from fire for as long as 30 minutes, and FD60, which means that these fire doors will withstand and protect from fire for roughly 60 minutes. There are other categories, but these 2 are certainly the most common.

Defining a "fire door"

A fire door can be defined simply as a fire-resistant door, with a main purpose of preventing the spread of fire. However, they are defined best by ADSMA as

"A complete installed door assembly comprising door frame, door leaves, other panels, hardware, seals and any glazing that, when closed, is intended to resist the passage of fire and smoke in accordance with specified performance criteria. A fire door = a complete installed assembly."

Some brief steps that need to be taken to ensure safety

- See to it that only qualified and accredited professionals are tasked with installing your fire doors.

- Ensure that doors close properly, meaning that doors have the appropriate closing system, this to avoid any slamming of doors that could lead to injury for occupants.

- Remember to check or have your door’s certification checked (if you don't know what you're looking for).

- Ensure that there are combined smoke seals as well as fire seals around the door

- Make sure that the handles of the doors close properly

For further information regarding fire door safety and our fire door maintenance service, please click here, or give us a call today - 01604 696113.