The Commercial Window Group has launched its new 30-minute Fire Doorset, simplifying fire door specification through assured manufacture.
According to Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS) data, based on more than 100,000 fire door inspections, 75% of fire doors fail to comply with the required standards. This could allow fire to spread through a building in the event of an outbreak, with potentially deadly consequences.
With fire doors in healthcare buildings and housing association properties among those found to be faulty, close to one third of failures were attributed to incorrect installation. Around 61% had smoke seals either missing or wrongly fitted, 34% has excessive gaps between the door and its frame, and almost one in five had been installed with unsuitable hinges.
The Building Safety Act, introduced in 2022 in response to the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy, emphasises accountability and transparency, particularly in relation to safety-critical elements like fire doors. With the ‘golden thread’ concept central to the Act, a continuous and accessible digital record of design, construction and maintenance information is required to be upheld throughout a building’s lifecycle.
Suitable for schemes under particular scrutiny, such as commercial new-build and social housing, as well as maintenance and refurb projects, the new Fire Stop Doors range is fire, smoke and security tested to BS EN 1634-1, EN 1634-3and PAS 24:2022.
Independently tested by Warrington Fire as part of BM Trada 170 certification, the 30-minute doorset achieved up to 58-minutes fire integrity with no failings recorded – almost double the 30-minute standard requirement – each door is additionally supported with third-party audited installation and maintenance guidance.
“Correct installation is critical in enabling fire doors to effectively do their job, so it was essential that we provided the supporting systems to ensure this with our new fire door range,” explains Bruce Rowell, Head of SHEQ and Technical, at the Commercial Window Group.
“It’s certified and accredited all the way through the system, from manufacture, to maintenance, and ultimately, that’s going to help ensure occupier safety. This is something that’s particularly relevant to social housing authorities, for example, with a duty of care to multiple residents.”
Placing greater responsibility for safety during construction and occupation on building owners and developers, particularly in Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs), the Building Safety Act assigns principal designers, principal contractors and accountable persons, enforced by the new Building Safety Regulator.
In addition, the Fire Safety Regulations 2022 have introduced a requirement for quarterly checks on communal fire doors and annual checks on flat entrance doors, driving the market for fire door replacements.
Approved Document B (Fire Safety) of the Building Regulations 2010 stipulates where fire doors are needed and minimum resistance ratings, e.g. 30-minutes or 60-minutes as well as product standards and testing requirements. This includes manufacture and testing in line with BS 476 Part 22 or BS EN 1634-1 (fire resistance); BS EN 1634-3 (smoke control); and PAS 24:2022.
“Since the Building Safety Act, we’re looking at primary product testing to validate the performance of the product,” continues Bruce.
“We’ve gone through that process with our new fire door range, which is fire, smoke and security tested to BS EN 1634 and PAS24 by independent testing body, BM Trada, who have also audited our manufacturing manuals. Everything is designed to be fail safe.”
Featuring a combination of the DoorCo 30-minute Firecore slab and the Winkhaus FireFrame door profile, the new fire door range also features the Winkhaus AV2 autolocking systems.
The range offers four slab designs in six stocks colours to cater to a range of applications.
With supply chain accountability a critical element of new-build commercial and social housing projects, as well as maintenance and refurb programmes, the Commercial Window Group’s fire door range, installation guidance, provides its clients with added compliance assurance.
With third-party accredited installers trained to sign-off and fit fire doors, housing associations and developers can rest assured the key elements will be in place to stop the spread of fire – from use of silicone to threads and fixings.
“First and foremost, this is about keeping people safe – but also business assurance,” added Bruce.
“It’s demonstrating that each element of delivery, design, manufacture, installation and maintenance, are audited against a specific requirement. If you can’t evidence it, it doesn’t get signed off.
“While there is no legal requirement for installers to undertake specific training, they will be expected to demonstrate training and installation competence in line with best practice guidelines set out by BM Trada,” Bruce continues.
“If a door is adapted post installation in any way, it’s going to get picked up in inspection and have to be changed out. These are opportunities that will run for years into the future,” he concludes.
The Commercial Window Group is a regional network of new-build and commercial window and door installers. Products supplied by Commercial Window Group members are manufactured exclusively by its parent company, the Emplas Group. As one of the largest window and door fabricators in the UK, the Emplas Group brings more than four decades of expertise and supply into the commercial sector.
For more information on the Commercial Window Group’s next generation high performance window and door ranges and our regional delivery partners call 01234 567890 or email [email protected]
