Fire Door Survey: What Gets Checked and What Usually Fails

Fire doors are the most commonly failed element of passive fire protection in UK buildings, and the reason is simple: they are the only life-safety product in the building that people touch, kick, wedge and drill into every single day. A door that was certified on installation can be non-compliant within a year of normal use.

Why a survey matters

A fire door is not a door — it is a doorset. The leaf, frame, intumescent seals, hinges, closer, latch, glazing and signage all have to work as a tested system. Change one component for something uncertified and the fire resistance rating no longer applies.

Under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, responsible persons for residential buildings above 11 metres must carry out quarterly checks of communal fire doors and annual checks of flat entrance doors. For other premises, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order requires fire doors to be maintained in efficient working order — which in practice means a documented inspection regime.

What a competent survey checks

On every door we record and photograph:

Certification and labelling — is there evidence the doorset is a tested product, and to what rating (FD30, FD60)?

Gaps — the leaf-to-frame gap should typically be 2–4 mm consistently around the top and sides, with the threshold gap appropriate to the door type.

Intumescent and smoke seals — present, continuous, undamaged, and correctly fitted into the groove.

Hinges — three CE-marked, fire-rated hinges as a minimum, all screws present and fully driven, no packing.

Self-closing device — does the door close fully from any angle and engage the latch reliably?

Latch and hardware — correct type, fire rated, functioning.

Glazing and beads — fire-rated glass, correct beading, intact seals, no site-cut apertures.

Leaf condition — no through-holes, cut-outs, splits, delamination or unauthorised modifications.

Signage — correct "Fire door keep shut" or "keep locked" signage on both faces where required.

Environment — nothing wedging or obstructing the door, and no unauthorised hold-open devices.

The defects we find most often

In real surveys, the same handful of failures come up again and again. Excessive gaps, usually at the head or on the closing edge. Closers that have been disconnected or adjusted so far down that the door stops short of the latch. Missing or painted-over intumescent seals. Doors propped open with a bin or a fire extinguisher — which is both a fire door failure and an extinguisher failure in one. Holes drilled through the leaf for cables or access control. And a surprising number of doors with only two hinges, or with hinge screws replaced by whatever was in the fitter's pouch.

Almost none of these need a new door. Most are inexpensive remedial items — provided somebody actually finds them.

What you get from us

We survey door by door, give each doorset a unique reference, photograph the defects, and issue a schedule that separates immediate life-safety failures from planned maintenance items. That schedule becomes your evidence of compliance and your remedial budget in a single document.

Fire door defects also feed directly into your fire risk assessment, so the two pieces of work should tell the same story. Where doors need adjusting, re-sealing or replacing, we can carry out the remedials with certified components and provide the certification.

How often should doors be inspected?

Quarterly for communal doors in residential buildings over 11 metres, annually for flat entrance doors in those buildings, and at least annually elsewhere — more frequently in high-traffic settings such as schools, care homes, HMOs and hospitality, where six-monthly is more realistic.

If it has been more than a year since anyone looked at your fire doors properly, book a survey and find out what you are actually relying on.