Fire doors play an essential role in protecting property and lives in the event of a fire emergency. They are specifically designed to prevent the spread of fire and smoke, which protects vital escape routes and provides crucial time for firefighters to combat the fire. But do fire doors need to be certified? The answer is that your building(s) must meet certain legal requirements and that opting for doors installed and maintained by a professional with a relevant fire door certification ensures that these requirements are upheld at all times.
Legal Requirements For Fire Doors In The UK
There are several key regulations that dictate the standards your fire doors must meet in the UK. Understanding these is key to ensuring compliance, safety, and where a fire door certification might be required or relevant.
Building Regulations
In both new builds and when making significant alterations to existing building structures, non-domestic building regulations require fire doors to be installed in certain areas to maintain compartmentation. This is the process of dividing a building into fire-resistant sections with appropriate doors to prevent the spread of fire and smoke.
Fire doors are rated according to how long they can resist a fire, and the correct FD rating should be selected based on the specific location within the building and time needed to evacuate occupants safely. For example:
- FD30 fire doors offer 30 minutes of fire resistance
- FD60 fire doors offer 60 minutes of fire resistance
Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
One of the most crucial pieces of fire safety legislation is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This legislation places legal responsibility for fire safety on a ‘Responsible Person’ (typically the building owner, landlord, or facilities manager), who must ensure that:
- Fire risk assessments are carried out regularly
- Fire doors are installed correctly
- Ongoing fire door maintenance is conducted to meet standards on an ongoing basis
Failure to comply with the Fire Safety Order can lead to severe penalties, meaning that having certified and properly maintained fire doors is both a safety consideration and legally imperative.
Why Fire Door Certification Matters
Given these legal obligations and the importance of compartmentalising fire, fire door certification becomes your assurance that the fire doors installed in your business are up to standard.
The right third-party fire door certification ensures that your fire doors have been manufactured, installed and maintained correctly and in a way that is traceable and verifiable. Certification creates accountability, ensuring that each stage of the fire door life cycle adheres to recognised and the most recent fire safety standards.
Third-Party Fire Door Certification Schemes
When choosing both specific types of fire doors and the contractors you will work with to install and maintain them, opting for organisations that are part of recognised third-party certification schemes is strongly advised. The most trusted certifications to look out for are:
BSI Kitemark
The BSI Kitemark certification covers the quality of the doors themselves and is confirmation that they will be able to resist fire and smoke under standardised test conditions. Doors with this fire door certification meet relevant British Standards regarding fire testing, providing assurance that they will function in an emergency.
BM Trada Q-Mark
The BM Trada Q-Mark is one of the most comprehensive fire door certification programmes, covering fire door maintenance, installation and inspection. You can learn more about it and why BM trada fire doors are of the highest quality in this blog.
So, do fire doors need to be certified? Yes, they do if you want to stay compliant and have the peace of mind that they will perform as intended in the event of an emergency. At Richard Harding Construction, we’re BM-Trada certified, which means we can be trusted to deliver a great result for fire door installation and maintenance. Get in contact with us today to discuss how we can help you with your fire doors.