Fire doors · For contractors and landlords
Fire door installers for contractors and landlords
Fire door installers working across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, for main contractors, developers, local authorities, landlords and facilities managers. Fourteen employed carpenters, CHAS accredited, RAMS in advance, and a marked-up door schedule handed back at the end. Send the schedule and we will price it.
What you are actually buying
You are buying the installation, not the door.
Anybody can order an FD30 doorset. What decides whether it works in a fire is whether the assembly on site still matches the assembly that was tested: the same hinges in the same number, the frame fixed back to structure and packed with a fire-rated packing, the seals continuous and unpainted, the gaps within tolerance, and a closer that actually closes the door onto the latch.
That is a carpenter's job done to a standard, and it is why fire door installation is priced per opening rather than per door. A new frame into a new stud opening on a clean site is quick work. A replacement into a Victorian masonry opening that is 15mm out of plumb over the height of the door, with a services run above the head and a floor finish that changes halfway across the threshold, is not.
We would rather walk the openings with you before quoting than give you a rate per door that turns into a variation three weeks in.
Supply and fit, or fit only
Both are fine. On supply and fit we prefer a complete certificated doorset from a single source, leaf, frame and ironmongery together, because that is what keeps the whole assembly inside one set of test evidence rather than three. On fit only, send us the certification and the manufacturer's installation instructions with the doors and we will work to them.
Where the schedule includes doors that are outside the scope of what we can evidence, for example an old leaf with no legible label that somebody wants rehung, we will say so in writing rather than fit it and stay quiet.
How we install
- Survey
- Every opening measured for width, height, plumb, square and threshold condition before ordering
- Frame
- Fixed back to structure at the centres the manufacturer specifies, packed solid at every fixing
- Packing
- Fire-rated packing to the perimeter, never ordinary expanding foam
- Gaps
- Nominal 3mm at head and stiles, checked with a gauge on completion, threshold gap to the certification
- Hinges
- Three as standard, fitted flush and screwed off fully, to the size and grade in the door's test evidence
- Seals
- Intumescent and, where an S rating applies, cold smoke seals fitted continuous and left unpainted
- Closer
- Adjusted and proved to close fully onto the latch from any angle of opening
- Handover
- Door schedule marked up with location, rating, certification detail and ironmongery fitted
Who we install for
Contractors, councils, landlords and managing agents
Main contractors and developers
We price from your door schedule and drawings, work on our own CHAS accreditation and SMSTS certification, and issue RAMS before we set foot on site. Because we run fourteen full-time carpenters plus a vetted supply chain, a large schedule can be split across blocks, floors or plots and worked in parallel, which is usually where a fire door package either holds a programme or wrecks it.
Fire doors rarely turn up on their own. On most of our contract work they sit inside a full carpentry package, so the same team is already on site handling first fix, second fix, staircases and kitchens. One subcontractor, one set of inductions, one point of contact.
At 17-19 High Street in Grantham, a commercial to residential conversion for Probus Construction, the fire door element was 72 internal fire doors and frames across nine apartments, sitting alongside new external sash windows, a shop frontage, two double winder staircases, new joists and flooring, stud partitions to all external walls, nine kitchens and a pharmacy fit-out. That is the shape of package we are built for.
Local authorities, landlords and facilities managers
We have carried out contract fire door work for North Norfolk District Council, a full rip out of failed fire doors, upgraded and refitted to regulations and fire safety standards by our trim carpenters, in a building that stayed in use throughout.
That kind of work needs a different rhythm from new build. Doors come out and go back the same day. Corridors and escape routes stay passable. Dust is controlled and the area is cleared down at the end of each shift. Occupants are told what is happening before it happens rather than after.
If your starting point is an inspection report full of defects rather than a clean schedule, start with a fire door survey so the remedial work is costed against real conditions. If the answer is a whole building, see commercial fire door replacement.
Competence and scope
What we can evidence, and what we cannot
Fire safety has become a competence conversation, and rightly so. Being straight about scope is more useful to a client than a page of badges, so here is ours.
What we hold. AJB Group is CHAS accredited and SMSTS certified. We retain an external health and safety consultant who reviews the company annually, and we produce project-specific RAMS before starting. We employ our carpenters rather than relying wholly on labour-only agencies, which is the reason the standard is repeatable.
What we have done. Fire door programmes for a district council and a nine-apartment commercial to residential conversion, and, unusually, we built a fire safety test centre in Peterborough for a safety contractor. The rooms in it are used to demonstrate materials and fire door safety mechanisms to trainee fitters from across the construction industry.
What we are not. We are not a fire risk assessor. We do not write fire strategies, we do not issue fire risk assessments, and nothing we hand over replaces one. If a building needs a fire risk assessment, that is separate work for a competent assessor, and we will tell you so rather than blur the line.
Where a specification requires third-party certificated installation under a named scheme, tell us at tender stage so it can be resolved properly rather than discovered at handover.
Where fire doors sit in the wider package
Very few clients buy fire doors and nothing else. On a conversion or a refurbishment the fire door schedule usually arrives with a stack of other second fix work attached to it, and the sensible thing is to let one contractor carry all of it.
Alongside fire doors we regularly take on internal and external doors and windows, architrave and skirting, staircases, stud partitions, kitchens and full commercial carpentry packages. On the Grantham job that meant one team handled the doors, the sash windows, the shop frontage, the staircases, the flooring and the kitchens, with a crane brought in for the timber window frontage lift.
If you want a price on the doors alone, that is fine too. Send the schedule.
Common questions
Before you send the schedule
Do you supply the fire doors or fit only?
Either. We can price supply and fit against your door schedule, or fit only where the doorsets have already been procured through your own supply chain. On supply and fit we prefer complete certificated doorsets, leaf and frame and ironmongery from one source, because that keeps the whole assembly inside a single set of test evidence.
How many fire doors can you install in a week?
It depends entirely on the openings. New frames into new stud openings run far quicker than replacements into old, out-of-square masonry openings that need making good. Rather than quote a rate, we will walk a sample of the openings, agree a realistic figure per fitter per day for that building, and programme from there. With fourteen full-time carpenters, a large schedule can run on several floors at once instead of in sequence.
What accreditations do you hold?
AJB Group is CHAS accredited and SMSTS certified, and we retain an external health and safety consultant who reviews the company annually. We produce RAMS before starting on site. We are not a fire risk assessor and we do not issue fire risk assessments.
Do you fit the ironmongery and closers as well?
Yes. The hinges, latch, closer, vision panel glazing and beads and any hold-open device are part of the tested assembly, not extras, so they are fitted as part of the installation and within the scope of the door's certification. The closer is then adjusted and proved to close the door fully onto the latch from any angle of opening, not just from wide open.
Will we get a record of what was installed?
Yes. We record the door reference, location, rating, certification label or plug details and the ironmongery fitted, and hand the marked-up schedule over at completion. That is the information the responsible person needs, and it is far easier to capture at the time than to reconstruct two years later.
Which areas do you cover for fire door installation?
Day to day we work across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk from our base in Spalding, including Peterborough, Grantham, Boston, Stamford, Bourne, Wisbech and King's Lynn. Larger contract programmes are taken on further afield, and we have worked as far as Kent, London, Northampton, Nottingham, Leeds and Wales.
Send us the door schedule.
We will price supply and fit or fit only, and tell you what the openings will really take.