Fire doors · Surveys and condition reports
Fire door surveys and condition reports
Fire door surveys across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, carried out door by door by working carpenters rather than from a clipboard at a distance. You get a photographed schedule of every defect and a price against each one, so you can see what needs doing now and what can wait. Free site visit to scope it.
Why buildings end up here
Fire doors degrade quietly, and mostly through use.
Almost no fire door fails because the door was wrong. They fail because of what has happened to them since: a closer taken off because it slammed, a strip painted over during redecoration, a hole cored through the leaf for a data cable, a hinge stripped and replaced with whatever was in the van, a wedge under the door in summer.
Individually those look trivial. Together they turn a certified 30 minute assembly into an ordinary door with a label on the top edge. Because the change is gradual, the only reliable way to find it is to inspect each door and record what you see.
The second driver is regulatory. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 put a dated inspection duty on the responsible person for buildings with storeys over 11 metres: quarterly checks of fire doors in the common parts, and best endeavours annual checks of flat entrance doors. Below that height the general duty under the Fire Safety Order still applies, and a fire risk assessment will usually set an interval of its own. Either way, somebody has to actually look at the doors, and the looking has to be written down.
What we are, and what we are not
AJB Group is a carpentry contractor. We survey, report on, repair and replace fire door assemblies. We are not a fire risk assessor. We do not write fire strategies or issue fire risk assessments, and this survey does not replace one. If your building needs a fire risk assessment, that is separate work for a competent assessor.
What we check on every door
- Certification
- Label or plug present and legible, and consistent with the door in the opening
- Gaps
- Head, both stiles and threshold, gauged against the nominal 3mm and the door's own evidence
- Seals
- Intumescent strips continuous, correctly sized, not painted over or dug out. Cold smoke seals intact where an S rating applies
- Hinges
- Number, size, grade, condition, screws present and fully driven, no packing behind
- Closing
- Door closes fully onto the latch from any angle of opening, not just from wide open
- Leaf
- Damage, cut-downs, cored holes, unauthorised letterplates or grilles
- Glazing
- Vision panel glass type, intumescent beads and bedding
- Frame
- Fixed back to structure, packed, no gaps left open at the perimeter
- Signage
- Keep shut, keep locked or automatic release signage present and correct
What you get back
A schedule you can act on, not a list of red crosses
A survey that only tells you which doors failed is half a job. What a building manager needs is what it will take to fix each one, and what that costs.
1. Every door recorded
Location, door reference, rating where it can be established, leaf and frame type, ironmongery fitted, and the certification evidence found. Where a door has no legible label we record that as a finding rather than guessing at a rating.
2. Defects photographed
Each defect is photographed against the door reference. Gaps are gauged and the measurement is written down. Photographs matter later, because they are what shows the condition was assessed properly and what changed after remedial work.
3. Repair or replace, and the price
Against each door: repair in place, new ironmongery, new leaf, new frame, or no action needed, with a price. That is what lets you split the work into what has to happen now and what can be planned into next year's budget.
Repairable, usually
Missing or damaged intumescent strips and cold smoke seals. Incorrect, missing or badly fitted hinges. A closer that has been removed, seized or adjusted so the door stops short of the latch. Excessive gaps that can be brought back within tolerance by adjusting or lipping within the door's permitted scope. Missing or wrong signage. Frame perimeters packed with ordinary foam, cut out and repacked correctly.
Usually not repairable
A leaf cut down beyond what the certification allows. A leaf cored or drilled through for cables or a letterplate that was never part of the tested assembly. Ordinary glass in a vision panel. Delamination or a blown core. A door with no certification evidence at all, where you cannot demonstrate what it is. In those cases the honest answer is a new certificated doorset, and we will say so.
Why ask us
The people surveying are the people who fit them
There is a real difference between an inspector who has read the standard and a carpenter who has hung several hundred fire doors. The second one knows which defects are genuinely a problem, which are cosmetic, and which look minor but mean the frame was never fixed back properly.
Our carpenters carried out a full rip out and replacement of failed fire doors for North Norfolk District Council, upgraded and refitted to regulations and fire safety standards. We installed 72 internal fire doors and frames across nine apartments at 17-19 High Street, Grantham, for Probus Construction. And our joiners built a fire safety test centre in Peterborough for a safety contractor, where the rooms are used to demonstrate materials and fire door safety mechanisms to trainee fitters from across the construction industry.
When the survey turns into work, it is the same employed team that does it, on the same accreditations, with no handover to a third party.
Common questions
Fire door surveys, answered
Is a fire door survey the same as a fire risk assessment?
No, and they should not be confused. A fire risk assessment looks at the whole building and its use, and must be carried out by a competent fire risk assessor. A fire door survey is a physical condition inspection of the door assemblies themselves. AJB Group is a carpentry contractor, not a fire risk assessor. Our survey reports on the doors, and does not replace a fire risk assessment.
What does a fire door survey check?
Each door is checked for certification evidence, the gap at the head, both stiles and the threshold, the condition and continuity of intumescent and cold smoke seals, the number, type and condition of hinges, the latch, the self-closing device and whether the door closes fully onto the latch from any angle, the condition of the leaf including any cut-outs or holes, vision panel glazing and beads, the frame and its fixing to the structure, and the signage. Defects are photographed and recorded against a door reference.
How often should fire doors be inspected?
Under the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, in buildings with storeys over 11 metres in height the responsible person must check fire doors in the common parts at least every three months, and make best endeavours to check flat entrance doors at least every twelve months. Below that height the general duty under the Fire Safety Order still applies, and most managing agents work to an annual cycle. Your fire risk assessment may set a more frequent interval.
Can a failed fire door be repaired rather than replaced?
Often, yes. Missing or damaged intumescent strips and smoke seals, incorrect or missing hinges, a closer that has been removed or wrongly adjusted, and slightly excessive gaps can usually be put right in place. What generally cannot be repaired is a leaf cut down beyond what its certification allows, a leaf cored through for services, unrated glazing in a vision panel, or a door with no certification evidence at all. Our report says which is which for each door instead of recommending wholesale replacement.
What do we get at the end of the survey?
A schedule listing every door surveyed with its location and reference, the defects found with photographs, a plain statement of what would put each one right, and a price against it. That lets you prioritise: the doors that need immediate attention, the doors that need planned work, and the doors that are fine.
Do you charge for a fire door survey?
Site visits and written estimates are free. For a large building where every door needs individually recording and photographing, we will agree a fee for the survey work before starting, and it is set against the remedial works if you go ahead with us. Call 07716 954091 and tell us roughly how many doors are involved.
Need your fire doors looking at properly?
Tell us how many doors and where, and we will scope the survey. Free site visit first.