The start of the New Year signifies new regulations concerning products and services. As a professional manufacturer of many doors and doorsets we have been recently getting a lot of questions and queries in regards to fire door regulations for 2012.

For the majority of users to a building a fire door is simply something which maybe gets in the way, prevents interaction with fellow colleagues or obstructs the moment around a building but for those within this industry a fire door is a vital component, a life saving component which plays a huge part within a fire strategy.

Other components which make up the fire strategy such as smoke detectors and fire alarms are never in constant use and this differs to fire doors which are in constant use by those within the building to gain access to different rooms and offices.

As many people are using them say in a workplace, hospital or a school amongst other buildings then they quickly become used and can start to show signs of wear and tear. When this occurs the fire door may not work to its full performance levels and therefore if a fire breaks out it will not deliver the correct, specified level of fire resistance and thus people within the building may not be given the amount of time they need to escape.

For those who do not have experience within the manufacturing of fire doors and the standards which must be adhered to they can sometimes miss the fact that a door needs attention or if they realise it does need some work then they may carry out incorrect repairs to the door and thus damage it further.

You need to be able to rely on a fire door in the event of a fire and not have it fail on you. Believe it or not on inspection it was found that around 80% of fire doors within use today are not up to standard in order to provide the correct resistance.

All of our fire doors and doorsets at Bespoke Complete Services have been rigorously tested and approved by a fire testing centre. They have all been passed and certification has been provided so we can prove our fire doors are in accordance with the correct standards.

British Standards documents which can be accessed and are relevant to timber fire doors,

BS476:-20: 1987 Fire tests on building materials and structures, methods for determination of the fire resistance of elements of construction.

BS 476 – 22: 1987 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Methods for determination of the fire resistance of non-loadbearing elements of construction

BS 476: – 23: 1987 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Methods for the determination of the contribution of components to the fire resistance of a structure

BS 476: – 31.1: 1983 Fire tests on building materials and structures. Method of measuring smoke penetration through doorset and shutter assemblies – method of measurement under ambient temperature conditions.

BS 8214:2008 Code of practice for fire door assemblies

BS EN 1634-1:2008 Fire resistance and smoke control tests for door, shutter and, openable window assemblies and elements of building hardware. Fire resistance tests for doors, shutters and openable windows which is an alternative for BS 476 – 22: 1987

The British Woodworking Federation Certifire fire door scheme is a major organization which provides our fire ratings. Our FD30 and FD60 fire doors are their fire ratings which are stated in minutes prefixed by FD.

Commonly used specified integrity levels are:

• FD30 – 30 minutes
• FD60 – 60 minutes
• FD90 – 90 minutes
• FD120 – 120 minutes

If you are in need of a fire door or you think it may be time your fire doors were upgraded and replaced then make sure you contact the professionals. Bespoke Complete Services manufacture all of our doors and doorsets inclusive of our fire doors in our very own factory which means we can control time scales and so if you need your fire door in a hurry then we can fulfil this requirement.

For more information then please contact us on 01254 777142 or email info@bcs-l.com.