Fire door compliance is rarely lost on the big things. It slips on the small ones: a closer disconnected during a reactive repair, strips painted over in a cyclical decoration, a replacement door fitted without its certificate reaching the file. The managing agent's job is to keep the chain intact from inspection to remedial to record.
Know your inspection cycles
For buildings above 11 metres, communal fire doors need quarterly checks and flat entrance doors need best endeavours annual checks. Below the threshold the duty is less prescriptive, but a single standard applied portfolio wide removes the debate and simplifies the diary.
Check the evidence, not just the door
- Every door has a fixed reference that survives flat renumbering and tenant changes
- Each inspection records gaps, closer action, seals, glazing and signage with photographs
- Defects carry a severity, an owner and a target date
- Completed remedials link back to the defect with completion photographs
- Replacement doorsets have manufacturer certification filed against the door reference
Repair or replace
Adjusted hinges, new seals and replacement closers restore most doors. Doors with damaged cores, non rated letter plates or repeated gap failures are usually cheaper to replace than to repair twice. The decision should come from a graded inspection, not from a contractor's preference on the day.
Watch the other trades
The most common way a compliant door becomes non compliant is another trade. Decorators paint over strips, carpenters trim leaves beyond tolerance, telecom installers route cables through frames. Brief every contractor working near fire doors, and add a door check to the sign off for any communal works.