
The coordination of fire door surveys is one of the most important duties of those responsible for fire safety within any workplace or building. Your fire door survey plays a critical role in ensuring that your passive fire protection measures function appropriately in an emergency, by highlighting any issues with your current fire doors and identifying remedial actions that can be taken to ensure they are fully functional.
Despite being the responsibility of you as the Responsible Person, you are not required to carry out the inspection yourself. Typically, you will consult an accredited fire door inspector to conduct a comprehensive survey on your behalf. However, as accredited fire door inspectors ourselves, there are several proactive things you can do ahead of your scheduled fire door survey to ensure that you are helping the professional you are working with and getting the most value from the survey. We have outlined these preparation tasks in this blog to aid you in meeting your duties as the Responsible Person.
Find Your Fire Risk Assessment
Before any fire door inspection is conducted, you must complete some of your other duties as a Responsible Person such as conducting a fire risk assessment for the building. Locate and review the most recent fire risk assessment as this will give you a clear understanding of the current fire safety measures and a wider understanding of how your fire doors contribute to these measures. Your risk assessment may have already highlighted some fire door concerns and it may be useful to pass these on to the professional conducting the survey.
By familiarising yourself with the contents of the fire risk assessment, you will also be in a better position to answer any questions your fire door inspector may have and be able to understand their findings as outlined in the fire door survey report.
Understand Your Building’s Compartments
In addition to making sure you have oversight of your fire risk assessment, you can also prepare for a fire door survey by obtaining a complete understanding of the compartments of your building. By this, we mean the different walls, floors and doors which form fire-resistant areas to contain fire and smoke in the event of an emergency.
This information should be found in the original drawings for your building but if they don’t contain this information or you don’t have access to them then you should conduct a new compartment survey ahead of your fire door survey. Take the time to ensure you have a complete understanding of where your compartments should be, as well as the ratings they should be offering, as this is vital information for all ongoing surveys. If the building has undergone any renovations or layout changes since its original construction, you should also make a note of these as the placement and functionality of your fire doors may be affected. You can then pass this crucial information on to the inspector to ensure they can efficiently survey your fire doors.
Do Your Research
Although you won’t be conducting the fire door survey yourself, it’s important that you understand what the process will entail and have complete trust in the professional carrying out the survey. We would always advise getting your survey completed by somebody who is qualified, experienced and accredited by a recognised body such as BM Trada. This ensures that the survey is carried out to the highest industry standards.
In addition, take the time to familiarise yourself with what the surveying process will entail and the data it will give you in the report. The inspection will cover a range of elements related to your fire doors, including the condition of the doors themselves as well as components like seals, hinges, glazing and other hardware. Knowing this in advance can allow you to address critical issues ahead of time as well as rationalise and prioritise the findings of the fire door survey report.
It is important to note that there is a distinct difference between a survey which provides a condition report and a fire door survey which provides you with a cost to remediate the doors to a compliant standard. Typically, the desired outcome is to be provided with certification that evidences your doors meet a compliant state of repair but the data required to price for this is rarely provided within a condition report alone. To price for remediation, your appointed contractor will require key items like dimensions and actual product information which is unlikely to be captured in a condition survey. This could result in the need to pay for a separate survey should the condition report not provide this level of detail so being clear with your expectations is important to avoid extra expense.
Know Your Maintenance And Repair Budget
The main aim of a fire door survey is to gain the information required to bring your fire doors up to the required safety standards. When the inspector has completed the survey, they should provide you with a comprehensive report detailing the cost and level of repair required for each individual door or the data required for others to price for this accordingly. It can therefore be incredibly useful to prepare for your fire door survey by having a clear understanding of your fire door maintenance and repair budget ahead of the survey.
The survey will likely uncover issues that need immediate attention to maintain fire safety compliance. By knowing your budget ahead of time, you can plan to prioritise urgent remedial work and quickly put plans in place to bring your doors up to the required standards.
Book Your Fire Door Survey Today
A proactive and informed attitude is key when approaching your upcoming fire door survey. By preparing appropriately, you can be certain that you have placed your trust and responsibilities in the hands of a qualified professional and can feel confident that you will be able to act accordingly and continue to fulfil your duties by following up on the results of the inspection.
If your building is due a fire door survey and you need any assistance in organising this, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the accredited team here at WGP Maintenance. We hold the BM Trada Q-Mark accreditation and have years of experience carrying out comprehensive fire door surveys on behalf of many clients. We are one of few firms able to both conduct the survey and carry out the repairs identified, ensuring that you can act swiftly and effectively when it comes to maintaining fire door compliance. Speak to us today to find out more.
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