Housing Sector Demands Better Fire Safety Products

In a recent report by Housing Management and Maintenance, titled Delivering Better Fire Safety, a survey was conducted, revealing that out of all components that contribute to fire safety, 95% of participants believed fire doors to be the single most important product in the fight to prevent fires.

Despite this, post-Grenfell, trust in manufacturers has fallen, with those looking to manufacturers to do more to produce better products. When selecting a chosen supplier, it is vitally important that you can have confidence in this decision. This supports the need for better fire safety as fire doors play an integral role in the safety of a building in the event of a fire, highlighting the need to find a solution to the risk involved.

The survey concluded that 54% of doors were classified as ‘broken’ when inspections were carried out, meaning that more often than not, a fire door was reported not fit for purpose post its original installation. Despite this considerably high figure, the survey also concluded that 1 in 5 potentially lethal fire risk assessments took from three months to a year to be addressed.

Even though landlords and tenants are becoming more aware of the problem at hand and acknowledging the fact that mistakes have been made, the lack of trust in manufacturers to produce compliant products that can adhere to industry standards is still apparent. Consequently, little progress is being made in finding a suitable solution for fire door safety neglect and there is a growing need for manufacturers to prove that their products can be trusted to prevent the spread of fire.

Here are four questions to ask to ensure trust in your fire door manufacturer.

Do you have third party certification?

Certification schemes, predominantly carried out by a UKAS accredited body such as BM TRADA, are mandatory assurance schemes that ensure a product works as intended and can withstand in the situated environments. It is important for fire door manufacturers to conduct these tests to ensure that high standards are continuously being met during the procurement of fire safety door sets, allowing for ongoing maintenance to be carried out against the fire doors’ original specification. Discover more about our third-party certification.

Are your fire doors dual certified?

Flat entrance door sets that are dual certified imply that they have achieved dual certification under the BM TRADA Q-Mark scheme for Fire Door Manufacture and Enhanced Security. Fire Door Manufacture ensures door sets are fit for purpose through ongoing compliance to the original product specification. Enhanced Security demonstrates that the fire door sets meet stringent security standards that aim to incorporate crime prevention measures at the design stage to ensure they adhere to the security initiative that helps to improve the overall security of buildings. Take a look at our certificates for BM TRADA Fire Door Manufacturer and BM TRADA Enhanced Security.

Are your door sets supplied pre-assembled?

Fire doors tend to come in either pre-assembled or kit form. Pre-assembled implies the door comes as a complete unit, with the frames and doors machined with the hinges, locks, and latches already in place. Whereas a door in kit form implies each component will need to be fitted on site once it arrives. Pre-assembled doors are easier to install as they save time and labour costs and are constructed to full compliance regulations as required by law. Pre-assembled also reduces the risk of damage caused to the door and its components whilst in transit. Visit our FAQs page to find out more about our pre-assembled door sets.

What is your quality assurance process?

Fostering a consistent and trustworthy quality assurance scheme is important and should be something that manufacturers of fire doors ensure is maintained throughout procurement. UKAS certification schemes such as BM TRADA and Certifire help to demonstrate that a manufacturer is taking efforts to maintain quality and ensuring that their door sets are consistently compliant with industry standards. It is important that an organisation has adopted a quality management system of ISO 9001 or above to help demonstrate that organisations are taking efforts to ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs. Discover more about what we do to ensure quality throughout the procurement process of our door sets.

Overview

Fire doors are an integral part of a buildings overall fire safety. In order to provide better building safety, we should continue to demand more from our fire safety products and be asking these types of questions to ensure we are provided with the best forms of fire protection. Housing Management and Maintenance’s report concluded that having a widely agreed upon long-term solution to help lower the risk of fires is important and providing access to the most up-to-date fire safety products is something that a manufacturer should be doing to help guarantee safety.

At Sentry Doors, we strive to be your supplier of choice, and make continuous efforts to develop our products to provide assurance that we are a trusted supplier. Contact us or visit our website to discuss your fire door needs today.