Are fire door seals still necessary?

The role of fire door seals

In order to provide the expected standards of fire and smoke protection, wooden fire doors generally require a seal to be fitted right around the frame or door. Commonly, the strip has combined features which include an “intumescent material” (which expands and seals the gaps in the heat of a fire) and a “smoke seal”. The smoke seal is a type of draught excluder and is only designed to restrict the spread of cool smoke.

Retrofitting

To obtain the most reliability from a fire door, the door and frame are purchased as a set. The design of the set will have been tested under realistic fire conditions. In older buildings, however, the cost of replacing doors or frames makes this impractical and so the next best option is to fit the combined intumescent and smoke seal to existing doors. This is relatively effective provided that the door is of suitable solid construction, fitted with a self-closing device and fits snuggly in the frame.

Determination

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO), there’s an appeals process for businesses to contest what they see as unreasonable requirements being imposed on them by their local Fire & Rescue Service. This process results in a “determination” paper from the Secretary of State. A recent example concerned a 215-bedroom hotel built in the 1980s with accommodation extending over four storeys. The hotel owners felt that the fire authority was unreasonable in demanding that they fit intumescent strips and smoke seals to 167 bedroom fire doors.

Result

The Chief Fire & Rescue Advisor agreed with the hotel’s representatives that they did not need to fit intumescent strips and smoke seals to all of its bedroom fire doors to satisfy the FSO. Various factors were taken into account, including the presence of a comprehensive fire alarm system and the provision of a good means of escape. The doors in question also complied with the relevant standard at the time of construction.

Conclusion

Although the determination appears to show that intumescent and smoke seals aren’t needed, this isn’t the case. The outcome is specific to the particular hotel and it’s difficult to apply it more widely.

Tip 1. The hotel owners went to considerable lengths to prove their case. For most smaller businesses it’s unlikely that it will be worth the time and expense to follow suit in seeking a determination.

Tip 2. This case shows that the authorities can’t force you to apply current building regulations to older buildings. However, to comply with the law you should adopt the most recent technology where it is proportionate to do so. It also shows that whilst you should apply government fire safety guidance, there is a degree of flexibility.

Tip 3. There’s no doubt that adding intumescent and smoke seals to fire doors does provide extra protection for both life and property in the event of a fire. If your fire doors don’t have them, your fire risk assessment must justify why it’s safe without them and in most cases, even with this ruling, that’s not going to be an easy task.