FIRE DOORS
What We Do
Hunts do not aim to be the cheapest, but to achieve consistent value for money, with attention to meeting deadlines and getting things right first time. We use the right contractors for the specific project, who we generally have had a long working relationship with and so we know meet our quality controls.
FIRE DOORS
Fire doors are a lot more than an ordinary door, they have been laboratory tested to prove that the door frame and ironmongery combined, can hold back fire for the required amount of time, which is crucial to minimise loss of life.
Before a fire door is tested the manufacturing process is checked at all stages to prove the exact configuration of the door and then a door selected to make sure it is a “standard “ door and not one especially made for the fire test.
DOMESTIC FIRE DOORS
Fire doors are installed to ensure that you and your loved ones are protected, either letting you escape safely through a fire corridor to safety or stopping the fire getting into the room where you are, to buy time for the rescue services to get you out.
It is therefore very important that fire doors are installed and maintained correctly as even small things like the gaps around a door being too wide will seriously reduce the time before the fire breaks through.
COMMERCIAL FIRE DOORS
Existing buildings, are governed by the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order: 2005 – otherwise known as the RRO or FSO.
You also need to take note of section 38 of the Building Regulations (England and Wales) which links the Building Regulations to the RRO for those buildings to which the RRO applies.
The law has shifted responsibility from the fire authorities for fire safety to whoever has day- to-day control of premises. Each business must appoint a “responsible person”, whether it be the owner, manager, facilities manager or an expert consultant to manage the fire risk to the building, including those using the premises and its immediate surroundings.
The responsibility for fire risk assessment falls to the so-called ‘responsible person’. (18(5) A person is to be regarded as competent for the purposes of this article where he has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable him properly to assist in undertaking the preventive and protective measures.)
Under the FSO / RRO, the responsible person must carry out a fire safety risk assessment and implement and maintain a fire management plan.
The law applies to you if you are:
- responsible for business premises
- an employer or self-employed with business premises
- responsible for a part of a dwelling where that part is solely used for business purposes
- a charity or voluntary organisation
- a contractor with a degree of control over any premises
- providing accommodation for paying guests
Fire doors should generally be inspected every six months, unless they have high usage by a competent contractor.
FIRE DOOR MAINTENANCE
The Q-Mark scheme run by BM Trada is a scheme where fire doors are graded and inspected, the higher the grade the higher the certification. The doors are inspected against numerous criteria to ensure they are in good order, any items that are not, we will detail and once these have been rectified we can certify. As Q-Mark is the foremost accreditation scheme A Hunt & Co fully meets the criteria needed for the requirement of a “competent contractor”.
FIRE DOOR INSTALLATION
It is not just a matter of buying a fire door and installing it, it needs to be checked to ensure it will be compliant for the use intended, the ironmongery needs to be checked to make sure they are compatible with the door and then the door has to be installed as per the test evidence.
The Q-Mark scheme run by BM Trada only accredits contractors after extensive training and then Q-Mark carry out regular inspections to check doors have been installed to the correct standard. This means you can trust that when A Hunt & Co install a door not only will it be up to standard but you with have the Q-Mark accreditation to back this up.
