Inspection & Maintenance
Extinguisher Services Pty Ltd offers Inspection and Maintenance of Fire Doors in accordance with Australian Standards 1851.7. In addition, we can carry out any repairs should any be required
Fire Doors & Passive Fire Measures
Fire Doors are designed to contain a fire for a specified amount of time, which helps in minimising the spread of fire and reducing the passage of smoke through a building.
Fire doors may be automatically operated by heat activated mechanisms or smoke detectors.
The securing of fire doors must be such that persons leaving an area via the fire door can do so without the use of keys or similar at all times.
If your building has Fire Doors, they need to be regularly inspected and maintained in order to ensure that they are able to operate correctly.
Per the industry standard AS 1851 Fire doors should be inspected & tested on six monthly basis, fire doors servicing Sole Occupant Units e.g. residental units or hotel rooms, only required annual inspection & testing.
Fire Door: Made from a special fire resistant material, and has a fire rating compliance tag fitted to the hinge edge of the door. A steel fire resistant door frame is also used.
Exit Door(Required Exit): An Exit Door is a door that allows an emergency exit from a building. Dependent on its location, it need not necessarily be fire rated, or steel framed.
Smoke Door: A door designed to limit the passage of smoke between compartments.
Path of Travel Door: A path of travel door is a door in the egress pathway leading to or between a Fire Door or Exit Door. They are often dual purpose and also used as smoke doors.
Sliding Fire Doors: Large sized Fire Doors with openings to allow for movement of plant equipment such as vehicles.
Lightweight Construction: A multi-layered fire rated plasterboard to protect structural beams; and wall or ceiling linings.
Fire Seals: Enhances fire rating properties and helps limit the passage of smoke and fumes. These seals are placed between the closing faces of the door and body of fire resisting products. The strip expands upon the application of heat, which seals the gap between doors and bodies in the event of a fire.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Fire Rated Door is required to be fitted with a Tag on the Frame & the door leaf on the hinge side. This details the Fire rating specifications (FRL) of the door & the manufacturer’s details. This is fitted by the installer upon completion of the installation. It is possible for these tags to removed, missplaced or never installed by original installer.
In this instance it can be difficult to determine whether a door is in fact fire rated, however there are few tell tale signs that indicate that a door is likely fire rated.
- The metal frame has a 25mm Stop, a normal door frame is typically only 15mm
- The door has metal plates at each of the hinge mounting points, the closer mounting point and the handle area (Only on doors created from the 1990s onwards) These can be found by placing a reasonabley strong magnet on the face of the door at each of these points. If the three metal plates are on the lockside then the door has been installed back the front. If the metal plate is at the bottom of the door, then it has been installed upside down. In ether of these instances the fire door must be replaced due to the hole created for the handle.
The requirement for whether a door is required to be fire rated is determined in the (BCA) Building Code of Australia.
Fire Rated Doors are required when there is a requirement to keep a portion of the building fire seperated from another portion, typical examples are:
- Multi-story Residental Unit doors that open onto common area hallways & stair wells
- Fire Isolated stairwells in multi-story buildings
- Fire Tunnels (Often seen in industrial buildings with exstended paths of travel due egress only being available from one side of the building)
- Fire seperate compartments e.g. door between different industrial units
- Switch rooms
If it was installed recently, it may be possible to have original installer install the FRL Tags.
Also if they have been removed by another trade, e.g. painter, then it is possible to re-install them if they can be located.
If nether of these are an option it may be possible to have a qualified assessor, determine if the door is in fact fire rated, & provide and install opinion tags.
