Understanding Fire Door Gap Regulations

Fire doors are designed to restrict the spread of fire and smoke through a building. This is achieved by separating spaces that could otherwise act as a conduit for fire and smoke.

Fire Doors provide valuable time for the fire service to arrive and successfully evacuate anyone unable to reach an emergency exit in the event of a fire. Fire Doors can be entrance doors, internal doors, or separating doors.

What Is a Fire Door?

Fire doors are a critical part of fire protection in buildings. A fire door is a type of door designed to slow the spread of fire, heat and smoke from one compartment of a building to another by isolating the compartments. Fire doors can be found in almost every commercial building and business premises.

They help keep the smoke and heat in one area while allowing fresh air to enter another part of the building. This keeps everyone safe by limiting the amount of damage caused by fire and allows first responders to get inside quickly so they can stop it before it spreads to other parts of the structure or gets out of control.

Gaps Around Fire Doors

What should the gap around my fire door be?

The fire door threshold gap between a fire door leaf and the door frame should be less than 4mm except at the bottom, where it should not exceed 10mm.

Additionally, for this passive fire protection to work, there must be an air gap between the two sides of a fire door. Fire doors are designed to separate buildings into different compartments so that if a fire breaks out, it is contained to the area where it started.

What Should a Fire Door Threshold Gap Be?

A fire door should have a gap around its base so that it can swing freely. But if the gap is too large, smoke and fire may be able to escape from an adjoining room into other parts of a building. By ensuring that the door has the correct gap around it, you will provide critical smoke protection to anyone trapped.

The fire door gap required varies according to the function of the door, however, best practice is to ensure that the gap:

• At the top and sides of the door is a maximum gap of 4mm.
• At the bottom of the door is between 8-10mm.
• £1 coins are 3mm thick to give an idea of scale.

Fire doors prevent smoke from spreading throughout your building, preventing injuries from smoke inhalation and burns. Occupants inside of your building can remain safe for a minimum of 30 minutes through the use of regulation fire doors based on the fire door gap.

• Stop your fire door slamming
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Fire doors can also save money because the smoke from a fire will damage walls, floors, furnishings and paintwork. If a fire door is present then the room should be salvageable with minimum costs as you aren’t required to replace all of your flooring or re-paint all of your walls.

A Checklist for Your Fire Door

Regularly checking that your fire doors are compliant is crucial to maintaining their safety. Below is a simple checklist you can follow to make sure all safety requirements of the fire door are met.

Unlock Your Free Checklist

How to Fix Fire Door Gaps

A fire door gap can be shortened through the use of surface-mounted smoke seals and rebated drop-down smoke seals. We can close the gap on existing fire doors easily using these products. This is suitable for an existing fire door gap up to 14mm on the underside of the door.

The use of a threshold seal is a cost-effective way to prevent smoke from entering your premises. This is suitable for fire doors with gaps up to 14mm on the underside of the door. The installation process is simple, and there are many different types available depending on your requirements.

Make sure you have your fire doors fitted, serviced, and maintained by a certified engineer and retain the approved document following all work.

Rebated Intumescent Fire Door Seals

Rebated fire door gap seals are fitted into existing rebates in either the door leaf or frame and expand upon contact with fire to fill gaps.The brown or white rebated intumescent fire door gap seal contains expandable intumescent material which, when subjected to heat, forms a tight seal around the fire exit.

Fire door seals help prevent fires from spreading through a building by making the doors airtight and can resist the passage of fire for up to 60 minutes. These seals are often self-adhesive for quick and easy fitting. In addition, they are available in varying sizes and colours to match the aesthetic of your premises. Lastly, our intumescent fire door seals have been tested to BS476:22 and BS476:31.

Surface-Mounted Drop-Down Smoke Seals

Surface-mounted drop-down fire door gap smoke seals should be used on doors that do not already have rebates. These surface-mounted seals are really simple to install and have self-adhesive backing that can be stuck directly to the frame or onto the surface of a door itself.

Since they can be retrofitted to existing doors, they are suitable for use with older fire door assemblies that were built without seals.

As smoke tends to travel faster than the fire itself, fire and smoke door seals act as a barrier between smoke and the interior of a building. By preventing passive inhalation at entry points, they can help protect residents from serious injury or death caused by exposure to toxic fumes during an emergency.

Intumescent seals, which are attached to or formed as part of a door and its frame, prevent fire and smoke from passing through a doorway. Fire and smoke seals are available in multiple colours, built to withstand extreme heat. The surface-mounted seal comes with intumescent paper for use around lock and hinge areas.

Starting on the brush side of the self-adhesive fixing strip, peel off the backing paper and press the intumescent seal into position. A sharp knife can be used to cut around lock areas if needed.

These seals fit over hinges without leaving any gaps, providing up to 66 minutes of fire protection. The brush smoke seal must not be painted once it has been fitted to the face of a door. The face of the seal can be painted.

Conclusion

Shortening your fire door gap is an easy process that can be done in just a few minutes. It’s a good idea to do so because this small step can help prevent fires from spreading from one room to another. It’s also a good idea to check the seals on your fire doors regularly and make sure they’re in good condition. If you notice that one is damaged or worn out, it should be replaced immediately by a professional.

If you have any questions about how to shorten your fire door gap, please feel free to contact us! We’re happy to help!