Standard

BS 8214 / Reg 10

Communal door checks

Quarterly

Flat entrance doors

Annually

Record

Photographic, per door

On this page
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01726 839333

Mon–Fri 8am–5pm. 24/7 emergency line out of hours.

01

Fire Door Compliance

Alarms get tested and extinguishers get serviced, but fire doors get wedged open, drilled through for cables, fitted with the wrong ironmongery and painted until the intumescent strips stop working. Compartmentation is the assumption the whole evacuation strategy rests on — and it is usually the least inspected element of the building.

Recall inspects each door as an assembly: leaf, frame, seals, glazing, hinges, closer, latch and the gaps between them. Every door is numbered, photographed and recorded, so the next inspection is a comparison rather than a fresh start.

A fire door only performs as a complete assembly. The leaf, frame, intumescent and smoke seals, glazing, hinges, closer and latch all have to work together, and the gaps between them have to be right. Change one element and the certification the doorset was tested to no longer applies.

In practice the failures are mundane and repeatable: doors wedged open, closers disconnected because they slam, cables drilled through leaves, seals painted over, and missing hinge screws. None of it is expensive to fix — it just has to be found first.

We record each door as its own asset so you can demonstrate a maintenance history rather than a single snapshot, which is what an inspector or insurer will actually ask to see.

Lockdown activation point at reception
02

Inspection Process

Door register

Every fire door located, numbered and recorded with its rating and location.

Assembly inspection

Leaf, frame, gaps, seals, glazing, signage, hinges, closer and latching all checked in turn.

Photographic evidence

Condition photographs per door so defects and repairs are demonstrable.

Remedial repairs

Seals, closers, hinges, gap adjustment and leaf repair by trained installers.

Replacement doorsets

Certified doorsets supplied and fitted where repair is no longer viable.

Compliance reporting

A report your responsible person can hand to an inspector or insurer.

1

Door register created

We survey the building and build the register — most sites do not have one.

First visit

2

Condition inspection

Each assembly inspected and coded pass, repair or replace with photographs.

First visit

3

Report and priced remedials

Findings prioritised by risk with a costed schedule of repairs.

Within 10 days

4

Remedial works

Repairs and replacements delivered by trained installers and re-photographed.

By agreement

5

Recurring inspections

Quarterly communal and annual flat entrance checks scheduled into your calendar.

Ongoing
03

What we check

Element
What fails in practice
Usual fix
Gaps
Over 4mm at head or jambs after settlement
Adjust or replace leaf/frame
Intumescent seals
Painted over, damaged or missing
Replace seal set
Self-closer
Not closing onto latch from any angle
Adjust or replace closer
Hinges
Fewer than three, or non fire-rated
Fit correct CE-marked hinges
Glazing & signage
Wrong glass, missing "Fire door keep shut"
Replace glazing bead or sign

A door that fails on one element is not a compliant fire door — most failures we find are cheap to correct once identified.

04

Your legal duty

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require responsible persons for multi-occupied residential buildings above 11 metres to carry out quarterly checks of communal fire doors and annual checks of flat entrance doors, and to provide residents with fire door safety information.
Fire Safety (England) Regs 2022
RRO 2005
BS 8214
Building Safety Act 2022
06

Why choose Recall

Frequently asked

How do we know what rating our doors are?

The survey identifies rating from plugs, labels, leaf construction and door thickness. Where a door cannot be identified we record it as unknown and recommend how to resolve it.

Most can be repaired. Seals, closers, hinges and gap adjustment cover the large majority of failures. Replacement is for damaged leaves, wrong construction or unidentifiable doors.

A competent person with specific fire door training. General maintenance staff can do simple visual checks between formal inspections, and we set that up for you.

The 2022 Regulations target higher-risk residential buildings, but the general duty in the RRO to maintain fire safety measures applies to every non-domestic premises.

Do you have a fire door register?

Most buildings do not. One survey creates it and tells you exactly where you stand.