Fire door inspection in Watford
A gauge on every gap, a photo of every door and a written list of what to fix. Send the door count and get a price the same day.
Get a priceWould the fire doors in your building shut on their own?
Try one. Open it about halfway and let go. If the latch clicks, good. If it stops an inch short, or you have to give it a shove, it has failed, and it makes no difference that it looks fine from the other end of the corridor.
That is the first test we do, on every door in the building. Then the gauge comes out.
Who rings us in Watford
Usually it is a managing agent with a block or two on the books, or a landlord with a house let to five or six people. Sometimes a care provider with three ordinary houses, or an employer whose fire risk assessment has a line about the doors and nobody on site who knows what to do with it.
"The insurer has asked about our fire doors" is a common way for it to start. "Our assessor says they need looking at" is another. Either way you now need to know what state the doors are really in, and you cannot tell by looking.
If you are the one who signed for the building, this is the job we do.
The checks, in the order we do them
We start at one end of the building and work through to the other. Each door gets a reference, so what is in the report matches what is on the plan.
- The gap round the edge, at the top and down both sides, at three or four points on each
- The gap under the door, with the gauge stood on whatever floor is there
- The leaf itself, for damage, old lock holes and filler
- The label or plug on the edge, or a mark etched in the glass
- Hinges, screws and the closer fixings
- Strips and smoke seals all the way round the frame
- Letterboxes, vision panels and glazing beads
- The let-go test
If something is missing, we write that down as well. A door with no label is recorded as a door with no label.
What you get back
A report with a photo of each door and a plain note on each fault. Every item is marked as urgent, soon or tidy up when convenient.
Give it to a fire risk assessor, an insurer or a contractor and none of them will need it explained.
Fire door inspection is a separate service from a fire risk assessment. One does not cover the other, and the report says so.
If repairs turn up, we can price them from the same report. Our own crew does the repairs, along with our BM TRADA / FIRAS-certificated contractors. You can also take the report to your own carpenter.
Getting to Watford
We drive in from Luton, usually about 40 minutes down the M1.
There is no office in Watford. You book a day, and where two buildings are close together we do them on the same trip.
Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service is the enforcing authority here. Shared houses are licensed by Watford Borough Council. Both can ask what you have done about your doors.
Rough cost
It depends on the number of doors and how easy they are to reach. An empty school in the holidays is quick. Thirty flats where each resident has to be at home is slower.
A small building starts from around £250 plus VAT. Send us the details and we will give you a proper figure.
Questions we get asked
Do I have to get my fire doors inspected?
If you are responsible for a building where people sleep or work, the doors must be kept in working order. An inspection is how you find out whether they are.
How long does it take?
A small block is normally a morning. Larger buildings take as long as the number of doors we can get to.
Do you also do fire risk assessments?
That is a separate job with a separate price. Tell us if you need one and we will explain how it fits with the door inspection.
What we check
Where we go
Watford and the towns around it, down to the London edge. We drive in from Luton, usually along the M1, and group visits where we can.
Send the postcode and a rough door count. You get a price back the same day.
Get a price