Information on fire safety for buildings can be found in Approved document B, which has two volumes, volume one provides technical guidance for dwellings such as flats as of 2019, and volume two is for all other building types. The headings below are some of the technical regulations pertaining to fire doors. Fire doors must be fitted in blocks of flats, most commercial properties and sheltered housing in the UK.
Fire doorsets
For the purpose of the document a fire doorset is defined as ‘a door or shutter which, together with its frame and furniture as installed in a building, is intended (when closed) to resist the spread of fire and/or gaseous products of combustion and meets specified performance criteria to those ends.’
Fire doorsets must be classified with the appropriate standards such as, BS EN 13501-2 (Fire classification of construction products and building elements). They must also be tested with regards to the European methods to the standards below:
The testing is to ensure that the fire doorsets work as designed to restrict the spread of fire and smoke within a building and thus provide protection to people using escape routes.
Responsibility for compliance
‘People who are responsible for building work (e.g. agent, designer, builder or installer) must ensure that the work complies with all applicable requirements of the Building Regulations. The building owner may also be responsible for ensuring that work complies with the Building Regulations. If building work does not comply with the Building Regulations, the building owner may be served with an enforcement notice.’
Requirement B1: Means of warning and escape
This requirement states that provisions must be in place to restrict smoke and fire ingress within escape routes. This can be achieved by using the appropriate fire resistant doorsets.
