Fire Rated and Emergency Exit Doorsets

Fire doors and emergency exit doors are often the same door on a commercial site. These are the doors that people most often get wrong. A fire door set holds fire and smoke in a certain portion of the building long enough for people to get out. An emergency exit door set allows people to get out immediately from the inside and can be hard to open from the outside.

Lots of doors need to do both. And a lot of them need to be secure too.

What a fire rating means

Fire doors are tested by building them into a wall of a furnace and measuring how long they hold up. Fire doors in the UK are of two types, the older British Standard route (BS 476-22) gives ratings of FD30 or FD60, meaning 30 or 60 minutes. The newer European route (BS EN 1634-1) gives classifications of E60 or EI60. Here, E means integrity (flames and hot gases do not get through) and I means insulation (the unexposed side does not get hot enough to set things on fire).

There are important differences in door construction. Steel doors, for instance, conduct heat. So, a steel door can hold back flames while its other face gets very hot. Where there is a risk of insulation being penetrated, for instance where people or combustible materials are right up against the door, check that the doorset is classified for insulation and not just for integrity.

Certification and installation

A fire test is performed only once on a door in a lab. Third-party certification is what shows that doorsets that are manufactured and sold are the same as the one that was tested. Ask to see the certificate, and check it covers the size and configuration you are buying. Maintain it with the building’s fire safety records.

The rating also depends on the quality of installation. The gap around the door, the fixings, fire-stopping between the frame and the wall, and the self-closer all must be correct. A fire door that has a large gap below it, or is wedged open, is just a heavy door.

The mistakes that void a rating

The failures occur after the inspection. People fit a different lock or handle that isn’t included in the certification, cut a vision panel, drill a location for an access control reader, remove a closer because the door is heavy, or hold it open with a fire extinguisher. Each of those alter the door from the certified door.

When a door must be fire rated and secure, the security hardware must be part of the fire certification. Don’t treat security as an afterthought to the door set.

Residential buildings over 11 metres must also have legal requirements to carry out regular fire door checks. Check what’s required for the flats above your commercial property.

Emergency exits: easy out, hard in

An emergency exit is appealing to a burglar because it can allow them to access a back door of a business that they can’t simply lock shut. It works the same way in a fire.

What you can’t do with an exit door

You can’t chain, padlock, or block a fire exit while anyone is in the building. However, that doesn’t stop some people from worrying about stock going out the back door. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in England and Wales places responsibility on the building owner. The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 places responsibility on the occupier. During an investigation, if a locked exit is discovered, responsibility is placed on the occupier.

Why buy it as a doorset

Many exit doors are push bars installed on a standard steel door. An emergency exit doorset is supplied with the leaf, frame and escape hardware manufactured together to work seamlessly. A panic bar does not foul the lock, and hinge bolts fit the frame. On the outside of the door there is no hardware to give an attacker a purchase.

Getting the hardware right

Panic hardware to BS EN 1125 is for public areas, where the occupants do not know the building and may be in a crowd. Emergency exit hardware to BS EN 179 is for staff areas where only people who know the building will be. Your fire risk assessment should specify which applies.

Outside, there should be no handles or keyholes unless absolutely necessary. Nothing to grip. The closing edge should have anti-lever protection to prevent bars from being jimmyed into the seam.

Then have it tell you when it’s been opened. A monitored door contact connected to the alarm, or a local exit alarm that sounds when the bar is pushed, takes care of the staff propping the door open and using it as a shortcut problem.

Before you change anything

Check the fire risk assessment. If the door is on a marked escape route, then any change to its hardware has to be looked at by the person responsible for fire safety on site. If the door is also a fire door, the hardware you fit has to be covered by the fire certificate.

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