In most settings, a fire door is legally required to be self-closing. This means that they have a fire door closer fitted to the top of the door, to ensure they are closed at all times - which is vitally important in the event of a fire.
Fire Safety - Approved Document B covers everything that landlords and businesses need to know about fire safety within their premises. Below are the most common instances in which a fire door should be self-closing:
- A residential care home
- Student accommodation
- Hotels
- Schools
- Residential flats
- Hospitals & surgeries
If you own your home, and you have an internal door to your garage, you should also have self-closing fire doors for added safety.
Is it illegal to prop open a fire door?
Yes, it is against the law to prop open a fire door, as it could risk lives. It is common for students in residential halls to prop open their fire doors, without considering the consequences.
If there were to be a fire within the building, and your fire door was propped open, you could be charged for putting lives at risk. This would result in a large fine - or in extreme consequences, a prison sentence.
Features of Door Closers
There are some key features on automatic door closers which should be considered when choosing which one to install.
The Power size of a door closer is important as this will make a difference in the strength of the door closer. Having a door closer with a too-high Power rating can make the door difficult to open or will make the door shut too quickly causing it to slam shut. This must be considered especially when specifying fire door closers for areas that need to be DDA compliant.
Some door closers have more adjustments than others. With most of our range of closers, there are multiple adjustments which can change the closing speed (the speed that most of the doors close at) and the latching speed (the final part of the close before the door closes onto the latches and past the intumescent strip. This again is important to adjust to ensure the standards for DDA are met and also to ensure the door closes fully to create the fire seal required.
Another feature is the delayed action function which allows the door closer to hold the door open for a certain length of time before automatically closing it. This is useful to ensure there is sufficient time for people to get through the doorway without the door closing on them.
Our range of fire door closers
At FireSealsDirect we stock a large range of fire door closers, from the most popular brands in the industry including Rutland, Briton, Dormakaba and Eclipse.
If you need help finding the right door closer for your fire door, get in touch with our team who will be happy to help.
