Fire door inspection in Chorleywood
Older doors in older buildings, and a straight answer on which ones can stay.
Get a priceThe question we get about old buildings is always the same.
Can we keep the original doors?
Sometimes yes. Often no. This page is about how we decide.
What makes an old door a fire door
A door is a fire door when it has been tested as part of a set with its frame, seals and hinges, and passed. That evidence is a certificate or a label.
A solid old door of good timber may hold back fire for a while. Nobody can prove it, and an inspection cannot call it a fire door just because it feels heavy.
So we record what is there. If there is no label and no paperwork, we write that the rating is unknown.
Panelled doors
Many older houses have four-panel or six-panel doors. The panels are thin timber set into a frame. They are a weak spot, and a panelled door cannot be treated as FD30.
Panelled doors void the rating. Where you need a fire door, we advise a plain certified doorset instead.
If the building is listed or in a conservation area, there may be limits on what you can change. That is a conversation with the council's conservation officer, and we cannot answer it for you.
What can be saved
A door that is certified, but has a bad closer, a loose hinge or a missing seal, can usually be repaired. A new closer, new seals or a re-hung leaf is a smaller job than a new door.
A door with a hole cut through for a larger letterbox, or one that has been cut down at the bottom, may need a new leaf.
Seals and paint
The strip let into the edge of a timber fire door is usually intumescent. It swells in heat and closes the gap round the door. A coat of gloss over it can stop it working.
On older doors that have been decorated many times, we often find the strip buried under paint, or missing altogether where the edge was planed. A seal can be refitted. A deeply painted one is cut out and replaced.
Houses split into flats
Where a large house has been split into flats, the front doors to each flat and the door at the bottom of the stairs are the ones that count.
We look at each flat door and the entrance to the shared hall. If any has been replaced by a flat owner, we ask for the paperwork.
Local authority
Three Rivers District Council covers Chorleywood. Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service enforces fire safety.
Getting here
It is about 50 minutes from Luton. We usually pair Chorleywood with Rickmansworth.
Send the postcode and a rough door count. You get a price back the same day.
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