Fire door checks: what the law wants, and how to spot a failing door
A fire door is a piece of engineering that only works when it's shut and in good order. Its job is to hold back fire and smoke long enough for people to get out — often 30 minutes (FD30) or 60 (FD60). Wedge it open, or let it fall into disrepair, and it protects no one.
Why the shut door matters
Buildings are divided into fire-resisting compartments so a fire in one area can't quickly take the whole building. Fire doors are the moving parts of that compartmentation. That's why the most common — and most dangerous — failing isn't a broken door at all: it's a good door propped open. An open fire door is just a door. If it needs to stay open for traffic, it must be held by a device that releases and closes it automatically when the alarm sounds.
The five-point check
You don't need to be an inspector to run a sensible visual check. Walk up to the door and look at five things:
- Gaps. The gap around the top and sides should be consistent and small — commonly around 3 mm. Too wide and smoke gets through; wildly uneven gaps suggest the door has dropped or been rehung badly.
- Seals. Look for the intumescent strip (which expands in heat) and any smoke seal (brush or fin) in the frame or door edge. They should be present, continuous, and undamaged — not painted over, cut, or missing.
- Self-closer. Open the door and let go. It should close fully, on its own, into the latch — not stop an inch short. A door that doesn't close is a door that won't be shut when it counts.
- Hinges & ironmongery. Hinges firm, screws present and tight, no missing fixings. Fire doors are heavy and rely on their hardware being intact.
- Condition & certification. No holes, large splits, or unauthorised alterations (a letterbox cut into a flat entrance door, say). Many certified doorsets carry a label or plug on the top or hinge edge — a useful sign the door is what it claims to be.
Under Article 17 of the Fire Safety Order, fire doors and other fire precautions must be kept in efficient working order and good repair. In residential buildings with common parts, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 (reg. 10) add specific routines — including quarterly checks of fire doors in the common parts and annual checks of flat entrance doors in blocks above 11 m. BS 8214 is the code of practice for how timber fire-door assemblies should be specified and maintained.
How often, and by whom
Frequency is ultimately driven by your fire risk assessment and the building's use. High-traffic settings — schools, care homes, hospitals — justify more frequent checks than a quiet low-rise. A common baseline for non-domestic buildings and lower-rise communal areas is a formal inspection roughly every six months by a competent person, with quick visual checks far more often. Anyone can be trained to spot the obvious faults; the point is that someone is actually looking.
The takeaway
Most fire door failures are boringly simple: propped open, closer not closing, seals missing, gaps too big. None of them need a specialist to notice — they need a trained eye and the habit of looking. That habit is the whole game.
Practise this in the game
The Fire Door Check drill puts a door in front of you and asks you to tap the faults before the clock runs out.
Play Hazard Hunt →This guide is for learning and applies to England & Wales. Always work from the current regulations and your own fire risk assessment; Scotland and Northern Ireland have equivalent regimes.