Safety concern over fire door components

Independent certification body BM TRADA has this week applauded the frankness with which the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) has revealed the results of its research into builders merchants who supply components for fire doors.
"We share BWF's concern that outlets which supply components might not have staff who are fully trained in fire doorset assembly and manufacture and that often the wrong components can be supplied," said Simon Beer, product certification manager at BM TRADA.
"The BWF has revealed, following research among merchants, there is no guarantee that fire doorsets will be properly assembled if the components are sourced individually, even under the same roof. Plus, there is the danger that the wrong components will be selected in the first place."
The BWF mystery shopper research underlined that: fire doorsets are complex products requiring specialist knowledge; buying components runs a very high risk of mistakes; and it is better to buy, where possible, a certified manufactured doorset than buy it in components.
"We feel very strongly that nothing should be left to chance for a product as safety critical as a fire door and, therefore, our own approach to certification has been to develop a scheme which covers both manufacturers and installers," added Beer.
BM TRADA's Q-Mark Timber Fire Door Scheme has been operational since 1981 and provides independent assurance to architects, specifiers, enforcing authorities and building owners that all doors sold under the scheme meet the specified technical and regulatory requirements. In January 2001 the installers' scheme was launched to complement the manufacturing scheme.
"This means that BM TRADA will inspect installations at members' customers' premises, a fact which has considerably impressed those customers. Far from considering it a nuisance, they see it as a big advantage of the scheme and some have been so impressed by the stringency of the audit, they have gone on to specify Q-Mark for all future projects," explained Beer.
Chris Moore, contracts manager at Swift Southern, a full member of the scheme, said the building firm had joined to "prove our competence as installers to our clients". The Q-Mark for installation has now become a requirement of one of Swift's major clients.
"By flagging up to merchants the dangers of selling fire door components off the shelf without any guidance on how to fabricate a doorset correctly, we feel the BWF is taking an important step for the industry," said Beer.
"In an ideal world, only registered or approved installers should touch fire doors, but we are some way off that happening. In the meantime we will continue to urge specifiers to choose complete doorsets from approved manufacturers and to demand that they are correctly installed."