Kensington and Chelsea Council is gearing up to replace 4,000 fire doors in its social housing "as a matter of urgency".
Councillors are due to consider a recommendation to replace the doors on Wednesday next week (6 June) at an estimated cost of £3.5m.
The move comes after a Metropolitan Police investigation informed the government that a fire door installed at Grenfell Tower, designed to resist fire for up to 30 minutes, as required by building regulations, failed after 15 minutes.
The government concluded that owners of buildings containing composite flat entrance fire doors manufactured by Manse Masterdor – a company that has not been trading since 2014 – should review their building’s fire risk assessment and consider how quickly the doors should be replaced, although housing secretary James Brokenshire said "the risk to public safety remains low".
Nonetheless, Kensington and Chelsea Council, which was responsible for building Grenfell Tower in 1974, said it would press on with plans to make the changes.
A spokesperson for the council said: "This is a national issue. Manse Masterdor fire doors are used in social housing across the UK and a question mark hangs over their effectiveness.
"These doors had all been certified as safe and capable of resisting fire for at least 30 minutes, as required. However…the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government has recently tested a number of Manse doors taken from councils across the capital, including Kensington and Chelsea. They all failed fire safety tests and did not resist fire for the required 30 minutes.
"The secretary of state James Brokenshire has said all Manse doors across the country must to be replaced, but stated that ‘the risk to public safety remains low’.
"However, Kensington and Chelsea Council believes that the replacement programme must be started as a matter of urgency and as such councillors will next Wednesday (6 June) consider a recommendation to replace doors across the borough.
"All of the new doors will meet the 30-minute requirement but, given the issue with Manse Masterdor units, the council will send the new doors for independent testing so that we can be 100% sure the doors will resist fire for at least 30 minutes. Saving lives is our single priority. We are taking nothing for granted."
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There is a real need for anyone approving products where performance is critical, to understand the testing regimes the products must be subject to to demonstrate compliance.
There is a problem with this however, the criteria are often enough in British Standards that are far from cheap, and generally not accessible through the Construction Information Service most consultants would be using.
It isn’t economically feasible to have a full library of all product testing standards either, given many hundreds can be required.
It might be said in reply that consultants should be expected to pay regardless, but I’m yet to see any clients willing to pay the fees, or even understand the need to do so.
As far as I’m aware, fire doors are certified as resisting fire in a test rig for 30/60 minutes (as applicable) and may well not last for the specified period in a real fire. While I’m at it, I would also challenge the DCLG logic in removing the requirement for self closing devices on domestic internal hallway fire doors. We deal with these issues on a daily basis and it’s rare to meet a Client who is sufficiently aware of the expectation that fire doors should be closed. It might save a few trapped fingers but what use is a fire door if it’s open when a fire breaks out.
I completed the Q-mark fire door installers certification scheme over 2 years ago before the Grenfell Tower tragedy happened. It is not only how the door acts and performs in the case of fire, but the way it is installed. You can have A 30/60 minute fire door fail in only 15/20min if not installed correctly. The company I work for have processes, paperwork and inspections in line with the Q-Mark frame work to ensure fire doors are installed to the required standard.
As a timber door manufacturer and certified Firas door installer, it is important that the product is installed correctly to maximise the burn time of the product.ie certified installation.
In addition any ironmongery installed should be millimetre perfect within the door aperture to ensure again that the burn time is not affected or reduced from a 30/60 dependant upon spec.
All fire doors should remain closed at all times, when not in use, to meet regulation thus preventing a fire to spread. More often than not it is the smoke that spreads faster than the fire.
To ensure the doorsets pass the criteria necessary, the specified doorset with all its ironmongery would benefit from being tested for approval prior to being installed across any borough.ie each client would benefit from paying for a test of their specified doorset to ensure a belt and brace approach which is a small price to pay out given the welfare of the residents and customers.