Upon canvassing householders, flat owners, and small business persons, quite a few misconceptions and misunderstandings seem to prevail. The aim of this article is to disabuse people of some of the most common misconceptions about fire doors.
Won’t Fire Doors Make My Room Airtight?
If you buy fire doors for your house or business, it will not make your rooms airtight. This is especially true in the UK where building regulations mean that most rooms need an air vent that runs outside. Some businesses have fire doors and they put seals around the edges to make them airtight. The aim is to help choke out any chemical fires or fuel-based fires. However, most fire doors have a regular gap between the door and the frame, which allows air to flow between rooms.
Can’t I Just Paint my Door with Fireproof Paint?
Fireproof or fire retardant paint does not make something fire-resistant. It stops fire from spreading, and it certainly won’t catch on fire itself, but it doesn’t stop fire from moving from one room to another. A fire door often has different layers of materials that help keep fire and heat in one room. Fire doors are built to resist flame and heat, whereas fireproof paint is simply created “Not” to burn in the traditional manner. Imagine if you painted toilet paper in fireproof paint, it would be no more protected from flames than if you dipped it in fast-setting plaster.
Isn’t it True I am Not Allowed to Lock a Fire Door?
Fire escape doors cannot be locked. Fire doors are able to be locked. In fact, in blocks of flats, every front door is a fire door. A fire escape door is one that locks closed but can be opened from the inside at any time. It is not the sort of door you would use every day for going in and out of a building. A fire door is just a regular door with a closing mechanism, and that is able to withstand fire for at least 30 minutes. Ergo, you can put as many locks as you like on a fire door.
Isn’t Maintaining a Fire Door Stupidly Expensive?
A fire door doesn’t need any sort of maintenance. It is not like a gas boiler or an electric lift. Fire door maintenance is no more expensive than maintaining your regular interior and exterior door. Perhaps if you run a factory or a business with flammable materials, then your insurance company may insist that you pay a maintenance person to check your doors. But otherwise, fire door maintenance over the short term is free, and over the long term is very inexpensive.
Conclusion – Ask a Local Merchant or Installer
You can go online and get answers to your fire door questions, but it is often easier to ask a local fire door merchant or fire door installer. The stuff you find online is often written by cheap third-party writers who do not know all that much about fire doors. The truth is that fire doors are no more difficult to install than fire alarms.
