Do Fire Doors Need to Have Strips & Seals?
While we’ve all seen a fire door (or 50) in our time, if your commercial property is in need of some upgraded fire protection, chances are you’ll be managing the purchase, finding someone to install them, and everything else that comes along with being a business owner.
But how often have you actually stopped to think about the additional features that come with fire doors? Take strips and seals, for example, do you know if fire doors need these as standard, or if they’re an optional extra?
Put simply, the answer is yes – all fire doors need strips and seals.
But without understanding why they’re needed, you could end up choosing ones that aren’t best suited to your needs, or even worse, choosing some that don’t fulfil your fire safety needs whatsoever, potentially putting your employees and customers at risk.
Here, we’ll dive into the facts of why fire doors need strips and seals
Provides Time To Escape
Intumescent strips are specially designed to slow down the spread of fire for either 30 or 60 minutes. The strips expand once exposed to the fire (or the heat from the fire), creating a barrier so the spread of the fire slows down.
These strips provide crucial time for people to escape and the fire to be controlled.
Helps Reduce Smoke Inhalation
Did you know that most fire-related fatalities are caused by smoke inhalation as a result of the fire, rather than by the fires themselves? [Netatmo]
Clearly, smoke inhalation is a huge problem that is caused as a result of fires, and although many of us have been taught to ‘stay low’ if the worst happens, this certainly isn’t a guaranteed method of keeping yourself safe.
Smoke seals are designed to prevent smoke from passing through the building, again giving you vital time to escape without battling smoke inhalation as well as the fire.
Reduces Property Damage
When we think of property damage as a result of a fire, the majority of us will likely picture charred, disintegrating roofs, walls, and furniture and unfortunately, this is quite often the reality.
While there isn’t a way to completely prevent property damage once a sizable fire starts, fire strips and seals can help slow down the spread of both the fire and smoke, allowing firefighters more time to tackle the blaze before the whole property is damaged.
They Save Lives
The devastating effects of fire should be taken extremely seriously, and it’s essential to ensure your property has the appropriate fire doors, seals, and strips to ensure as minimal damage to people and property as possible if the worst were to happen.
If you’d like to find out more about our range of fire door strips and seals, contact us today.
