Leading door manufacturer JELD-WEN has released a fire doorset PDF guide to support specifiers in confidently sourcing fire doors in a post-Grenfell regulatory environment.
In its latest document, titled ‘A quick 3 step guide: fire doorset specification & long term safety’, JELD-WEN breaks down the current national and European standards and what this means for specifiers sourcing tested fire doors.
The guide helps specifiers navigate third-party testing and understand its importance in demonstrating as-built performance. Independent testing plays a key role in helping to mitigate risks, enhance accountability and ensure that fire doors help provide necessary critical protection in the event of a fire.
UK Fire Door Training recently reported that 59% of fire door practitioners in England cannot properly evidence competence, revealing a clear knowledge gap in the industry. Without competence built into the system, it's crucial that specifiers have access to the necessary knowledge to confidently specify doors that support fire-safe, compliant buildings.
The three-step guide outlines key third-party accreditation schemes for fire doors in the UK, including BWF Certfire, BM TRADA Q-Mark, and IFC Certification. Although not currently a legal requirement, choosing a manufacturer that invests in third-party testing provides additional assurance that supplied fire doors will perform reliably in real-life emergencies.
The quick guide also emphasises the importance of considering a doorset’s full lifecycle, from correct installation through to ongoing inspection and maintenance, alongside the role of the golden thread in ensuring information is traceable and available to those who need it.
“Responsibility for the golden thread falls to every part of the chain,” explains Lisa Ward, Senior Manager Product & Marketing at JELD-WEN. “There should be a ‘single source of truth’ for building safety information, and ensuring this knowledge is accessible to the relevant people, at the right times, is a crucial part of ensuring safety.”
Lisa added: “With specifiers sitting at the top of the chain, it’s so important they’re equipped with the expertise to support fire-safe buildings. That’s why we designed this to be an easy, three-step guide. It outlines all the key information specifiers need to know to select the safest, most reputable manufacturers to work with.”
The CPD has been created as part of JELD-WEN’s commitment to fire safety standards. As a business, it has invested over £3 million in third-party testing to support product performance and compliance.
Click here to read the guide.
