Capability

The part of the compartment line that moves.

A doorset is used several hundred times a day, and it is the element a resident, an inspector and a fire risk assessor all look at first. It is also the element most often installed outside the conditions it was tested in.

01Why it matters

What this part of the line is doing.

A fire door is a compartmentation element, not a joinery item. Its performance depends on the leaf, the frame, the hardware and the gaps, as one tested assembly, installed in a wall the test evidence covers.

It carries more scrutiny than any other part of the line, because it is the part anybody can see and open.

02How it usually fails

The failures are ordinary, and they repeat.

Set out plainly, because a client who knows what to look for is a better client to work for.

Installed outside the field of application it was tested in, most often into a wall construction the test never covered.

Hardware substituted for whatever was available on the day.

Gaps adjusted on site to make a leaf close.

Or a whole population replaced on a survey that graded the stock rather than the door.

03How we approach it

What we do differently.

Installed within the tested field of application, or not installed until that is resolved. Where a survey says replace, we separate the population by defect: doors beyond repair are replaced, doors failing on gaps, seals, closers or hinges are adjusted or repaired where the doorset and its evidence support it.

Each decision is recorded against the individual door with the reason it was taken, so the position is defensible door by door if it is ever questioned. A blanket replacement is easy to sell and hard to justify afterwards.

04What the record carries

What you are left holding.

Produced as part of the work and priced into the rate, not invoiced as a separate deliverable.

Every door referenced individually, with the reference written on the element, its specification, its certification evidence as found, and the decision taken with the reason it was taken.

05What happens afterwards

After practical completion.

Doors need to still perform in year five, not only on the day they were fitted. Planned maintenance is reported against the original register, so a door that has drifted is visible as a change rather than as a new finding.

Tell us about the building.

New build, refurbishment, remediation, planned maintenance, inspection, or the information a building has to be able to produce.

Make an enquiry

Or speak to one of us directly.
nick@compartis.co.uk
sam@compartis.co.uk