Fire doors are an important piece to a building’s overall fire safety plan, and there are many parts that go into making a fire door work. Therefore, fire door inspections can be challenging and requires a knowledgeable professional in the field to perform the annual inspection as accurately as NFPA 80 requires. It can be hard to keep up with the latest fire door requirements, especially if you have many you are trying to follow.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 80, Section 5.2.3.5.1 “Fire door assemblies shall be visually inspected from both sides to access the overall condition of the door”.
Swinging Doors with Builders Hardware or Fire Door Hardware 13 point inspection
1. Labels are clearly visible and legible.
2. No open holes or breaks exist in surfaces of either the door or frame.
3. Glazing, vision light frames, and glazing beads are intact and securely fastened in place, if so equipped.
4. The door, frame, hinges, hardware and noncombustible threshold are secured, aligned, and in working order with no visible signs of damage.
5. No parts are missing or broken.
6. Door clearances do not exceed clearances listed in 4.8.4 and 6.3.1.7.
7. The self-closing device is operational; that is, the active door completely closes when operated from the full open position.
8. If a coordinator is installed, the inactive leaf closes before the active leaf.
9. Latching hardware operates and secures the door when it is in the closed position.
10. Auxiliary hardware items, which interfere or prohibit operation, are not installed on the door and frame.
11. No field modifications to the door assembly have been performed that void the label.
12. Meeting edge protection, gasketing and edge seals, where required, are inspected to verify their presence and integrity.
13. Signage affixed to a door meets the requirements listed in 4.1.4.
