Fire door inspection in Wokingham
Newer blocks, where the doors look fine from the corridor.
Get a priceA new door is not always a good door.
Wokingham has had a lot of building in recent years, and plenty of that is blocks of flats. Clean corridors, fresh paint, doors that match. Everything looks right from where you are standing.
Then you pick up the gauge.
What goes wrong in a new building
Some of it is the fitting. A door hung a few millimetres out leaves a gap wide enough to fail. A frame fixed to a wall that was not quite square. A closer put on the wrong side.
Some of it is what happens afterwards. An electrician drills through the frame to run a cable. A broadband installer cuts a hole through a flat door. A resident adds a lock or swaps the handle.
And some of it is the paperwork. A building can have doors with the right label on them and a certificate that does not cover how they were installed.
Checking a door that looks right
We start at the top edge for a plug or label. We photograph it, so you have a record of what the door is meant to be.
Then the gauge. Gaps at the top and down each side. The measurement should be small and the same top to bottom.
Hinges, with the right number and the right screws. Seals set into the frame, intact and not painted. The closer, which has to bring the door onto the latch from a narrow angle as well as from fully open.
Then the details. Signs, glazing and any letterbox. A letterbox fitted after handover is common and often unrated.
Handover and defects
If a building has just been handed over, you may be able to raise defects with the developer or builder. We cannot tell you what your warranty covers. We can give you a report that records what the doors were like on the day we inspected, which is useful evidence whatever you decide to do next.
Who has to check
If a block is over 11 metres, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 apply. Communal fire doors every three months, flat entrance doors every twelve using best endeavours.
Many newer blocks sit above that line, so the timetable applies. A full inspection at the start gives you a baseline for those checks.
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service covers Wokingham, and Wokingham Borough Council is the local authority.
Getting to you
We come from Luton and it is a bit over an hour by road. We group jobs, so if you have several blocks in the area we can plan a few days around them.
Send us the postcode, the number of floors and the number of flats. We will tell you what to expect.
Questions we get asked
Do I need to inspect a new block?
A new block is still your responsibility. A baseline inspection shows what you have.
What if the doors have no certificates?
We check for labels and plugs. If we cannot find proof, the report says so, and you can decide what to do next.
Send us the postcode and a rough door count and we will come back with a price the same day.
Get a price