It is recommended by CMS, as part of a well-maintained healthcare facility, accurate life safety plans are recommended to be in place in every facility. They can save you a ton of money on your fire barrier inspections.

WHAT IS A LIFE SAFETY PLAN?

Life safety plans are floor plans that reveal a building’s fire barrier emergency exits and details. They show the fire rating of all fire doors, smoke doors, ceilings and walls. Additionally, it shows the sections of smoke during a fire.

Having a good set of life safety plans created is a great investment because they not only help you to maintain your facility’s fire barrier, but it also helps you plan for it. When contractors come in to perform any kind of maintenance, there won’t be any hassle if they know the location of all the things they are maintaining.

When you hire Florida Fire Door Inspection to inspect fire doors, we will use your plans to locate each fire door. Without accurate life safety plans, we are having to looking for them.

Aside from financial impacts, life safety plans can help you to shield your patients in the event of a fire. It can help you to determine any areas by indicating the fire rating on walls and ceilings.

LIFE SAFETY PLAN IN YOUR FACILITY

The best way to get a great plan is to outsource it to a professional. Companies that focus in these types of plans have softwares that allow them to precisely indicate where each door and wall is located with its rating.

It’s not to say you cannot create these maps on your own, however, these companies custom-make each map and tailor it to the type of facility you have. While the cost of these plans may be expensive, it’s a very good idea to invest and save your company money in the future and keep occupants protected.

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NFPA 80 and 101 requires full compliance with the annual fire door inspections. The 2012 Life Safety Code requires documentation of this fire door inspection. Fire safety is important element that we should keep in mind when planned for construction of a building. Fire door check decreases the danger from heat and smoke and provides safety. Main purpose of fire door services is to decrease probable damage and death to people in a building as well as other people who can be caught up in the fire damage. The fire safety preserves during the building construction so that make sure the material that used in a building does not add extensively and be the reason of fire growth in the early period of explosion.

Fire doors main advantage is that these do not withhold from fire and smoke well as these cannot retain heat. Another benefit of such door is that it saves life that can be harm to you and keep property from damage from fire and smoke increase. Fire doors also protect the rest of the building from further damage.

Florida fire door inspection provides the best fire door inspection services, we have professional and skilled inspector for this service who gives the best services that is independent and flexible. Our inspector team is completely qualifies as well as certified under the DHI. We check completely your building’s fire doors and provide a detailed report that includes the situation and function linked to the fire doors on your located place.

Detailed report will include the selected dependable and responsible person that keep the requirements and also authoritarian in a fire evaluation risk of the building. Remedial measure will also be included in the report and a label appended to every fire door inspector from the start. A representative will also review the particular inspector proficiently. We have professional team of technicians that are proficient and they will review properly while door construction with the manufacturers.

Why are fire doors so essential?
Fire doors save you from harm and care for your property and possession. So, fire doors are essential to make sure that resident of a building leave a building that is aflame with safety and quickly as well as staying away from any tragic situation. Those who face such situation can get away and take a short direction in a building. Fire doors are the most significant element that gives residence safety on time. A fire door is just not a simple door like other, it is entirely consist of the border, cover, intumescent blaze and smoke seal. It also assembles all the metal made element that is especially used to make such door like pivots, handle, door closer, and locks. In order to get speedy protection we must take care and maintain fire doors on annual basis, like other alarms and fire extinguishers, a fire door also need strict check and repairs so that these doors can perform even better at the time of fire incident.

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Fire door certificate is the label that indicates compliance to appropriate local fire and building code standards and requirements.  Each fire door is certified by a permanent label that must remain legible. The door and the frame labels contain information of the manufacturer, the time to resist fire, if it’s a smoke door assembly, and the temperature rise rating. NFPA 80 requires that all fire door opening must have a fire rated label clearly visible and should not be removed or painted over during the life of the door and the frame.

For fire door, frame, chute door, fire exit device, and kick plates that do not have a certification, missing, painted, not visible, or have been modified in the field which is a code violation, Florida Fire Door Inspection field evaluation accomplishes this required evaluation. We are Partnered with QAI Laboratories to be able to perform field labeling and make your door assembly compliant once again and apply the appropriate time rated label to it.

The certification Label shall contain

–  QAI logo with “ c “ and “ us “ indicator
–  Listed Fire Door
–  Manufacturer Name and Address
–  Fire Protection Rating
–  Bolt Throw
–  Serial Number
–  The Words “  DO NOT REMOVE OR COVER THIS LABEL ”
–  The Words “ SEE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS ”

With increased enforcement of the fire door assembly inspection requirements, deficiencies will no longer be ignored.  When an Authority Having Jurisdiction sees missing, painted, or not readable labeled doors or frames in a location where a fire door assembly is required, it may be an indicator of other problems with the opening protective and it’s a violation of the code.

We provides greater value by offering competitively priced services. Our reputation for excellence gives customers a higher level of confidence that our services meets all safety requirements. Our field evaluation services can provide you with next day service to meet your deadline.

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The fire rated door labels found on the edge or top of a fire door and frame may be made of metal, paper, or plastic, or may be stamped or die-cast into the door or frame. Labels must be visible and legible. Some embossed labels can still be read if they are painted, but if a painted label is illegible, the paint must be removed.  If labels are missing or can’t be made legible, the AHJ may require the doors or frames to be re-labeled by a laboratory.

2. Clearance deficiency dimensions around the door in the closed position

Shimming the hinges with metal shims may help to correct the problem, and there are metal edges available which are listed for use when a door needs to be increased in width to reduce the clearance. For clearances larger than allowed by NFPA 80, there are gasket products in development which may be allowed by the listing agencies as an alternative to replacing the door. 

3. Kick-down door holder

A kick-down door holder is a simple mechanical device which is mounted on the bottom corner of the door and flips down to hold the door open. Because fire rated door labels must be self-closing or automatic-closing, a kick-down holder is not an acceptable way of holding open a fire door. A mechanical hold-open feature in a door closer and other types of hold-opens such as wedges, hooks, and overhead holders are not allowed for fire doors either.

4. Auxiliary hardware items that get in the way of the intended function of the door

These auxiliary items may include creative ways of holding open the door or providing additional security.  In many cases the auxiliary items create an egress problem, for example, additional locks or surface bolts (most egress doors must unlatch with one operation), chains or creative devices used with panic hardware, or electronic access control products that have not been installed with the required release devices for code compliance. Hardware used on fire doors must be listed for that use, and items not listed for use on a fire door must be removed.  Holes left by the removal of auxiliary items must be filled in accordance with NFPA 80, typically either with steel fasteners, or with the same material as the door or frame.

5. Fire doors blocked to stay in the open position

If fire rated door labels are not able to close, it can’t compartmentalize the building and prevent the spread of fire and smoke.. Fire doors are typically blocked open for the convenience of the building’s occupants.  Many people don’t understand the function of fire doors and may compromise life safety without realizing the results of their actions. 

6. Area surrounding the fire door assembly blocked by furniture, equipment and/or boxes

In addition to the annual inspection of fire doors, recent editions of NFPA 101 – The Life Safety Code require certain egress doors to be inspected annually as well. The area leading to fire and egress doors must be kept clear for egress purposes, and to provide the required maneuvering clearance for accessible openings.

7. Broken, defective or missing hardware items

Hardware may not perform as designed and tested if it is missing parts or if the hardware has become damaged.  Bent closer arms may not close the door properly.  Missing cover plates may create a passage for smoke, and a missing strike or latch bolt could mean that the door does not stay positively latched when exposed to the pressures of a fire.  When defective hardware is noted, it must be repaired or replaced immediately.

8. Fire exit hardware installed on doors that are not labeled for use with fire exit hardware

When fire exit hardware is used, NFPA 80 requires the door to have a label stating, “Fire door to be equipped with fire exit hardware.”  This ensures that the door is properly reinforced for the fire exit hardware.  An existing door which is prepped for a lock set would not typically be reinforced for fire exit hardware or carry the proper label, so fire exit hardware should not be retrofitted to an existing door that was not originally prepped for it.

9. Missing or incorrect fasteners

Installers sometimes use other fasteners for faster installation or because the original fasteners have been lost.  There must be no missing fasteners on hardware installed on fire doors, and some products may require through-bolts if the door does not have adequate blocking or reinforcing.

10. Bottom flush bolts that do not project ½ inch into the strike

Flush bolts are used on the inactive leaf of pairs of doors when the active leaf has a lock set.  There are three types– manual, automatic, and constant-latching.  They typically project into the frame head and into the floor, although there are some automatic and constant-latching bolts which have a top bolt only, and incorporate an auxiliary fire pin which projects when a certain temperature is reached and engages into the edge of the other door.

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High-rise buildings fire door safety is one of our main services. We pass through these doors every day in high-rise buildings, commercial, institutional, and residential buildings. A lack of awareness can lead to modifications or deficiencies which affect the opening protective’s performance when it’s critical – during a fire.

Many codes now require fire and egress door assemblies to be inspected annually, with their condition documented and any noted deficiencies repaired without delay.  But with a little education, building occupants can help to ensure that the fire and egress doors where they live and work are able to perform properly every day.

The first step is to be able to identify which openings are fire door assemblies. In high-rise buildings and residential buildings, fire-rated assemblies would typically be found on door openings leading to the stairs, the doors leading from the corridor to each apartment or condominium, and some utility rooms like elevator machine rooms and electrical rooms.  A label from a listing agency such as Underwriters Laboratories or Intertek should be visible on the door edge and the frame rabbet.  On existing openings this label is often painted over, but it is required by code to be legible.

The role of a fire door is to work with the fire resistance rated wall to provide continuity and compartmentalize a building, inhibiting the spread of smoke, flames, and hot gases.  Fire doors are available in varying levels of protection. For example, a fire door used on a stair enclosure will typically provide 90 minutes of protection, while most corridor doors in a multi-family building are required to provide 20 minutes of protection.  Many fire doors are also egress doors, and therefore must allow free egress for building occupants. Specific codes will dictate the ratings required for each assembly.

In order for a fire door to perform as designed and tested, it must be closed and latched when a fire occurs.  One of the most frequent deficiencies noted during fire door inspections is that the door does not close properly.  Fire doors are typically equipped with door closers or spring hinges. However, doors are often propped open for convenience using wedges, hooks, or other mechanical means.

During a fire, an open door will allow smoke and flames to spread.  Hold-open devices on fire doors must be automatic-closing devices, which allow the door to close upon a signal from the fire alarm system, or an integral smoke detector.  The closing device should reliably close the door until it latches.  Spring hinges used on fire doors will likely need to be adjusted periodically.  NFPA 80, Annex A states that spring hinges should be adjusted to achieve positive latching when allowed to close freely from an open position of 30 degrees.  Many existing fire doors with spring hinges do not reliably close and latch from this position.

The latching requirement for a fire door ensures that the pressure from a fire is not able to push the door open and allow smoke and flames to spread through the opening.  Fire door assemblies may be equipped with locksets or latch sets with an active latch bolt to provide positive latching, or a type of panic hardware called fire exit hardware.  While panic hardware used on non-fire-rated doors includes a mechanical dogging feature which allows the latch to be held retracted, fire exit hardware does not include mechanical dogging.  Fire exit hardware may be provided with electric latch retraction to hold the latch retracted electrically, if the latch projects automatically upon a signal from the fire alarm system.  The positive-latching feature on a fire door is often defeated by improper modification of the hardware, or failure to repair latching hardware that has become damaged.

The clearance around a fire door is an important factor for limiting the spread of smoke.  NFPA 80 – Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives, limits the clearance at the head and jambs to 1/8-inch maximum for wood doors and 3/16-inch maximum for hollow metal doors.  For pairs of doors, clearance at the meeting stiles is limited to those same dimensions. And adding meeting stile gasketing is technically not a code-compliant solution to the problem.  The clearance between the bottom of a fire door and the top of the flooring or raised threshold is limited to ¾ of an inch.  There are products which have been tested for use on a fire door with oversized clearance at the bottom, but there are limitations on the door rating, material, and the amount of clearance.  A standard door sweep that has not been specifically tested for use on non-compliant doors where clearance is incorrect should not be used for this application.

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We are rated among the top fire inspection companies in Florida. Fire doors and smoke doors create a seal that provides protection from the effects of flames and smoke during a fire. Smoke doors block smoke and other combustible products, while fire doors stop flames by compartmentalizing. A fire door is a door with a fire resistance rating used as part of a passive fire protection system to reduce the spread of fire between separate compartments of a structure and to enable safe egress from a building. Every fire door is also a smoke door.However, smoke doors are not necessarily fire doors. Their purpose is to prevent the building’s escape routes from becoming blocked by smoke. Damage to a fire door or smoke door, no matter how minor, should be addressed immediately to ensure that the door works properly in an emergency. These doors are only designed to last a specific length of time.The experts at Florida Fire Door Inspection totally understand the importance of having a safe, robust fire doors that allows you and those in your building to exit the premises quickly and safely should an emergency situation arise. Our fully trained, fully qualified teams can inspect all your fire doors in any property and provide you with the report.

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Who has the license to enforce NFPA 80?

The Authority Having Jurisdiction, (AHJ) has the authority to enforce NFPA 80. The AHJ comprises of Fire Marshals, The Joint Commission, (TJC) and CMS. You must be a certified fire door inspector to approve the safety of your fire or smoke doors. The AHJ rely on companies like Fire door Inspection Florida who is a certified Fire door Inspection company to ensure that annual inspection is carried out dutifully by reviewing all the necessary documentation and ensuring that all the important corrective actions are taken to repair assemblies with inadequacies. Fire Door Inspection Florida is one of the leading industries who have personnel who have been licensed to perform and document annual inspections.

Why work with Florida Fire Door Inspection?

We always have a certified fire door inspector ready to come to your site to conduct a thorough fire and smoke door inspection. We are straight forward with our services and do not incorporate hidden fees in our reports. The AHJ could come to your facility at any given moment to check on the status of your fire/smoke doors. Be ready by giving us a call for a free quote.

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Fire door service for healthcare facilities. Are your fire doors compliant and documented? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) adoption of the 2012 edition of NFPA 101: Life Safety Code requires that healthcare facility operators conduct a yearly inspection of fire door and smoke barrier door alike in accordance with NFPA 80 section 8.3.3.1 states that all fire assemblies must be inspected and tested annually in healthcare occupancies. The compliance deadline has been pushed back from July 6,2017 to January 1,2018.

To help ensure your facility is prepared for CMS audits, Florida Fire Door Inspection are expert and certified to show you how and when you need to comply with NFPA 80 rules. Fire doors assemblies and smoke door barrier doors will need to be inspected and tested annually with the documentation to support it. However, all other doors should be on a regular maintenance schedule to ensure that each one is working properly. They will be spot-checked when the joint commission comes in to survey your facility and if there are doors that are not working properly like holes, breaks in doors or frames, and field modification…. It will be deficiencies and any related deficiencies to annually fire door inspection should be cited under k211-Means of Egress General.

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Fire door maintenance is very important. A fire door is not just the door leaf. It is a complete assembly comprising the frame, any glazing, intumescent fire and smoke seals and all the ironmongery that is used on the door, such as hinges, overhead door closers, latches and locks. Just like other life safety devices, such as fire extinguishers and alarms, fire doors and final escape doors need regular, stringent inspection and maintenance to ensure that they will perform as intended in the event of a fire.

Fire doors are a crucial first line of defense in many of these fires, and yet they remain a significant area of neglect. Fire doors are often the first thing to be downgraded in a specification, mismanaged throughout their service life, propped open, damaged and badly maintained.

For doors to work efficiently all parts of the door should be regularly maintained. The maintenance period should be appropriate for the building and frequency of door use e.g. doors in main circulation areas are likely to sustain more wear than doors used less frequently to access locked stores. Also sleeping risks should attract a higher priority than non-sleeping risks due to the life risk involved. Suitable maintenance should be carried out. It should be regular, any defects should be remedied and records should be kept of the results of the inspections, and any actions taken to repair them etc, if damaged.

Fire doors are designed to help slow down the spread of deadly fire, smoke, and harmful fumes / gases. Our experienced staff will thoroughly inspect all necessary components in order to ensure you have optimal protection NFPA 80 5.2.4. requires the following items shall be verified, at minimum:

• No open holes or breaks exist in surfaces of either the door or frame.
• Glazing, vision light frames & glazing beads are intact and securely fastened in place, if so equipped.
• The door, frame, hinges, hardware, and noncombustible threshold are secured, aligned, and in working order with no visible signs of damage.
• No parts are missing or broken.
• Door clearances at the door edge of the door frame, on the pull side of the door, do not exceed clearances listed in 4.8.4 (the clearance under the bottom of the door shall be a maximum of 3/4″) and 6.3.1 (top & edges 1/8″)
• The self-closing device is operational; that is, the active door completely closes when operated from the full open position.
• If a coordinator is installed, the inactive leaf closes before the active leaf.
• Latching hardware operates and secure the door when it is in the closed position.
• Auxiliary hardware items that interfere or prohibit operation are not installed on the door or frame.
• No field modifications to the door assembly have been performed that void the label.
• Gasketing and edge seals, where required, are inspected to verify their presence and integrity.

NFPA 80 require fire door assemblies shall be inspected and tested not less than annually, and a written record of the inspection shall be signed and kept for inspection by the AHJ.

Florida Fire Door Inspection are Fire and Egress Door Assembly Inspection (FDAI)-certified so we can ensure compliance with Life Safety regulations. We will make sure you know what is needed to meet code requirements and protect your building occupants.

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