Fire Door Regulations: What the Law Actually Requires

Fire door rules in England changed on 23 January 2023, and most of what is written about them online is either out of date or aimed at somebody else’s building. This page sets out what the law says, who it applies to, and what you are supposed to do about it.

We do not sell fire doors and we do not inspect them. This is here so you can work out what applies to your building before anyone quotes you for anything.

Which law applies to you

Three different sets of rules apply to fire doors in England. Each one does a different job.

• The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This is the main duty. It applies to almost every building that is not a single private home, and it makes one named person, the responsible person, accountable for fire safety.
• The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022. These came into force on 23 January 2023 and added specific, dated duties for blocks of flats. This is where the fire door checking rules live.
• Building regulations, meaning Approved Document B. These decide where fire doors must be fitted in the first place, and they bite when a building is put up, converted or extended.

The first two are about keeping doors working. The third is about whether you needed a door there at all. People mix them up constantly.

The 11 metre rule, and why it matters more than the number of flats

The 2022 regulations apply where the top storey of the building is more than 11 metres above ground level. The government guidance says that is typically a building of more than four storeys.

It is a height test, not a flat count. A four storey block with twenty flats may fall outside it. A taller building with six may fall inside it. If you are near the line, get the height measured properly rather than counting floors and hoping.

Below 11 metres the 2022 checking rules do not apply, but the 2005 Order still does. You are still responsible for the fire doors. You simply do not have the fixed three month and twelve month timetable written into law.

What you actually have to do, and how often

“Best endeavours” is the phrase that causes the arguments. A flat entrance door is a fire door, but it is also somebody’s front door and you cannot force your way in. The law recognises that. What it asks for is a genuine, recorded effort.

You must keep a record, over every twelve month period, of the steps you took. Where access to a flat was refused, that has to be recorded too. The guidance is blunt about persistent refusals: you might eventually need to consider legal action.

The check itself, in the government’s own words

The official guidance lists exactly what a check covers. It is shorter than most people expect.

For doors in communal areas there are two extras: air transfer grilles, and on double doors, whether the door selector closes the leaves in the right order.

The gap: 4mm, not 2mm to 4mm

The figure usually quoted is a gap of between 2mm and 4mm. That comes from how doors are made and fitted. It is not what the law asks you to check.

The government guidance says something simpler. The industry standard is that the gap should never be more than 4mm. At the bottom of the door, the gap should be as small as practicable.

A £1 coin is roughly 3mm thick. That is the everyday check people use, and it is close enough to tell you whether you have a problem or not.

What FD30 and FD60 actually mean

The number is minutes. An FD30 door has been tested to hold back fire for 30 minutes, an FD60 for 60.

• FD30 is the common one in flats, houses and lower risk parts of commercial buildings.
• FD60 turns up in taller buildings, care homes, hospitals and where the escape route needs longer protection.
• FD90 and FD120 exist but are specialist, usually industrial or high risk storage.

The rating belongs to the whole door set, not the door leaf. The frame, the hinges, the seals, the closer and the glazing were all tested together. Swap the hinges for a cheaper pair and the rating no longer means anything, because the thing that was tested no longer exists.

That is also why a fire door is heavy and why a joiner cannot make one on site. It is a tested product with a certificate behind it.

Fire doors in an ordinary house

Most homes are not covered by the 2005 Order at all. Building regulations still apply, and they require fire doors in three situations.

• Three or more storeys. Rooms opening onto the stairway need fire doors, because that stairway is the only way out.
• Loft conversions. Turning a loft into a room usually turns a two storey house into a three storey one, which triggers the same requirement. This is the one that catches homeowners out.
• An integral garage. The door between the garage and the house should be an FD30 with smoke seals and a self-closing device, even in a two storey home.

Self-closers. These are no longer required on ordinary internal doors in a home. The door into an integral garage is the exception, and it is the only door inside a normal house that still needs one.

The rating for stairway doors is not settled. A 20 minute standard is quoted in some places and FD30 in others. FD30 is what gets fitted in practice and what most building control officers expect. Ring your local building control and ask before you buy the doors.

Commercial buildings

There is no separate fire door regulation for offices, shops and factories. The 2005 Order applies, and your fire risk assessment decides what is needed and how often it is checked.

That is deliberately open ended. The law says what has to be achieved, not how often to check. In practice the fire risk assessment should state the checking interval, and a six month cycle is common in buildings in regular use. If your assessment does not say, that is a gap in the assessment, not a licence to do nothing.

Signs, hinges and the details people get wrong

Three things come up over and over on inspection reports, and none of them are complicated.

• Signs. Fire doors in communal and workplace areas should be marked. “Fire door keep shut” on doors that are meant to stay closed, on both sides where people approach from both directions. “Fire door keep locked” on cupboards and risk rooms. Doors inside a private flat do not need signs.
• Hinges. Three hinges is the normal specification on a fire door, and they should be the fire rated ones supplied with the door set rather than whatever was in the van. Missing or loose screws are one of the most commonly recorded faults, and one of the cheapest to fix.
• Thresholds and floor coverings. A new carpet fitted under an existing fire door can leave too big a gap, or stop the door closing properly. It happens far more often than people expect.

The faults found most often

If you are walking a building for the first time, these are what you will actually find, roughly in order of how often they turn up.

1. Doors wedged or propped open. Usually for convenience, usually on the busiest door in the building.
2. Closers that do not close. Either adjusted until they are too weak, or the door binds on the frame and stops an inch short.
3. Gaps too big at the head or sides, often after the door or frame has moved.
4. Damaged or painted over seals. Years of redecorating does this on its own.
5. Loose or missing hinge screws.
6. Holes drilled through the door for cables, chains and spy holes fitted without a fire rated kit.
7. Ordinary doors fitted where a fire door should be, which is the expensive one to put right.

The first two account for most of what an enforcing officer sees, and both are free to fix.

Who is responsible

The 2005 Order puts the duty on the responsible person. In a workplace that is usually the employer. In a block of flats it is normally the freeholder or the managing agent, for the communal areas.

You cannot contract this away. Hiring a contractor to do the checks is sensible, but if it goes wrong the enforcing authority comes to the responsible person. What a competent contractor gives you is evidence that you took it seriously, not a transfer of the duty.

What happens if you ignore it

Fire doors are also the easiest thing for an inspecting officer to check. Wedged open, missing seals, a closer that does not close. All of it is visible in five minutes with no equipment, so it is usually the first thing looked at.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 are, as the name says, England only. The 11 metre rule and the three month and twelve month checks do not apply elsewhere in the UK.

Scotland works under the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005 and its own building standards. Wales has its own building regulations and its own fire safety changes. Northern Ireland has separate legislation again.

If your building is outside England, use the guidance for your own nation. The dates and intervals on this page are English law and do not carry across.

Fire door regulations: questions people ask

Do I need a specialist to check fire doors?

Not for the routine checks. The government guidance says plainly that the checks under regulation 10 should be simple and basic and that you should not need to engage a specialist. A detailed inspection by a qualified inspector is a different job, and it is worth having when doors are old, damaged or you inherited a building with no records.

How often should fire doors be checked?

In England, in a block where the top storey is above 11 metres: communal doors at least every three months, flat entrance doors at least every twelve. Everywhere else, whatever your fire risk assessment says.

Can a fire door be held open?

Only with a device that releases it when the alarm sounds. A wedge, a bin or a hook is not allowed and is one of the most common breaches found.

Can I paint a fire door?

Ordinary decorating is generally fine. What causes problems is thick build up of paint on the edges and over the seals, because that stops the seal expanding and stops the door closing properly.

Does a fire door have to have intumescent strips?

Usually yes, but not always. The government guidance says missing seals may be acceptable depending on what the fire risk assessment concluded. That is a judgement for the assessment, not for the person doing the three monthly check.

Are the rules different for a house in multiple occupation?

Yes. HMOs are covered by housing law as well as fire safety law, and councils set their own licensing conditions on top. Fire doors are one of the first things checked on an HMO licence inspection.

My flat entrance door is my property. Can they insist?

They can ask, and they must make a genuine effort to check it. They cannot force entry. Refusals get recorded, and persistent refusal can end up in front of a court. The door protects the shared escape route, not just the flat behind it.

Where to go from here

If you are responsible for a building and are not sure whether your fire risk assessment covers the doors properly, that is a question for a competent assessor, not a door company.

Nobody is licensed to write a fire risk assessment in the UK, so the checking falls to you. We set out how to do that here: how to check a fire risk assessor is competent. If you want to know what one should cost before you ring anyone, see what a fire risk assessment costs.

Sources

• Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 fire door guidance, published by the Home Office on GOV.UK
• The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
• Approved Document B, Fire Safety, Volume 1: Dwellings