How to fail a fire door inspection (and what to do about it).

We inspect a lot of fire doors. Most failures cluster around five problems. Here they are, in rough order of frequency, with what each one typically costs to remediate.

1. Painted-over intumescent seals

The single most common failure. Painters fill the seal groove flush, killing the seal's expansion. Often combined with seals that have been compressed flat by years of use.

Fix: strip and replace seals. £35–£60 per door including labour.

2. Threshold gap over 8mm

Old doors warp downwards. New doors get hung with the gap measured wrong. Either way, anything over 8mm is a fail — that's the gap a fire-rated bottom seal can't bridge.

Fix: either re-hang the door, plant a timber threshold strip, or fit a drop seal. £40–£120 per door depending on solution.

3. Self-closer removed or wedged

Tenants disable them. They're a legal requirement on every fire door, full stop. Re-installation + a polite tenant letter about why it must stay.

Fix: £70–£140 per door for a quality CE-marked overhead closer (don't fit cheap concealed closers — they fail within 18 months).

4. Wrong or worn hardware

Standard mortice locks fitted to fire doors. Only two screws in each hinge leaf instead of three. Builder's-merchant hinges with no fire rating. All void the door's certification.

Fix: upgrade to fire-rated hinges and lock-set. £80–£180 per door.

5. No certification label

Even if the door is genuinely FD30-rated, no label = no proof. Inspector can't certify it, so it fails.

Fix: if you can find the manufacturer (paperwork, supplier records), request a duplicate certificate. If you can't, the door has to be replaced. £450–£900 per replacement door fully fitted.

What the timeline looks like

For typical failures 1–4 above, you're looking at a remediation visit within a week and full sign-off within 10 days. For replacement doors, allow 3–4 weeks for the door to be manufactured and fitted.

Critical safety failures (e.g. a door that won't latch at all) are handled within 24 hours — we'll come back the same day if your inspection turns one up.