The golden thread of fire doors is vital to ensuring your fire door is fit for purpose. Which is why fire doorsets offer a traceable and sound foundation for fire resistance and smoke control from a single source.

For #Firedoorsafetyweek we are answering some of the FAQ’s about fire doors. Today’s questions feature testing for External Fire Doorsets 💬.

Q: What is an External Fire Doorset?
A: An external fire doorset is an external pedestrian doorset with fire resistance for which there is the designated standard: BS EN 14351-1:2006+A2:2016/ BS EN 16034:2014.  This is for external flat entrance doorsets with fire resistance/smoke control.  Not to be confused with a fire exit door with panic hardware which may or may not be fire rated.

Q: What is the documentation I should look for in an External Fire Doorset?
A: The Declaration of Performance (DoP) is the legal document which carries the UKCA mark and lists the performance of the essential characteristics including Thermal Transmittance; Wind resistance; Watertightness; Air permeability; Acoustics; Fire classification and Smoke classification.

Q: Can an external fire door be UKCA marked without a Declaration of Performance?
A: No only an external fire doorset with a Declaration of Performance can carry a UKCA mark.

Q: What fire and smoke tests need to be performed to meet the designated standard resulting in a DoP?
A: Primary fire tests and smoke leakage tests to the test standards: BS EN1634-1 and BS EN1634-3, which then feed into EXAPS (Extended Fields of Application) from which a Classification Report is produced. A Certificate of Constancy of Performance is then produced by an Approved Body, listing the classifications and the doorset manufacturer uses this to produce the DoP.

Q: What do we do at Gerda Security Products and why?
A: At Gerda Security Products, we design and we primary test our doorsets to BS EN1634-1 and BS EN1634-3 (as opposed to using cascaded test evidence from a system house), at independent UKAS test houses.

Having an extensive library of primary-owned test evidence means we have a choice of solutions to draw upon for the existing built environment, helping with building safety needs. And we test the same doorset design and construction for all other aspects of performance needed for building regulations.

For external doorsets with fire resistance, we own 16 Extended Field of Application reports, featuring 71 primary-owned tests, totalling over 2096 pages of test evidence on fire resistance and smoke control alone.

This gives an extensive range of styles & options in our UKCA doorset ranges for the housing provider.

For more information, please contact us or visit our external doorset pages: Safer Homes range external, Contemporary rang external.