Recently there has been an increased interest in any product or installation that is supposed to be fire rated, for a good reason. This extra scrutiny has brought to light some interesting things which you should be aware of especially if involved in the installation of fire doors.
Fire doors are not the same as fitting any old door, the importance of getting it right will make the difference between whether it would last 5 or 60 minutes in the event of a fire. There are several components that make up a door set which need to be considered:
1/ The door
Fire doors are rated for either 30 or 60 minutes and are marked up with FD30 or FD60 for easy identification.
2/ Intumescent Strips
These must be fitted to all fire doors as they will swell up when exposed to head to slow the passage of air and fire through the gaps round the door. These intumescent strips are available as fire only or as a fire and smoke option (shown above) which comes with brushes. Gaps above and down the side of the door should not exceed 3mm, with no more than 10mm at the bottom.
3/ Ironmongery
Suitable ironmongery which is fire rated and CE marked should be chosen. Complete door sets are increasingly popular for the reason that they come pre hung with compliant hinges and locks.
4/ Door lining
This is arguably the most important part, there is no point of having a nice fire door if the air or smoke can just go round the door. With recent increased scrutiny on the fitting of fire doors, it has come to light that there is only one fully tested and accredited fire door installation method currently available on the market. See below:
Blue60 
This foam is the only one on the market that has been independently tested in all common configurations giving peace of mind and removing any issues with compliance.
When used with the Blue60 fire rated packers it will give 60 minutes of fire protection to timber doorsets without the use of extra mastics or sealants.
For more detailed information on the Blue60 system please visit: www.info.freewayfixings.com/blog/blue60
How to use Blue60:
- Install door lining with equal spacing around it leaving no bigger than 30mm gaps.
- Use the Blue60 packers and screw the lining into place, how the packers are placed is not important.
- Apply Blue60 foam leaving no gaps
- Once cured trim off excess foam flush to the lining
- Fit architrave
- Hang door
- Pat yourself on the back and move on to the next one
Simple and effective. There's no need to stress the importance of fitting fire doors correctly as you will already be aware of that but using this Blue60 system makes it the easiest to achieve.
Blue60 is available from stock, for bulk rates or ongoing requirements just give us a call or visit our ebay listing to place an order:
If you have any questions please ask.
