Fire door gaps and hinges in Uxbridge
The gap round the leaf is where smoke gets through first.
Get a priceWe read the gap with a gauge like the blue one in the photo. On a typical fire door the target is about 3mm down each side and across the top. Any wider and the intumescent strip has too far to swell when the heat arrives. Any narrower and the leaf starts to rub, somebody takes a plane to it, and the problem gets worse.
Hinges come first
Screws that have pulled out of tired timber let the leaf drop onto the frame, and so does a worn knuckle. We check every screw and swap the hinges three at a time, since a new one between two old ones doesn't last. Chewed holes in the frame get hardwood plugs and fresh pilot holes. A longer screw in the same wrecked hole is no repair at all.
A frame that has moved
Look down the gap from head to floor. If it is tight at the top and opens out towards the bottom, no hinge will cure that, because the frame itself has shifted. Our carpenters strip the architrave, reset the frame, pack it, fix it again and fill the cavity with fire foam. Then the trim goes back and the door is rehung. It is around half a day for a single door, and it is the only way to even out a gap like that.
Under the door
Floors change over the years. A carpet comes up, vinyl goes down, and a leaf that once sat nicely now has 15mm of daylight beneath it. A drop-down seal in the bottom edge can close that without altering the height of the door, but if the gap is more than the maker allows, we say so first.
Planing
The door maker sets how much timber can come off a fire door, and nobody goes past it. We look for the label or the maker's guidance on the edge before a plane comes out. With nothing to spare, the frame gets repaired instead. So a door that sticks is only planed once we know why it sticks. A wide gap on its own is usually a failure too, though it is one of the cheaper repairs when the frame is sound.
Send it over with the postcode and we will price it door by door.
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