I have been asked (retrospectively) is it ok to wallpaper a fire door.
My initial reaction was absolutely not but would like to justify this stance with more evidence then just my opinion,educated though it is :-)
I have searched without success for a specific regulation to support my opinion or indeed information to contradict it ,over to you on this sunny Friday morning
Mark

No.

Wall coverings on a means of escape need to be Class O fire rated, unless the wallpaper meets this standard get it stripped off.

No discussion necessary, if not Class 0 then just take it off.

Why would you wish to have anything combustible just outside the route to safety through a fire door?

A means of escape must lead to ultimate safety therefore no combustibles or flammables on the route to ultimate safety.

I observed a pair of fire doors recently that looked very good indeed, however immediately above them was a sheet of ply board replacing a glazed panel. The ply had been screwed into position very roughly and no way would it stop a fire or smoke getting through.

Fire doors as much good as a chocolate fireguard sprung to mind.

It is not mandatory to have class 0 in escape routes, so surely some common sense should be applied here, based on the occupancy and use of the premises.

I wouldn't have a huge issue in most premises about papered doors - even in escape routes. I would want to know how the paper is adhered and what measures are in place to stop the edges fraying and becoming exposed (so would ignite easier)

I may have a slightly stricter view on single staircase premises and definitely so if there is sleeping accommodation involved in any premises. Lastly I would find it difficult to accept papered doors if vulnerable persons where occupying the space.

The days of prescriptive (No you cant have 'that' whatever the circumstance and whatever you say!) control measures have gone. It's all common sense /risk assessed based now. I would ask what is the risk for a papered fire door in a bog standard office with AFD, 3 means of escape via protected routes using corridors and stairs which are empty of fire loading and devoid of ignition sources?

Possibly because the room the route to safety serves has wallpapered walls. Are you really advocating that no occupied room has wallpaper? Surely not.

The firedoor closest to my desk as I type has a bookcase next to it, which has some books and files on it. There's a desk within a couple of metres of the door, and that has paper on it too. I wouldn't put a bookcase full of paper inside the route, but is it your view that all firedoors should have exclusion zones around them into which combustibles must not encroach? How big a zone is appropriate?

I wish to have the bookcase and desk there because I don't want to have a arid space in the office that can't be used for anything. A 'no combustibles within 5m of the firedoors' rule, for example, would reduce the number of people that can work in the room.

It seems excessive to me to say that not only a route but also a large margin around all entrances to an exit rout must be class 0.

The flexibility offered by the Fire Safety Order (& it's Scottish & Irish cousins) is the best part of working in the wonderful world of fire safety. Applying the old FP Act, with it's prescriptive 'one size fits all' standards could have been done by a robot or trained monkey in comparison!

But the down side from the RA approach is that you ask 50 fire safety specialists how long is a piece of string, you will get 51 different replies! So Firesafety101, I respect your professional opinion, but I am afraid I hold a different one.

IMO, to talk about keeping corridors clear of furniture is too simplistic, when the width, height of the space is not known, neither is the occupancy or use of the premises. Also, if it isn't a protected corridor, combustibles and ignition sources are acceptable (subject to the findings of the FRA).

In one very large office building on my books, there are 10 staircases serving 14 floors, and up to 40m travel distances from office spaces to the place of relative safety in a protected staircase. Within those 40m long corridors we have offices without fire doors and closers, plus recycle bins and photocopiers. It's only once evacuees reach the staircase are they provided with a MOE free from combustibles & ignition sources. Are you saying that approach is wrong and the whole of the route (including the first 40m) should be free from furniture and ignition sources?

With regards to the quote above; the Fire Safety Order does not make any prescriptive requirement for corridors to be clear of combustibles. In fact the use of the term 'where necessary' at least twice in Article 14 provides that any control measures are all determined by the findings of the fire risk assessment.

So where Article 14(1) says ......... "routes to emergency exits from premises and the exits themselves are kept clear at all times" - the important 'where necessary' part at the beginning of the sentence means just that. If it is not deemed necessary by the FRA, then the RP does not need to do it.

Take the 'at all times' phrase above - it's nonsense. Final exits can be barred, chained and bricked up when a shop is empty as long as the FRA says its acceptable

Which rather contradicts "No discussion necessary, if not Class 0 then just take it off." and "Why would you wish to have anything combustible just outside the route to safety through a fire door?"

The latter comment is explicit that you are (though now, apparently, 'were') advocating that you should not have combustibles even outside the route. Unless teh whole building is going to be free of combustibles then teher are always going to be combustibles just outside teh area that's free of them. I'm not sure what an office free of combustibles looks like - no paper, no desks.

So to return to the question I had in mind (though possibly didn't ask explicitly enough) is there actually any guidance that advocates a combustibles-free zone around fire doors into eg a protected staircase? Clearly there needs to be a clear route top the door - you couldn't put a bookcase or desk across the doorway - but is there actually any guidance not to put a bookcase on the wall alongside a fire door into the staircase?

Well this has had some good debate,it is a Care home and the door has the fire exit sign above it with emergency lighting.
I have had advice that the Fire Service in at least one region are relaxed about it as long as the door is still recognisable as one and well signed.Both apply here.
Thank you for your opinions,
Mark

Fire doors are designed, manufactured and tested to approved standards that do not include surface coverings. By applying a covering to a fire door may affect the whole installation of the fire door and its associated equipment, these are installed by approved installers who, are certificated, as are the doors, I am sure they would not apply wallpaper.

Would you allow non fire rated glazing to a fire door?

One problem with surface coverings is the possibility of air bubbles where full adhesion has not happened, these allow flame to travel under the surface which results in the burning covering falling to the floor thus spreading the fire.

The answer probably lies with the fire insurer. I request anyone to seek guidance from their fire insurer and post whet they say regarding wallpapering fire doors. Simple enough and I will apologise if I am wrong.

So once the paper starts getting tatty it then increases the fire hazard as it will catch fire more easily and the door then becomes unuseable?

Further, where does the smoke go, yes upward, and will tend to hide the over door signage that you rely on to distinguish the door as a fire door and exit?

To coin a phrase, messing about with the required fire precautions is simply "playing with fire", especially in care homes.

10MARK I thought you did ask the question?

Now you say it OK as long as the door is still recognisable as one and well signed?

As I say the smoke goes up and will tend to hide the signs, and I've never even seen a wallpapered fire door so how can I be expected to recognise one that is wallpapered as a fire door?

There is another issue, one that has caused a fatality in the past, (I'm trying to locate the information) a service man, (RAF, or MOD?) was killed in a building that was part below ground and the doors were flush with the walls. It was because he could not see the exit door to open it to escape that he perished in the fire.

I have experience as a firefighter of entering rooms in care homes and similar establishments, searching for persons reported trapped, and closing the door behind me so as to prevent smoke entering the rest of the premises. People still evacuating and the smoke from that room may affect others.

I then had to locate the door to exit the room. I think that if the doors are wallpapered it would hinder locating the doors and slow down the exit from the room.

You have to remember that a fire situation removes all normal reactions and tends to make people panic, that is when they need to see where they are going and what doors they need to open, in a hurry.

Until I heard it was a care home I was going to say that personally I wouldn't accept it was acceptable from a risk assessment standpoint. Partly because the next time you try and convince people to keep fire routes clear and not line the escape routes with combustible material they will point out that you allowed someone else to wall paper a fire door.
But I can understand the need to make it look like a home rather than an office environment.

If the fire officer was OK with it I would get this in an email or report and keep it for reference.

I have been watching this post with interest and now think its time I jumped in with my tuppence worth!
What is the difference with wallpapering a fire door and painting it? Surely it still retains its fire protection of 30 minutes?
Ok so the wallpaper could fray and be ignited. In which case would you try to exit through it while its on fire?
The smoke could block out the exit sign. Yes but only in the rook with the fire door on fire and in which case you wont be exiting that way! Cold smoke seals will prevent smoke escaping the room and affecting any other escape signage.
So the answer comes down to source of ignition. Would you place a source of ignition close to a fire door that would inhibit escape?
The only steadfast rule where I would not consider it is where there is an arson or vandalism risk such as residential children's homes.
Kevin

Kevkel what about the door becoming invisible and it being a fire exit as well as a fire door?

When I was in the fire brigade one of our senior officers had an office with 2 doors. One door was the entrance/exit, the other was a wardrobe, both doors were similar.

On at least one occasion and following a promotion interview a member of the brigade stood to attention, saluted the senior officer, turned and opened what he thought was the exit door, but it was the wardrobe door!

True story.

Messy here we go again, disagreeing with each other's opinion.

That's not a problem to me, or you because we are like minded people but when a fire risk assessment is carried out by a not so competent person that's when the preverbal can hit the fan and the disagreement kicks in.

If you are interested in this discussion you will be interested in this

http://www.ifsecglobal.c...door-of-the-year-winner/

I for one can believe these because I have seen most of them before.

This is something else my Fire Safety officer friend stated,

A fire door has a fire resistance time value that has been tested to destruction , ie 30 mins , 60 mins etc . in a rig . Put wallpaper on that door , what is the surface spread of flame value on the paper , Class O , Class 1 , who knows , as Tommy has also said , the door could be mistaken for a wall and not a way out of the room in an emergency .

Nonsense. Woodchip is cheap, versatile - I like it!!