Rank: Forum user
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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
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Rank: Super forum user
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Can I ask why the fire door is being wall papered?
I do not know the fire regs, nor can a quick google search throw up anything, but my personal opinion would be a no also, would the glue/wallpaper be fire rated in line with the rating of the door. And isnt there samething to do with door opening/spacings? Would the wallpaper interfere with this. Not to mention the possibility of your fire door/ escape route possibly being on fire, and making the door furniture too hot to handle??
I could be talking pure nonsence above, but like I say my opinion only.
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Rank: Super forum user
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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.
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Rank: Forum user
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FireSafety101 wrote: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.
Even if it did meet the standard it would make it harder to distinguish from other parts of the room. Surely it is preferable to make it blatantly obvious where the fire door is.
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Rank: Super forum user
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No discussion necessary, if not Class 0 then just take it off.
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Rank: Super forum user
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There seem to be contradictory assumptions in teh thread.
Some are saying it mustn't be allowed because wall coverings in means of escape need to be class 0 - which implies an assumption that it's wallpapered on the inside of teh route (as in, within the eg escape staircase).
Some are saying that if you wallpaper the door you won't be able to see where it is - which implies an assumption that it's the face on the room that the door provides escape from that is being proposed to be papered.
I would be quite surprised if there's a regulation that says you can't have wallpaper on a wall that isn't itself within the escape route but which has a fire door set in it. If you can have wallpaper above and to either side of the face of the fire door, and can have any amount of combustible material near a fire door (but outside the route), I'm not sure why you can't have something on the fire door.
As a limiting argument - my fire doors have plastic stickers on them saying 'fire door keep shut'. I haven't seen any classification for them, and thin sheet plastic mostly burns quite well - should fire doors not have stickers saying 'fire door' applied?
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Rank: Super forum user
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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.
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Rank: Super forum user
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A couple of thoughts spring to mind - is there confusion between fire escape doors and fire retaining doors? One you escape out of (eg final exit) and the other holds back the fire? Also are we saying that NOTHING combstible eg Safety posters!!!! can be put on the walls in a fire escape corridor? What about "running man" stickers, as someone alluded to?
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Rank: Super forum user
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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?
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Rank: Super forum user
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mssy spot on - what are you using the premises for? RA - consider the occupancy and risk as required too
Fire safety - picking up the pout mssy has made - I too thought the 'sterile corridor route' had gone with the introduction of risk assessment and self regulation under the order.
I still get older generation FO's coming into my premises telling me to take down staff notice boards in corridors with no ignition source.
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Rank: Super forum user
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FireSafety101 wrote:Why would you wish to have anything combustible just outside the route to safety through a fire door?
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.
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Rank: Super forum user
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OK here is my opinion.
Fire doors on an escape route must be at least half hour fire resisting, wallpaper may reduce that half hour depending on condition and the points mssy makes.
The escape route must be "sterile" to quote DP otherwise the route cannot be guaranteed safe, desks, bookcases, etc. will be obstacles to persons attempting to escape from a fire and may also become involved in the fire if not themselves fire resisting.
Notice boards full of hanging papers are a fire hazard and if it was my fire risk assessment I would recommend re-siting the notice board elsewhere.
A fire door from a room to an escape route is not on an escape route so if it is wallpapered on the inside face I would not worry about it as long as it self closes fully and forms an effective barrier preventing a fire passing through from the room to the escape route.
You see I'm not the dragon you think I am, all I need is the right information and as much as is available.
IMO if anyone thinks you can have combustibles on a fire escape route they need to have another look at rrfso.
How would you feel if a fire travelled along the wall surfaces of an escape route and prevented persons escaping fron the building?
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Rank: Super forum user
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FireSafety101 wrote:OK here is my opinion.
IMO if anyone thinks you can have combustibles on a fire escape route they need to have another look at rrfso.
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
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Rank: Super forum user
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Mssy you are right about the 51 different answers, we are only 2 and we disagree, but that is because we do not see the same picture.
Your example of routes to the staircase not being protected but the staircase is protected takes me to my point about the escape route, I agree your staircase needs to be clear also you can have the routes to the staircase more flexible, because they are only corridoors leading to the escape route. Are the fire doors on the corridoors wallpapered on the face of the corridor side? I doubt it?
The problem here is we see one question then all see different scenarios, I have a vision of a protected route with wallpapered fire doors because that was where the question took me, you have a different picture.
Anyway life goes on, take care,
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Rank: Super forum user
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FireSafety101 wrote: A fire door from a room to an escape route is not on an escape route so if it is wallpapered on the inside face I would not worry about it as long as it self closes fully
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?
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Rank: New forum user
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this forum is really cool! <ahref="http://leicestermercury.co.uk/">yeah!</a>
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Rank: Forum user
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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
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Rank: Super forum user
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I now ask why the question was asked if your local Fire Safety officer is OK with it?
Achrn, do I not have the right to alter my opinion once further information is available, and as a matter of fact I respect the opinion of other like minded individuals.
Your attitude is a little smelly if you don't mind me saying so?
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Rank: Super forum user
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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.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Fire safety your stance regards 'no discussion necessary' provoked the reaction. The 71 act has gone, as duty holders we now have the RA process to manage our risk based on hazards identified.
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Rank: Super forum user
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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.
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Rank: Super forum user
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10MARK.......it is a Care home Mark[/quote wrote:
I am pleased that common sense has prevailed. I have worked in the mental health arena and Trusts I was employed by had the aim of attempting to achieve a balance of fire safety (always the priority) and making the environment less utilitarian and more homely to aid recovery. (which is why staff wore 'civvies' and not uniforms)
In wards and more so in group homes (semi independent accommodation for patients after being discharged and before arriving at home) we chose smaller fire exit signs, used hidden EL and dispensed with multiple fire action notices (only one on a notice board).
I expect that wallpapering the doors is also aimed at softening the healthcare feel to something more domestic. I wholly support that concept, but wish them well with this, as I can't see the paper lasting too long in most care homes as most doors in this environment get more than the average abuse compared to doors in people's homes
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Rank: Super forum user
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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.
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Firesafety101 you have strong opinions on this subject which I respect,however if you wish to ask me a question on my post please ask me about something I actually posted "I now ask why the question was asked if your local Fire Safety officer is OK with it?
"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."
Mark
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Rank: Super forum user
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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.
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Rank: Super forum user
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10MARK, a range of opinions and some tangential smoke and noise, as usual here.
In the absence of hard & fast rules, the immediate and best currently available answer lies with the individual who carried out the fire risk assessment: they know the site, its unique characteristics, the occupants and other personnel and the particular doors under discussion.
Nobody else on here has that intimate level of knowledge which is required to give a definitive answer.
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Rank: New forum user
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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.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I asked an ex fire service colleague of mine who is now Fire Safety and his role involves him inspecting fire risk assessments, about this and he said
"The Fire Risk Assessment would have to justify it".
That's good enough for me.
The problem with the rrfso is nobody knows what they SHOULD do and we are all allowed our own opinions on fire precaitions. Not a problem if we get it right but this thread just proves how many different views there are about one single issue.
He also told me of one time when visiting a premises many years ago he came across a room that was painted all white, the architect was asked to provide Fire exit signs and he asked if they could be White.
The white room was all white no more.
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Rank: Super forum user
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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
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Rank: Super forum user
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Rank: Super forum user
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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.
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Rank: Super forum user
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FireSafety101 wrote:
The problem with the rrfso is nobody knows what they SHOULD do and we are all allowed our own opinions on fire precaitions.
I disagree - but then I would as giving advice on that legislation is what I do most days. The Fire Safety Order (and it's Scottish & NI cousins) are quite clear as to directing the Responsible Person what they must do. Then there is a lot (too much really) of guidance from the basic stuff on the Dept of Communities FS Guides through to BS9999 for a more analytical approach. What would you prefer? A list of prescriptive dos, don'ts and wills and won'ts. We have been there already with the chunky, cumbersome and one-size-fits-all FP Act. Thank God it's gone and a flexible common sense approach is possible
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Rank: Super forum user
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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.
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Rank: Super forum user
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FireSafety101 wrote:..... but when a fire risk assessment is carried out by a not so competent person that's when the preverbal can hit the fan . Now that we CAN agree on :)
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Rank: Super forum user
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Rank: Forum user
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Purely on a matter of taste - no of course not. Who wallpapers doors? It sounds like a bad idea from a 1960s DIY show.
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Rank: Super forum user
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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 .
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Rank: Super forum user
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A nice floral pattern should be OK but wood-chip is a bit old fashioned.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Nonsense. Woodchip is cheap, versatile - I like it!!
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Rank: Super forum user
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Ah but when you paint it will you use Class 0 paint?
I think that may be acceptable?
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