Damaged fire doors

Edges chewed by trolleys, old holes, cracked glass.

A tube of filler is not a repair.

Filler cannot hold a lock in place and it does not stop fire. A door repaired that way gives no protection.

The edge of a white painted door cut back to bare timber

Edges

A door edge gets planed back to clear a carpet or a frame, and the bare timber stays bare.

Cutting a fire door down is allowed only a little. After that it stops being the door that was tested.

If the damage is small, we cut it back to sound timber and let in a new hardwood lipping. Glued, trimmed flush and ready for paint.

If too much has gone, we say so.

Holes

Old holes come from lock sets, hooks, spyholes and bolts. A small one goes right through the thickest part of the door.

We drill them clean and plug them with hardwood, glue and cut them flush. Not filler. Larger pockets are patched with timber cut to fit.

A mortice lock takes a chunk out of the door. It needs an intumescent kit round the lock so the weak spot is covered.

Two small holes in the painted face of a door, one showing raw timber

Kick damage and corners

Cleaning machines and trolleys hit the same corner on a busy corridor. A repair at the bottom corner is simple, but the same corner will be hit again. A kick plate is cheaper than coming back.

Glass

A vision panel in a fire door must be fire rated glass, held in the right beading and glazing tape. Ordinary glass in a fire door is a failure.

If the panel is cracked, the edge of the glass often carries a stamp in one corner. Send us a close-up of it and we can tell you what it is.

The corner of a glazed panel set into a white painted door

When we replace the door

Some doors cannot be saved. The edge is split right through, the core is crushed, or it has been cut down too far.

At school and almshouse sites in Luton, 140 of 147 doors were repaired. The seven that were not had gone too far to be repaired honestly.

When a door goes, we advise a plain certified doorset. Panels and mouldings cut into a fire door can void its rating.

Questions we get asked

Will the repair show?

A little, until it is painted. We leave the door ready for your decorator.

Do you paint the door afterwards?

We leave it primed unless we agree otherwise when we price.

Also useful

Areas we cover

Have a list of failed doors?

Send it with the postcode and we will come back with a fixed price per door.

Get a price