Intumescent strips and smoke seals
The cheapest repair on most reports, and the one most often done wrong.
Get a priceRun your thumbnail down the edge of a fire door. There should be a strip in there somewhere.
It is usually one strip doing two jobs. The hard part swells in a fire and closes the gap. The brush or fin keeps cold smoke out, and smoke gets to people first.
Paint kills the brush. Once it goes stiff it is just decoration.
What we find
Painted seals, mostly. A rented flat gets a fresh coat between tenants, and whoever holds the roller doesn't stop at the edge of the door.
Next, new strip stuck over old strip. The door starts to bind, somebody planes the edge so it shuts, and now there is less door where it matters.
Hotels get a different fault. The seal gets ripped out at trolley height and everything above and below it looks fine.
How we change them
Old strip out. Groove cleaned. Sticking new on top of old is how half of these faults start.
Width matters. The label or the certificate tells us what the door was tested with. No paperwork? We match what is already in there and put that on the report.
Then we shut the door and check it latches. New seals push back harder than worn ones. A closer that coped last week can stop short, so we set it again before we leave.
Frame or door
Seals sit in the frame, the door edge, or both. If they are in the frame the door stays hung and a resident has it back in minutes.
On a pair of doors the meeting edge in the middle is the one people forget. We do it every time.
On your report
Seal faults are normally marked as simple to put right, and they are. A floor of them is often a day.
The cost is mostly getting a carpenter to site, so doing a whole floor or a whole block makes each door cheaper.
A painted seal usually means the hinges and the label got painted too. We check both while we are there.
Questions we get asked
My seals have no brush. Is that wrong?
Not always. Some doors use a separate smoke seal and some never had one. Your report should say if yours needs it.
Send it to us with the postcode and we will price it door by door.
Get a price