A Simple Guide To Intumescent Seals And Hardware
In order to stop fire spreading through a building, it’s important not to scrimp on products like intumescent strips and smoke seals. We’ve created an easy-to-understand guide to ensure that you’re fully compliant when fitting fire doors.
Fires can spread so fast through a building; be it residential or commercial, with the added risk of smoke damage to health and buildings.
If the fire can be contained, chances are, the people inside are much safer and the damage is much more minimal. It’s well known that there are fire doors with fire door hinges that will stop the spread of fire for 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes, 120 minutes or even more. But what good is a fire door if the flames or smoke can lick beneath the door, through the lock, or even around the hinges?
We can eliminate these concerns by providing just a few, simple items for you, as below. With tragedies like Grenfell behind us, we’re here to ensure that you have the knowledge to stay up to date and compliant.
What do intumescent seals do?
In the event of a fire, intumescent seals rapidly expands to provide additional protection and seal off the cavity area (or the cut-out for a lock/hinge etc.) This helps maintain the door’s integrity and provides extra protection.
Intumescent seals should be fitted to every fire door. When fitted correctly, these are designed to expand and fill the gaps between a door leaf and the frame. On a normal day-to-day basis, a fire door will have a small gap between the door and the frame, to allow it to open and close with ease.
How do I know which intumescent products I need?
If a fire door is being fitted with ‘essential’ door hardware and fire door closers, these will need to be installed with the relevant intumescent to suit the required fire rating of the door. Read more in our guide to UK Fire Door Ratings. Click on the points below to view some of the individual intumescent products we provide:
- If the door has hinges, it will need a Prostyle Hinge Intumescent Pad
- If the door has a sashlock, it will need a Prostyle Sashlock Intumescent Kit
- If the door has a deadlock, it will need a Prostyle Deadlock Intumescent Kit
- If the door has a flushbolt, it will need a Prostyle Flushbolt Intumescent Kit
- When there is a gap between the door and the frame, a Prostyle Intumescent Seal will stop the spread of fire
- For all fire doors a Prostyle Intumescent Fire Only or Fire and Smoke Intumescent Seal must be fitted.
