The Building Safety Bill and Amendments to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005

Once the Building Safety bill gains Royal Assent it will place on duty holders who commission building work and participate in the design and construction process (i.e client,  designers contractors) a set of responsibilities for ensuring building safety is carefully considered throughout the project and the building is fully compliant with building regulations, thereby ensuring residents at home or work are safe.

Regulation 38 of the Building Regulations for England & Wales is a requirement to provide fire safety information to the “responsible person “at the completion of a project. It links the Building Regulations to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. (FSO)

UK Government is in the process to make amendments to the FSO to drive fire safety improvements for regulated premises.  Such amendments to include:

Increase transparency of regulated activities through the recording and sharing of fire safety information, including with residents.

Encourage competence in those appointed to undertake fire risk assessments, including the fire risk assessor sector.

Proportionately align the FSO to the build safety regime.

Support greater compliance with, and effective enforcement of, FSO requirements.

FORZA Technical Data 

In respect of all Forza passive fire products, it is our mission to make available to all duty holders and the public clear, unambiguous, accurate, up to date and accessible information in relation to correct installation methods, ironmongery suitability and permissible repairs to Forza door assemblies. 

The Forza third party (IFC) field of applications and certificates dispatched with each door or fire screen are currently being revalidated and updated to support our technical data mission.

FD30(s) Field of Application PAR/10321/rev L & Forza Certificate. Complete & Issued March 2022

FD60(s) Field of Application PAR/10896/rev I & Forza Certificate. Complete & Issued May 2022

FD90      Field of Application PAR/10918/rev E & Forza Certificate. In process for issue 2023

FD120    Field of Application PAR/10922/rev E & Forza Certificate. In process for issue 2023

FD30/FD60 Glazed timber screens   Field of Application PAR/11294/rev E & Forza Certificate. In process for issue 2023 

FD30/FD60 Q Mark (BM trada) Fire & Security door sets Field of Application WF415741 rev D & Forza Certificate In process for issue 2023.

• The front page contains important details which must be completed to validate the certificate.
  

• Forza staff will apply a unique number and mark the relevant box according to the performance designation FD30 or FD30 S. This number will also be applied to the fire door tamper-proof label affixed to the top edge of the door leaf.
  

• The installing contractor must complete the boxes highlighted in green.
  

• The certificate should be signed and retained in the Building Safety Manual in accordance with BS9999:2017 section 9, annex H.

It is of paramount importance that the supporting construction is of a type that has been tested or assessed to provide in excess of the required fire resistance, at the required size, when incorporating timber fire door assembly openings.

Consideration should be given to any raised access floors which may also form a part of the supporting construction. The line of fire protection beneath a raised floor should continue in the same plane as the fire door assembly and the construction of a raised floor should allow for robust fixing of the assembly and provide adequate support for the duration of the required period of fire resistance.

The frame should be affixed to the supporting construction strictly in accordance with our Installation Guidance, which can be found on our website and is attached to each fire door upon delivery.

A range of gap tolerances and sealing methods including intumescent mastic with mineral fibre materials or two types of fire door expanding foam are available. Please refer to our guide for detailed information.

A range of frame types is available which, certification permitting, afford various design options such as flat liner, split liner, integral architraves & shadow gap details. Metal frames are also permitted in full height formats for single and double door assembly solutions. Please see our website or fire door certificate for further details.

Forza Doors Ltd is able to offer many options for side lights and fan lights as part of the fire door assembly. Our fire door certificate illustrates all elevation types from type A to Type O. It is now possible for example, subject to size limitations, to install a fan light over a double door set with a single side light to each side of the door assembly.

The gap between the door and the timber frame, double door meeting stiles, door(s) and overpanel should be between 1.5mm to 4.0mm. The gap between the bottom of the leaf and the threshold of either boards/masonry/ceramics or (flush) timber to be a maximum of 10mm. In all instances where smoke control is required with no drop seal the gap should only be 3mm.

Forza standard vision panel styles V1 to V9 are constructed with a laminate uninsulated fire glass (FD30/0.7mm) with either Bolection or quirk bead styles. The glass area in styles V1 to V8 has less than 20% of the leaf size on a 1981 x 838mm (or greater) and are therefore deemed to be partially insulating door assemblies using the criteria given in section 7 of BS476: part22: 1987 and thus evaluated to section 7 for FD30/30 integrity and insulation. For use of Forza Style V9 or any bespoke vision panels greater than 20% of the leaf size, the intended location of the door assembly is to be considered i.e. escape routes / protected stairway (refer to Approved Doc B v1 & v2 Table B5).

Hardware is one of the most heavily used elements in a building. Door hardware plays a pivotal role in the fire door assembly's fire safety, so the application of fully tested and certified hardware solutions should never be undervalued.

Forza Doors continue to raise the standards of tested hardware inclusion within our certification. Our Hardware Suitability & Installation Guide provides guidance on the various items of essential and non-essential hardware which can be installed with our fire door assemblies.

Our guide illustrates the various size and position tolerances that should be observed, along with reference to the standards which are applicable to specific hardware.

All hardware that is installed into the door aperture should be properly tested.

Forza Doors continuously strives to provide ongoing improvements to the range of hardware that may be used with our fire door assemblies, which is fully backed by our own primary test evidence and is written explicitly into our Field of Application. This ensures not only a robustly tested hardware solution but also affords a fully audited and regularly reviewed environment upon which our guidance is based.

A range of surface and concealed overhead door closers are suitable for use with our fire door assemblies.

We have recently added digital locks to our range of permitted hardware, backed by primary test evidence.

We are able to permit the use of multiple spy hole viewers at differing heights, subject to certification requirements, which enable compliance with access considerations within Building Regulations.

Forza Doors Ltd has undertaken a two year program of intensive testing, designed to provide fully tested & evidence-based capabilities for our fire door assemblies to incorporate different types of electronic access controls from hotel style battery operated locking/monitoring systems to electronic solenoid mortice and frame head locks and magnetic hold closed devices.

All of our electronic access control capabilities are fully backed by our own primary test evidence and are fully included within our Field of Application documents, meaning that not only have we tested each item fully but the test has also been properly witnessed and reviewed by our Fire Consultants IFC Ltd and is part of ongoing reviews and surveillance audits in accordance with our certification requirements Please see our website & Hardware Suitability & Installation Guide for a full list of tested solutions.

Plastic or metal safety signs that comply with BS5499 may be glued or screwed to the face of the door leaf. A minimum 40mm spacing from leaf edge, hardware or vision panel(s) is required.

With a keen eye towards the requirement for ongoing fire door maintenance, Forza Doors Ltd has undertaken extensive testing in UKAS approved laboratories to enable us to determine robust and effective minor repair methods for our products.

This enables our customers to provide fully tested repair solutions, negating the need to fully replace damaged fire doors or their frames in many instances.

The repair methods which we are now able to provide, cover the following:

• Hinge infills
• Lipping section replacement
• Full lipping replacement
• Mortice lock/latch infill
• Flush bolt infill
• Vision panel glazing bead repair or replacement

• Through hole repair
• Architrave replacement
• Leaf face recess reinstatement
• Concealed closer infill
• Over size hinge mortice infill with intumescent mastic
• Screw hole repair

We are able to advise the correct timber and adhesives to be used for each repair. All of our repair methods are fully backed by our own primary test evidence and are included explicitly within our Field of Application documents.

Our new fire door certificate contains space to record any repairs in the future. Please see our PDF (FZD5136) for further details.