What third party accreditation should a Fire Door carry?
Within the UK, two commonly recognised associations have certified fire doors. These are the BM Trada Q-Mark fire door scheme and British Woodworking Federation (BWF) Certificate fire door scheme.
BM Trada uses a system known as Q-Mark, in which a series of coloured plugs are inserted into the door to indicate the Fire Door type, the member details, the scope of certification during manufacture and the installation history. The installation will only be demonstrated by way of the coloured plug system when the manufacture has been carried out to the highest level under the Scheme. If the manufacture was not to this level, the installation may be demonstrated by way of a gold BM Trada Installer Label, showing the member details. Any Certified Fire Door repairs or adjustments carried out by a scheme member, may be demonstrated by way of a white BM Trada Maintainer Label, showing the member details along with additional brief information. This is all in addition to the certification that the supplier will issue to you for your Fire Doorsets.
The BWF is another major organisation that provides fire door ratings. BWF fire ratings for Fire Door assemblies are stated in minutes and prefixed by the letters FD, e.g., FD30 refers to a 30-minute Fire Door. Every BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door Assembly carries a permanent and tamper evident label.
Whoever is used within your supply chain, we would always recommend that you insist upon then marking the Fire Doorset with the correct plugs/labels under the Scheme to help demonstrate the certification and performance.
In addition, there are other certifiable systems, all varying in what they offer. These can include; IFC Certification, FIRAS, Certifire, UKTC, to name a few.