Fire Door Remedials: How Managing Agents Should Handle Failed Inspections

Inspecting fire doors is the easy part. The hard part is what happens after — because most doors fail. FDIS data from over 100,000 inspections shows that 75% of fire doors don't meet the required standard. If you manage residential blocks over 11 metres in England, that translates into hundreds of doors needing some form of remedial work.

Fire door remedials aren't optional. Under regulation 10 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, the Responsible Person must inspect fire doors on a quarterly and annual cycle. The broader duty to maintain fire doors in working order comes from Article 17 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. In practice, an inspection that identifies defects without a plan to resolve them is a compliance gap.

This guide covers how to prioritise, commission, and evidence remedial works across a portfolio of blocks.

What Counts as Remedial Work?

Fire door remedials is a catch-all for any corrective action needed after an inspection finds a defect. The scope ranges from quick fixes to full door replacements:

Minor remedials (typically the lowest cost per door):

Replacing missing or damaged intumescent strips
Fitting new cold smoke seals
Tightening or replacing loose hinge screws
Fitting "Fire Door Keep Shut" signage
Adjusting door closer tension

Moderate remedials:

Replacing a faulty self-closing device
Re-hanging a door that has dropped on its hinges
Planing or trimming a door to correct excessive gaps (if the door is solid — this doesn't work for all constructions)
Replacing damaged glazing beads or non-fire-rated glass

Major remedials (the most expensive category):

Full door replacement where the door leaf is delaminated, warped beyond repair, or has been modified (cat flap, letterbox) in a way that compromises the fire rating
Frame replacement where the frame is split, rotten, or not properly fire-stopped to the surrounding wall
Upgrading a non-fire-rated door that was incorrectly fitted as a replacement

How to Prioritise Defects

With 75% of doors likely needing attention, you can't fix everything at once. Prioritise by the impact on fire safety:

Critical — fix within days:

Self-closing device not working (door won't close in a fire)
Missing or severely damaged intumescent strips (fire can bypass the door)
Excessive gaps over 4mm (smoke and fire can pass through)
Cracked or non-fire-rated glazing

Important — fix within 2–4 weeks:

Missing fire rating label (can't confirm the door is fire-rated)
One or two hinge screws missing (door may drop over time)
Minor frame damage not affecting seal contact
Smoke seals partially missing

Monitor — schedule at next maintenance cycle:

Cosmetic damage that doesn't affect fire performance
Slight wear to door closer mechanism
Signage faded but still legible

This framework aligns with the practical intent of the government's regulation 10 guidance — defects that affect fire safety should be addressed as a priority. For a detailed breakdown of what to check, see our complete inspection requirements guide.

The Remediation Workflow

Every defect needs a trail from discovery to resolution. Without a consistent process, remediation backlogs build up — especially when you're managing 10–20 blocks with overlapping quarterly cycles.

Step 1: Record the Defect

At the point of inspection, record:

Which building and which specific door (floor, location identifier)
What the defect is (specific: "intumescent strip missing from hinge side, full length" — not just "seal issue")
Severity (critical / important / monitor)
Photo evidence of the defect

Step 2: Scope the Fix

For each defect, determine:

Can it be fixed by your maintenance team, or does it need a fire door specialist?
Is it a repair or a replacement?
Are multiple doors in the same building affected by the same issue? (Batch repairs are cheaper)

Step 3: Get Quotes and Commission

For anything beyond minor adjustments:

Get quotes from at least two fire door contractors
Confirm the contractor understands fire door specifications (a general handyman replacing intumescent strips with the wrong grade creates a new compliance problem)
Agree a timeline that matches your priority framework

Step 4: Evidence the Completed Fix

This is where many managing agents fall down. The work gets done, but the evidence doesn't get captured:

Before and after photos — timestamped
Contractor certificate or confirmation of what was done, materials used, and date completed
Updated inspection record showing the defect is now resolved

Step 5: Close Out

Mark the defect as resolved in your records with the date and evidence reference. This closes the loop so the next quarterly inspection starts from a clean baseline rather than carrying forward unresolved items.

When Leaseholders Won't Cooperate

Flat entrance doors are often the leaseholder's responsibility under the lease, but the managing agent remains the Responsible Person for fire safety compliance. If a leaseholder refuses remedial works to their flat entrance door:

Write formally explaining the fire safety requirement and the defects found
Reference the lease terms — most leases require leaseholders to maintain their doors to a standard that doesn't compromise building safety
Set a reasonable deadline for the works to be completed
If the leaseholder doesn't act, you may need to serve a formal notice under the lease requiring the works. The specific mechanism depends on the lease terms — some leases allow the managing agent to carry out works and recharge the cost.

Document every step. If it escalates to enforcement action, your evidence of reasonable efforts to resolve the issue matters.

Budgeting for Remedials

If you're scoping the cost of regulation 10 compliance for the first time, remember: the initial round of remedials will be the most expensive. You're clearing a maintenance deficit built up over years of no systematic inspection.

Rough planning numbers for a first-round assessment:

Assume 75% of doors need some form of remedial work
Budget for minor/moderate remedials on the majority of failed doors — costs vary by defect type and contractor
Budget for a small percentage of doors needing full replacement, which is significantly more expensive per door
Factor in contractor mobilisation costs if doors are spread across multiple buildings

After the initial round, ongoing costs drop significantly. Quarterly inspections catch issues early, when they're still minor repairs rather than full replacements.

Keeping Records for Regulators

The Building Safety Regulator and local fire and rescue authorities don't just check whether you've inspected — they check whether you can evidence the full remediation cycle. For each defect, your records should show:

When it was found
What the defect was (with photo)
What priority you assigned it
When the repair was commissioned
When it was completed (with evidence)
The next inspection confirming the fix held

A spreadsheet can track this for a few buildings, but at portfolio scale — dozens of buildings with hundreds of doors and overlapping quarterly cycles — it becomes the primary operational bottleneck. See our analysis of what managing agents actually need from fire door software for a breakdown of the tracking requirements.

Check your buildings with our free inspection checklist →

Map out your inspection schedule →

FireDoorReady is being built to handle exactly this: tracking every defect from discovery through remediation to close-out, across every building in your portfolio. Join the waitlist →

This guidance applies to England. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have separate fire safety legislation.

This article is general guidance, not legal advice. Consult a fire safety professional or legal adviser for advice specific to your buildings.

Sources

FDIS survey: three-quarters of UK fire doors fail inspection — Guild of Architectural Ironmongers
Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, regulation 10 — legislation.gov.uk
Fact sheet: Fire doors (regulation 10) — GOV.UK