A certified leaf, cancelled by the fitting
Fire doors are judged as installed assemblies, not as leaves on a pallet. Hang the same door with the swing reversed, a closer that stops short of the latch, or a frame fixed at two points, and nothing you were told about the product still applies on site.
Escape direction first
Escape doors open in the direction people run. A door onto a protected stair swings into the stair; a final exit swings out of the building. An inward-opening door in a busy corridor gets held shut by the crowd pressing against it. The direction is a design decision, confirmed against the floor plan before the frame touches the wall, not something to settle with a tape measure on the day.
Fixing the frame
The frame carries the leaf weight and the thermal movement of a fire. It is fixed to the structure at several points on every side with steel anchors of the correct diameter. The common shortcut — anchoring the hinge side and foaming the rest — fails because foam is insulation, not structure. The gap between frame and wall is packed with non-combustible material; ordinary installation foam is the wrong product here.
Square the frame before fixing: a frame out of square makes the leaf rub, and a rubbing leaf overworks the closer until it stops latching.
Closers and hold-open
A fire door only works closed. The closer's job is to drive the leaf all the way into the latch, not merely near it. Three settings matter: closing speed, final latching force and, where fitted, delayed action. Too fast and the leaf slams and loosens the hinges; too slow and it stalls before seating. On double doors the closing sequence is set separately so the active leaf closes after the inactive one.
Wedges, buckets and wire used to prop doors open are the single most common violation we see. Where a door genuinely needs to stand open, the answer is an electromagnetic hold-open linked to the alarm, which releases and lets the door close on activation.
Panic hardware
Panic exit hardware exists so that someone who has never seen the door can open it in the dark with a shoulder or a hip. The bar spans most of the leaf width and sits at a height a person can reach while crouching or falling, not at chest height for a tall adult. Bolts driven by the bar must enter their keeps cleanly and relatch when the bar is released.
Exit-only doors carry no outside handle; two-way doors get an outside lever with a cylinder. Nothing that locks with a key belongs on the escape side. In our fire doors range the panic bar and lever configuration is set at order stage — adding it later means drilling a finished leaf.
Gaps, seals and thresholds
Perimeter gaps are kept narrow and even. Wide gaps pass smoke; tight gaps make the leaf bind. Intumescent seals must run unbroken around the leaf; seals torn at the corners, or seal channels filled with site paint, are routine findings during inspection.
At the threshold, allow for the final floor finish; frames set before tiling leave too little gap once the floor goes down and the leaf drags.
Handover checks
- Released from any angle, does the closer bring the leaf fully into the latch?
- Does one push on the panic bar retract every bolt at once?
- On double doors, is the closing sequence right and the meeting stile tight?
- Are the identification label and exit signage legible?
- Is the packing around the frame non-combustible?
Fire doors need maintenance after handover. Closers leak, hinges develop play, seals wear, and the door loses performance without anyone noticing. Opening it by hand and letting it close, once a year at minimum, is the cheapest meaningful test there is. Where an escape route runs through the main entrance, the lever and closer choices on your building entrance doors must agree with that route. We ship fire doors from Istanbul with frame, closer and panic hardware matched per opening; send your opening sizes in centimetres and the escape direction for each one and we will quote accordingly.
