Fire door inspection in Marlow
Flats over shops, offices on the business parks and plenty of period property.
Get a priceMarlow looks like the sort of town where nothing goes wrong.
The fire doors are often another story.
The High Street is full of older buildings with shops below and flats above. Those flats have usually been made out of what was there, sometimes a long time ago. You can end up with a single narrow stair and a flat door that opens straight on to it.
If that door fails, the stair fills with smoke and nobody upstairs can get out.
Flats above shops
This is the type of building that gets missed.
It is too small for a managing agent, so nobody has a programme of checks. The freeholder may be the shop, or someone who lives miles away. The tenants assume somebody else is looking after it.
If you own one, you are likely to be the responsible person for the shared parts. Getting the doors checked is a small job and a sensible place to start.
Period buildings
Lots of the older property around Marlow has doors that look lovely and do not do much in a fire.
Panelled doors are the common one. A traditional panelled door is thin where the panels are. We have to be straight about that, because cutting panels into a fire door can void its rating and an old panelled door is rarely going to be rated at all.
There are ways to deal with this in sensitive buildings, but it needs thought. If the building is listed, talk to Buckinghamshire Council before changing anything.
Offices and business parks
Globe Park and the offices around the town have a different set of faults. Doors held open with wedges on warm days. Access control fitted to doors without thinking about the door. Closers that have been slackened off because staff complained.
A workplace needs someone to take charge of this under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
We can come in before you open or work around meetings. We only need a few minutes at each door.
Who covers Marlow
Marlow is in Buckinghamshire, so this is a different fire service from Maidenhead just across the county line. Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service covers the town.
If you are in Bisham or on the far side of the bridge you are in Berkshire. It makes no difference to what we check on the door.
How we get to you
We come over from Luton, and Marlow is about an hour. We can usually tie it in with work around Maidenhead or High Wycombe.
Tell us how many doors you have. For a small building, a few photos and a postcode is enough for us to send a price.
Questions we get asked
There are only two flats. Does it apply to me?
The rules on shared parts apply to buildings with two or more homes. The size of the building changes what checks you have to do, and a fire risk assessment will set this out.
Can old doors be upgraded?
Some can. It depends on what the door is made of and its condition. We will tell you if yours looks worth trying.
Tell us how many doors you have and we will send you a price the same day.
Get a price