Firedoors

Pingu1

I have just had a fire door check on my property front door and was told it would need a seal. Routing the door frame was mentioned. Has anyone had experience of this?

Pingu1

The surrounding walls sound hollow, apparently they will need to be made fire safe. Any idea how much it will cost?

subjecttocontract

Who carried out the checks ?
Presumably it's a flat ?

Pingu1

A company called Karntex. Yes its a groundfloor flat.

subjecttocontract

Never heard of them, are they qualified ?
Why isn't your freeholder responsible for the costs /paying for the improvements from the service charge funds ?
I think you are gonna need to provide more info.

Pingu1

I'm a leaseholder, so therefore assume I am liable for all costs. We have just started this year a reserve fund from the service charge, but its only £2K for the block. I don't trust the managing agent. As for Karntex, no idea if they are qualified other than from their website, which indicates they are.

Emmia

Unfortunately, yes you are required to ensure your door meets the current fire requirements. You potentially have the option of having the door relipped (if you can find a company that does this) or a new door + frame that meets at least the FD30 standard. We have to have a new internal front door, because of the changes at a cost of ~£2k+ and the freeholder levies a fee on top of this to "consider the request" to change the door due to a legal requirement that is a requirement of the freeholder.

The routing might be to enable the fitment of  an intumescent seal on your existing door 

subjecttocontract

Why was Karntex employed to carry out the checks/ what was the reason to have this checked.
Buildings structure is often the freeholders responsibility......leaseholders tend to be responsible for the interiors. Hollow walls can't possibly be down to individual leasholders. I guess it depends on what your lease says.

nofoollikeold

1. In most leasehold / share of the freehold flats:
1.1 The doors and windows for each flat are the responsibility of the leaseholder.
1.2 The doors and windows of the communal areas are the responsibility of the freeholder. 
1.2 Things like service cupboards which open onto communal areas are generally the responsibility of the freeholder.
2. I suspect the company your refer to is call Karntek rather than Karntex.
3. Ever since the Grenfell fire there has been a good deal of pressure applied to leaseholders in flats to upgrade the front door to the property to a 60 minute fire rated door.
4. Despite asking more than one managing agent what legislation enforces the upgrade I have never had an answer.  This leads me to suspect its a bit of a gravy train.  After all, most managing agents get a percentage of any work carried out.  
5. There is, I understand, legislation for blocks of more than five storey's or thereabouts.  There may also be insurance implications for freeholders giving them the need to ensure leaseholders comply with insurers' requirements.
6. The cost of a 60 minute fire door and frame seems to be around the £2,000 mark.  

Slinky

Before going ahead with making changes to your door, I'd clarify whether you need smoke seals in addition to the intumescent strips. We had the intumescent on our fire door, but building control also wanted smoke seals. This was on a fire door between our garage and our hallway opposite the bottom of our stairs. Found this useful info online https://www.vividdoors.co.uk/fire-doors/whats-the-difference-between-intumescent-strips-and-smoke-seals

Pingu1

Thanks, my block is 2 storeys high and was built in 1983, so it doesn't appear to the 2022 Building Safety Act.