ledged and braced fire doors?

[Martin Carroll]

Subject says it all really.

I want to use ledged and braced doors on renovation project but a couple of doors need to be fire doors (not yet confirmed with BCO).

Is there such a beast as a ledged and braced fire door?

Cheers

Martin

[Brian G]

Martin,

No - their construction is such that they are not 'strong enough' to hold a fire back for at least half an hour.

Brian G

[dom]

A fire door with a ledged and braced appearance could be made up by a joiner to look similar to your other doors, but would be quite a bit thicker than normal (& heavier) and would require intumescent seals.

[Owain]

But fire doors could be made to *look like* ledge and brace.

These people do ledge and brace doors, and fire doors. I don't know if they can do L&B fire doors

these people say that they can make almost any style

might be an objection to something custom made though.

Owain

[Brian G]

Owain,

Yes, I agree that "fire doors could be made to *look like* ledge and brace" but that was not the question.

You can take a standard, half-hour fire resistant door and 'face' it with T&G boards suitably treated with a fire resistant coating such as Albi (a rather naughty coating containing arsenic and a multitude of other chemicals) and fit this into a rather hefty door frame (not lining) with

25x25mm planted and screwed door stops - just don't drop it on your toes when fitting the beast! :-)

Brian G

I await the long monologues and 'shouting' from Chris telling me all about Albi!

[John]

I would be very careful when altering a fire door. Any DIY changes could invalidate it's certification. Simple things like screws into the door can transmit heat and fire into the structure of the door. Fire doors are made to a specified design that's then tested. The manufacturer supplies detailed fitting instructions that must be adhered to in order to ensure the door performs as it should.

John

[Brian G]

John,

Thanks for the response. I'm well aware of the effects and personally I wouldn't alter a fire door simply for aesthetic reasons, especially if it is fully kitted out with the intumescent strips etc.

Fitted AND supervised the fitting of the damn things in several blocks of multi-storey flats - all the internal flush after a fire in a room of one of the flats blocked the escape route and caused the fire brigade a few problems getting the tenants out.

It was quite annoying when I went into one of the flats to run a quality control check on the doors etc to find that the tenant has disconnected the concealed door closures on every door so they could be kept open at all times.

After a heated discussion, I got the chippie to reconnect the hinges and b****r me, when I did another surprise inspection, he'd entirely removed the things - he got quite upset when the local authority threatened to evict him if he did it again.

Brian G

[Mano]

much as I hate to do it Jeld-Wen make a L&B fire door look alike check their web site just negotiate hard with which ever agent u use cos jeld wen prices are steep.

Mart> Subject says it all really.