How to prevent your fire door from failing

Fire doors in Minneapolis

Overhead Door Company of the Northland has installed fire doors for a while now, and we have also done our fair share of repairs on fire doors. Here are some tips to prevent your fire door from malfunctioning during a fire.

Don’t forget you have a fire door

It’s not like your building will catch on fire on a daily basis, so it is fairly easy to forget that you have a fire door. But it is very unwise to completely forget about it because without regular maintenance the door will not close properly.

Also, when people forget they have a fire door they tend to start storing brooms, barrels, and other items in the doorway, which will prevent the door from closing.

Test it periodically if the fire door is a main traffic path

If the fire door is a main traffic path, the guide rails of the door will definitely get subjected to repeated damage from forklifts, lift trucks, and carts as they accidentally bump, bend and knock the rails out of alignment.

However, a lot of times, it isn’t very clear if the damage is substantial enough to prevent the doors from closing properly. That’s why it’s a good idea to drop test the door often.

Beware of maintenance workers

Maintenance workers are there to keep the building in tip top shape.  Oddly enough, it’s usually well maintained buildings that have a problem with fire doors. That’s usually because well-meaning painters will often paint or spray over the hardware of the fire door.

If the Release Device of a fire door is painted over it can be enough to prevent it from closing or closing properly. In addition to that paint on the fusible link or release devices alters its thermal properties thus making them inoperative.

So be sure to let your maintenance workers know that you have a fire door, and what areas they should be careful with.