Fire Door Survey & Inspection Service | UK (2026)

Last reviewed: 2026-07-11 · Checked against the primary sources cited below · Editorial policy

In short

A fire door survey is a detailed, door-by-door assessment by a competent person, confirming each doorset can still hold back fire and smoke. When we open in 2026, our survey will measure gaps with calibrated gauges; check seals, hinges, closers, glazing and signage; photograph every door; and deliver a prioritised remedial schedule plus digital register data. It is deeper than the routine visual check any trained person can run.

Key facts

Opening in 2026: this service is being built now for housing associations, facilities managers, managing agents and other duty holders — the page describes what it will deliver, not completed work.
A detailed survey is a competent-person job; a routine visual check can be done by any trained person, per government guidance — the two are different tiers of scrutiny.
FDIS-certificated inspectors are the recognised UK benchmark for formal surveys (UKAS-accredited to BS EN ISO/IEC 17024). Our inspector accreditation will be published here the day it is granted — we hold no accreditation number yet.
England, residential buildings over 11 m: communal fire doors are checked at least every 3 months and flat entrance doors at least every 12 months on best endeavours; everywhere else the fire risk assessment sets frequency under Article 17.
Every survey will produce a door-by-door register, photographic record and prioritised remedial schedule — plus digital asset data ready for the Building Safety Act golden thread.
Gaps will be measured with calibrated feeler gauges against the doorset specification (typically 2–4 mm at head and jambs, per BS 8214), not estimated by eye.

What does a professional fire door survey and inspection involve?

A fire door survey is a systematic, door-by-door assessment of every fire doorset in a building, carried out by a competent person to confirm each one can still perform as it did when tested. Fire doors are engineered assemblies — leaf, frame, seals, hinges, closer, glazing and signage — and everyday impact, wear, repainting and unauthorised alterations quietly erode that performance. A survey establishes, opening by opening, whether each doorset is genuinely compliant and, where it is not, exactly what needs to change. When we open in 2026, this is the service we will offer to housing associations, facilities managers, managing agents and other responsible persons.

The legal foundation in England and Wales is Article 17 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which requires the responsible person to keep fire doors subject to a suitable system of maintenance and in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair. The Fire Safety Act 2021 confirmed that flat entrance doors in multi-occupied residential buildings sit within that duty. A survey is how a duty holder turns 'we look after our fire doors' into documented, defensible evidence.

What our fire door survey will include, door by door

Every survey will work methodically around the whole assembly rather than glancing at the leaf, because the failures that matter are rarely the obvious ones. The scope below is what we intend each survey to cover when the service opens; the depth of any individual survey will follow the fire risk assessment and your reporting requirements.

Intended scope of our fire door survey when the service opens in 2026.
Survey element	What we will do
Door-by-door register	Give every opening a unique reference and log its location, rating, configuration and certification status, building a complete fire door asset list for the building.
Gap measurement	Measure head, jamb and threshold gaps with calibrated feeler gauges against the doorset specification — typically 2–4 mm at the head and jambs, per BS 8214 gap tolerances — rather than estimating by eye.
Seals	Check intumescent seals and, where cold smoke control is required, smoke seals — confirming they are continuous, undamaged, not painted over and making proper contact.
Hinges	Confirm the correct number of fire-rated, CE/UKCA-marked hinges, with all screws present and tight and no signs of wear, oil leakage or failure.
Self-closers	Test that the self-closing device closes and latches the leaf fully from any angle, including from a few degrees open, and that no wedge or hold-open device defeats it.
Glazing	Check that any vision panel uses intact fire-resisting glazing with sound beads and glazing seals, and has not been swapped for ordinary glass.
Signage	Confirm correct mandatory signage — 'Fire door keep shut' or 'Fire door keep locked' as appropriate to the door's function.
Leaf, frame & certification	Assess the leaf and frame for damage, warping, unauthorised alterations and secure fixing, and trace each doorset to its certification or test evidence where a label, plug or data plate is present.
Photographic record	Photograph every door and every defect, tied to the door reference, so findings are verifiable and remediation can be tracked opening by opening.
Prioritised remedial schedule	Categorise each defect by severity and set out the remedial actions in priority order — immediate risks first, then repairs, then any replacement programme.
Digital asset data	Deliver the register and findings as structured digital data, ready to feed the Building Safety Act golden thread for higher-risk buildings.

Routine check or detailed survey — which does your building need?

The words 'check', 'inspection' and 'survey' get used loosely, but the distinction matters for competence and cost. A routine visual check is a quick, tool-free confirmation that a door is broadly in order; a detailed survey is a measured, competent-person assessment that produces evidence. Government guidance draws exactly this line: the routine Regulation 10 checks are 'simple and basic' and 'you should not need to engage a specialist to carry these out', while defects those checks reveal must be put right by a competent contractor 'as soon as reasonably practicable'.

Routine checks and detailed surveys are complementary, not interchangeable.
	Routine visual check	Detailed survey / inspection
Who can do it	Any suitably trained person — caretaker, housing officer, managing agent or maintenance staff	A competent person; for formal surveys, an FDIS-certificated inspector is the recognised benchmark
What it involves	Tool-free visual check: obvious damage, seals, sensible gaps, self-closer working	Measured assessment of the whole assembly with calibrated gauges, photographs and certification checks
Output	A dated entry in the door log confirming the check and flagging any defects	A door-by-door report with photographs, readings and a prioritised remedial schedule
Typical trigger	The statutory or risk-assessed checking frequency	Fire risk assessment, post-refurbishment review, acquisition due diligence, or checks that keep finding faults

In practice the two work together. Your in-house team runs the frequent routine checks; a periodic survey establishes the true condition of the stock, resets the baseline and gives you evidence that will stand up to a fire and rescue authority. When we open, our service will focus on the detailed survey — and where it identifies remedial work, only competent, appropriately certificated contractors should carry it out, so a doorset's certification is not invalidated (see who can install fire doors).

How often does the law require fire door inspection?

Only one set of intervals is fixed in UK statute, and it applies to multi-occupied residential buildings in England over 11 metres in height. Everywhere else, frequency is a risk-based decision that belongs in the building's fire risk assessment. Our fire door inspection guide and our guide to how often fire doors should be inspected set out the full framework; the essentials are below.

Only the first two rows are statutory intervals; every other setting is governed by the fire risk assessment under Article 17 of the Fire Safety Order.
Setting	Fixed in law?	Checking frequency
England, residential over 11 m — communal fire doors	Yes	At least every 3 months, including a self-closer test (Regulation 10, Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022)
England, residential over 11 m — flat entrance doors	Yes (best endeavours)	At least every 12 months, with a record of the access attempts kept
England, residential 11 m or under	No	Set by the fire risk assessment; doors must stay capable of providing adequate protection
Workplaces, schools, care homes, HMO common parts	No	Set by the fire risk assessment under Article 17; industry good practice benchmarks around six-monthly, with busy doors checked more often

One distinction the table makes explicit: those statutory intervals are the frequency of routine checks, not of full surveys. No statute fixes how often a detailed survey must happen — that too is a risk-based decision — but many housing providers commission periodic surveys to underpin their routine checks and prioritise remedial spend across a portfolio.

Who is competent to inspect your fire doors?

There is no statutory licence for fire door inspection in the UK — the law works on competence. The responsible person must ensure that whoever surveys or maintains fire doors has the training, knowledge and experience for the task. For routine checks, a trained member of staff is enough. For a formal survey — especially one that will support a fire risk assessment, a remediation programme or a legal position — an independent, third-party-certificated inspector is the recognised standard.

That benchmark is the Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS), launched in 2012 and owned by the British Woodworking Federation. It is the first and only fire door inspection scheme accredited by UKAS to BS EN ISO/IEC 17024, the international standard for the certification of persons. FDIS-certificated inspectors hold the FDIS Diploma, pass an independent examination and appear on a public register — the most straightforward way for a duty holder to evidence that the person they appointed was genuinely competent.

What you receive: a clear, actionable report

An inspection is only worth what its report lets you act on. Our deliverable will be a single, clear report you can hand to a fire risk assessor, a board or an enforcing authority — not a stack of raw readings. For each door it will bring together:

A unique door reference with the door's location, rating and configuration.
Photographs of the door and every defect, tied to that reference.
Gap and component readings taken with calibrated equipment against the doorset specification.
A compliance status for each doorset, with defects categorised by severity.
A prioritised remedial schedule — immediate risks first, then repairs, then any replacement programme.

Where you need it, the register and findings will be supplied as structured digital asset data, ready to feed the golden thread of building information that the Building Safety Act 2022 requires higher-risk buildings to keep digital, accurate and accessible throughout their life. Good survey data is not a one-off document; it becomes the baseline your routine checks and future surveys are measured against.

We have not set our own prices — as a pre-launch business we will not publish figures we cannot yet stand behind. Fire door survey costs vary widely with door count, access and reporting depth; for sourced, market-typical ranges, including per-door rates and how they fall on larger jobs, see our fire door cost guide. When the service opens in 2026 we will quote each building individually against its specification. To register your interest ahead of launch, get in touch.

Pre-launch honesty. This service opens in 2026. We publish our company registration, insurance and installer/manufacturer certification-scheme numbers here the day each is granted — never before. Nothing on this page claims a credential we do not yet hold.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a fire door survey and a routine fire door check?

A routine check is a quick, tool-free confirmation — leaf undamaged, seals intact, gaps sensible, self-closer working — that any trained person can run at the statutory or risk-assessed frequency. A detailed survey is a competent-person job: every doorset measured, photographed and assessed against its certification, producing a door-by-door report. Checks catch deterioration between surveys; surveys establish whether each doorset is genuinely compliant.

When will your fire door survey service be available?

We are a pre-launch business opening in 2026, so the survey and inspection service described here is not yet bookable. This page sets out exactly what it will cover once we open. If you would like to be contacted the moment surveys are available, get in touch and we will keep you posted ahead of launch.

Will your fire door inspectors be FDIS certificated?

FDIS-certificated inspectors are the recognised UK benchmark for formal fire door surveys, with certification UKAS-accredited to BS EN ISO/IEC 17024. Our inspector accreditation will be published on this page the day it is granted — as a pre-launch company we hold no accreditation number yet, and we will never claim one before it is awarded.

How often do our fire doors legally need to be inspected?

In England, residential buildings over 11 metres must have communal fire doors checked at least every 3 months and flat entrance doors at least every 12 months on best endeavours, under Regulation 10. Everywhere else no interval is fixed in law: your fire risk assessment sets the frequency under Article 17 of the Fire Safety Order.

What will I receive after a fire door survey?

Each survey will produce a door-by-door register with a unique reference per opening, photographs of every door and defect, gap and component readings, and a remedial schedule prioritised by severity. Where required, we will supply the data in a digital format suited to the Building Safety Act golden thread, so your records stay accurate and accessible.

How much will a fire door survey cost?

We are pre-launch and have not set our own prices, so we will not quote figures here. Fire door survey costs vary widely with door count, access and reporting depth. For sourced, market-typical ranges — including per-door rates and how they fall on larger jobs — see our fire door cost guide, and request an itemised quote once we open.

Do you inspect flat entrance doors as well as communal doors?

Yes. When we open, our surveys will cover both communal fire doors and flat entrance doors. For flat entrance doors in buildings over 11 metres, access depends on residents, so the statutory duty is best endeavours with attempts recorded. We will schedule around resident availability and log every access attempt to support your Regulation 10 evidence.

Planning a project for 2026, or want to be told the moment this service opens?

Talk to us →

Sources