Your fire risk assessment samples fire doors. It has to because inspecting several hundred doors properly is a different job from assessing a building's fire risk and mixing the two produces a poor version of both.
A fire door survey is that different job. This explains what it involves, what you get and when it is worth commissioning.
Survey versus assessment versus statutory check
Three separate things, regularly confused.
| Statutory check | Fire risk assessment | Fire door survey | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Driver | Regulation 10, Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 | Article 9, Fire Safety Order | Commissioned or recommended by the assessment |
| Scope | Communal doors quarterly and flat entrance doors annually, above 11 m | A proportionate sample | Every door |
| Depth | Routine visual check, focused on self-closers and obvious defects | Enough to inform the risk assessment | Full inspection against defined criteria |
| Output | A record that the check was done | A finding and a recommendation | A photographed, itemised defect schedule |
| Who | Often trained site staff | Competent fire risk assessor | Competent fire door inspector |
None replaces another. The statutory check keeps doors working between surveys. The assessment tells you whether doors are a risk issue. The survey tells you exactly what is wrong with which door and what it costs to fix.
Why sampling is not enough on its own
BS 9792:2025 sets the expectation for assessments in housing. For flat entrance doors, it acknowledges that accessing all flats during an assessment is normally impracticable and notes that common practice is to check around 10% of dwelling entrance doors, with a minimum of two. For doors in protected lobbies and stairways, where access is usually unimpeded, all are checked by the assessor.
A 10% sample is entirely appropriate for assessing risk. It is not a basis for a remediation budget, a procurement exercise or a defence that you knew the condition of your doors.
Where a sample returns defects, you have two possibilities: an isolated problem or a systemic one. Only a full survey tells you which and the difference is usually six figures on a large block.
What a survey covers, door by door
A competent survey inspects each door against defined criteria and records findings individually with photographs. BS 8214:2026 is the governing code of practice, published on 20 March 2026 and in force from 31 March, replacing BS 8214:2016.
The leaf
Thickness and construction where determinable, structural damage, bowing and distortion, delamination, unauthorised alterations and whether any cut-outs are supported by evidence.
Gaps
The maximum gap between leaf and frame is 4 mm, as identified in the FRA National Practice Guide. Measured at head, jambs and meeting stiles on double doors. Threshold gaps are assessed against the door's tested configuration and whether it is a smoke control door. BS 8214:2026 updated its smoke control guidance in line with BS 9991, including best practice on sealing under-door gaps.
Seals
Intumescent strips: present, correct type, correctly seated, undamaged, not painted over. Cold smoke seals: present where required, intact, not worn away.
Hinges
Number, type, grade, CE or UKCA marking, all screws present and of correct length, no packing behind hinge plates, no binding.
Self-closing devices
Present, correctly specified, correctly adjusted, and, critically, able to close the door fully onto the latch from any angle, including the last few degrees. Regulation 10(7) requires statutory checks to include ensuring self-closing devices work and a closer that stalls at 15 degrees fails that test.
Hardware
Latches, locks, handles and whether they are compatible with the tested doorset. Electronic access control and its fail-safe behaviour on alarm.
Glazing
Type, thickness, beading, intumescent glazing seals and whether the glazing configuration matches available evidence.
Frame and installation
Fixing type and centres, packing, the interface between frame and structure and how the perimeter gap is sealed. BS 8214:2026 significantly strengthened installation guidance, particularly section 9.4 and the frame-to-structure interface, which is one of the most common points of failure.
Ancillary items
Letterplates, air transfer grilles, cat flaps, kick plates, signage and door numbering.
Evidence
Labels, plugs, certification markings and any documentation available. This is increasingly the decisive point.
The evidence problem
BS 8214:2026 shifted the emphasis significantly. It is less prescriptive than the 2016 edition and instead focuses on what supporting evidence is needed for any fire door construction in scope. It treats a fire door as a complete coordinated system however it reaches site, whether as a doorset, an assembly or a kit.
The practical consequence: a door performs only in the configuration in which it was tested. If hardware, seals, glazing, dimensions or installation method have been altered, that is a design decision and it needs evidence to support it.
For duty holders, that means a survey is not only recording physical defects. It is establishing what you can demonstrate about each door. Doors with no label, no plug, no documentation and an unknown history are a real category and a good survey says so rather than pretending otherwise.
This also feeds the golden thread expectation under the Building Safety Act 2022 for higher-risk buildings and is good practice everywhere else.
Repair or replace
This is where surveys pay for themselves and where cheap surveys cost money.
A great many defects are repairable: seals replaced, closers adjusted or renewed, hinges corrected, gaps adjusted, minor damage made good. Replacement is genuinely required where the leaf is structurally compromised, where the configuration cannot be evidenced and the risk is not tolerable or where the door was never fire-resisting.
BS 9792:2025 is explicit on the judgement required. It notes that older doors might not have intumescent strips and so might not achieve 30 minutes, that whether this materially affects fire risk is a matter for the fire risk assessor's judgement and that it is inappropriate to make generic recommendations for upgrading or replacement of doors to satisfy current standards without proper consideration of risk and cost benefit. It adds that in many cases, doors that satisfied requirements at the time the building was constructed will continue to afford adequate protection.
A survey that recommends replacing every door in a 1970s block, with no analysis, is not a survey. It is a quotation.
Conversely, a survey produced by a contractor who will also carry out the remedial works has an obvious commercial interest in the answer. Consider whether survey and remediation should be separated.
What you should receive
- An inventory of every door, uniquely referenced and located
- Photographs of each door and of each significant defect
- Findings against defined criteria, not free text impressions
- A defect categorisation, typically distinguishing items presenting an immediate risk, items requiring remedial work and items for monitoring
- A clear repair or replace determination for each door, with reasoning
- A prioritised schedule suitable for procurement, with enough technical detail for a contractor to price
- A record of evidence found or its absence
- A statement of methodology and standards applied
- The inspector's name and competence
If a quote does not commit to per-door photographs and a repair-versus-replace determination, it is a walk-round, not a survey.
When to commission one
- Your fire risk assessment sampled doors and found defects suggesting a systemic problem
- You need a costed remediation programme, not a general recommendation
- The building is above 11 metres and you need a defensible baseline before running a regulation 10 regime
- You have inherited a building with no records
- Doors are of unknown provenance
- Works are planned and you need a specification
- Due diligence for a sale, purchase or refinance
- An enforcing authority has raised fire doors
- A fire or near miss has occurred
- Your maintenance regime still references BS 8214:2016 and needs reviewing against the 2026 edition
Frequency
There is no statutory survey interval. Sensible practice:
- Full survey every three to five years or on change of management, major works or a significant finding
- Statutory checks at the regulation 10 intervals above 11 metres
- Six-monthly inspection of all fire doors, as recommended by BS 9991:2024 and BS 9999:2017, with annual inspection and performance testing by a competent person
- Monthly testing of hold-open devices by simulating power failure or alarm activation
Records of all of it. The checks are worth little without evidence they happened and one of the more depressing categories of prosecution involves logbooks recording checks that were never carried out.
What drives the price
Number of doors, principally, though rate per door falls with volume. Then: access arrangements, particularly for flat entrance doors requiring appointments, whether doors are in occupied dwellings, the level of evidence investigation required, whether a schedule of rates for remediation is included and whether the building is occupied and needs out-of-hours attendance.
Beware very low per-door rates. A proper inspection of a single door with photographs and measurements takes real time.
Frequently asked questions
How often should fire doors be inspected? Above 11 metres in residential buildings, regulation 10 sets quarterly communal and annual flat entrance door checks. Otherwise, frequency is set by your fire risk assessment, with BS 9991 and BS 9999 recommending six-monthly inspection and annual competent person testing.
Does a fire risk assessment include a fire door survey? No. An assessment samples doors, commonly around 10% of flat entrance doors and inspects all accessible doors in protected lobbies and stairways. A survey inspects every door.
Who can carry out a fire door survey? There is no statutory qualification. Third-party certificated inspectors, for example under recognised fire door inspection schemes, provide independently assessed evidence of competence. Ask what scheme and verify it.
What is the maximum gap around a fire door? 4 mm between leaf and frame. Threshold gaps depend on the tested configuration and whether the door is a smoke control door.
Do doors without intumescent strips have to be replaced? Not automatically. BS 9792:2025 treats it as a matter for the assessor's judgement and warns against generic upgrade recommendations without consideration of risk and cost benefit.
Does BS 8214:2026 apply to steel and composite doors? Yes. That is one of the main changes from the 2016 edition, which covered timber-based assemblies only.
