Fire safety measures, especially fire doors play an essential role in your house. Fire doors serve as an excellent barrier to prevent fire spread from one room to another. Installing fire doors at every doorway in your home would avoid fire spread and ensure minimum damage. However, fire doors alone can’t entirely prevent fire, as there is always a gap between the door and frame. Therefore intumescent strips are essential along with a fire door to ensure maximum

fire safety. 

It is time to enhance your home’s fire safety by reinforcing your fire doors with the intumescent strips. Here we will help you understand the right way to install an intumescent strip. Before that, let’s know more about these stips. 

What is an Intumescent Strip?

An intumescent strip is a chemically designed product that expands and prevents the spread of fire when exposed to extreme heat. Intumescent strip is generally fitted around door frames. When a fire breaks out, the strip swells up and seals the gap around the frame to restrict the fire from entering other rooms, giving you enough time for evacuation and calling the nearest fire department.

You must fit these strips to all fire doors you have installed in your building. The intumescent strip can protect your building or house from severe damage until the fire brigade arrives. The intumescent strip installation doesn’t cost much, and it is valuable to save many lives. 

How to Fit an Intumescent Strip? 

  1. Intumescent strips are available in different widths. You need to select the right size of the stip as per your fire door. You should generally use a 10mm or 15 mm wide strip for an fd30s fire door and a 20mm wide strip for an fd60 fire door. However, it is recommended to check the door manufacturer’s specifications to choose the most suitable intumescent strip.
  2. Most of the latest fire doors come with pre-routed grooves for intumescent strips fitting purpose. If your fire door doesn’t have pre-routed grooves, you will require a router. 
  3. The router bit must fit the size of the strip you fit into the fire door.
  4. The recommended gap between door/frame and door/door is up to 4mm only.
  5. Cut the intumescent strip into perfect length according to the height of the door.
  6. Mostly, intumescent strips come with self-adhesive backing. Remove the paper on the backside and insert the strip into the groove, and press firmly to secure it. 
  7. Make sure the groove is clean and dry. Or consider greasing it before pushing the strip into the groove.
  8. It is recommended to have a self-closing fire door with the door closer. 
  9. You may need to adjust the door closer to ensure it shuts properly.
  10. Ensure that the strip has been fitted correctly. 

By following all the instructions, you can fit the strip on your own. However, it is recommended to call professional when fitting the intumescent strip to ensure perfect fitting and avoid risks.

Why Professional Help? 

Having just fire doors installed won’t perfectly protect your home and beloved ones from damage. For the complete fire safety, you must ensure all needed jobs are done perfectly by experts. No doubt, you can fit the intumescent strip on your own, and it will be perfect. But, there may be some undetectable mistakes that may affect the working of the strip or door. Professionals can detect even small errors easily, thereby saving you from future trouble. Therefore, it is good to see help from a professional when fitting strips. If you don’t want to hire a professional for complete fitting work, call them just to check if your work is done perfectly.   

Regular Inspection 

Don’t assume your job is done one you fit the strip. You must inspect the strip regularly to ensure there is no damage or tears. If you find any damage or tear, consider replacing the strip as soon as possible, as the damage may affect the strip’s performance against fire prevention. 

Types of Seals You can Consider for Doors

  • Fire and Smoke Seals

The intumescent strip, also known as cold smoke seals, help prevent both fire and smoke. It has a nylon pile that restricts smoke from passing through the door frame gap until the intumescent seal forms.

  • Fire, Smoke and Draught Seals

Instead of nylon, these seals have a single or double rubber blade that offer superior protection. 

  • Quad Seal

The quad seal, also called hygienic seals, serves as an acoustic barrier preventing sound passing from room to room. They are easy to wipe clean and perfect for kitchens, residential care, and hospitals.

Final Thoughts!

Fire safety measures may require a bit of effort and money, but they are worth investment, as they help save lives and serious loss to property. To ensure more effective fire safety, try installing all recommended safety equipment such as fire doors with glass, intumescent strips, smoke alarms, fire extinguisher, etc. Most importantly, try to get professional help to install this equipment and perform regular inspections.