The label on a fire door says what the assembly was tested to do. The inspection is how anyone finds out whether it still can. NFPA 80, the standard that building and fire codes reference for fire doors, asks for that inspection once a year, with a written record kept for the fire marshal to see. Whether your fire marshal asks for the record depends on the building and the jurisdiction; the standard applies either way, and a door that would fail it is an open door in a fire.
Which doors this covers
Any door assembly carrying a fire label: stairwell doors, corridor doors in apartment buildings and hotels, doors between a tenant space and a common hallway, doors into mechanical and electrical rooms, doors in the wall between a warehouse and its offices, and the door between an attached garage and a house. In a home nobody inspects it, but the same rules make it work. In a commercial building the responsibility sits with the owner or the manager, and the record is theirs to produce.
What is checked
- The label. Door and frame each carry a label, legible and not painted over. No label means no rating, whatever the door is made of, and a painted-over label that cannot be read is treated the same way.
- Holes and breaks. No open holes in the door or frame. The screw holes left when hardware was removed have to be filled the way the standard allows, not with wood filler and not left open.
- The gaps. The clearance around the edges and under the bottom of the door. NFPA 80 gives the numbers — small at the sides and top, more at the floor — and the inspector measures with a gauge, not by eye. This is where a door that passed last year fails after new flooring.
- The closer. The door closes fully and latches on its own from any open position, without help. A closer that leaks oil, closes too slowly to latch, or has been backed off so far the door stalls short of the frame fails the door.
- Latching. The latch bolt extends into the strike and holds. Fire exit hardware has to latch every time; a door dogged open, or a strike worn so the bolt does not catch, is the same as no door.
- Nothing propping it. No wedge, no kick-down holder, no hook and eye, no chair. A hold-open is only acceptable when it releases on the fire alarm.
- The hardware. Hinges tight and all present, no missing screws, no field-drilled hardware the label does not cover, kick plates within the size the standard allows.
- Glazing. Vision lights carry their own listing, sit in listed frames, and the beads are intact. Ordinary glass or a plastic lens set into a rated door voids it.
- Seals and coordinators. Gasketing and edge seals where the label requires them are in place and undamaged; on a pair of doors the coordinator closes the leaves in the right order so both latch.
- Signage. Signs on the door face stay within the small area the standard allows and are attached without screws through the door.
What usually fails
The same handful of things account for most failed doors, and almost all of them are cheap to fix compared with replacing the assembly.
- Propped open. The busiest door in the building is the one held open with a wedge. It is also the first thing an inspector sees.
- Gaps at the bottom. The carpet came out, tile went in, or the door was trimmed to clear a new threshold, and the gap under it is now past the limit.
- Not latching. The strike is loose or misaligned, the latch is worn, or the closer no longer has the force to pull the door the last inch. The door looks shut and is not.
- Painted labels. Painters mask nothing. A label under three coats is unreadable and counts as missing.
- Holes from old hardware. A removed closer, an old alarm contact, a surface bolt — each leaves holes that were never filled.
- Wrong glass. A vision light broken and replaced with whatever the glazier had on the truck instead of listed fire-rated glazing.
What happens after a failure
A failed door gets a deficiency listed against it and a repair, and the repair has to leave the assembly as listed: replacement parts of the right kind, holes filled the way NFPA 80 permits, a closer sized for the door. Some repairs — a badly damaged leaf, a bent frame, a label that cannot be recovered — mean a new labeled door or frame, and we will say so rather than dress up an old one.
If you manage a building and have never had the doors inspected, the first pass is the one that finds the most, and it is better that it is yours than the fire marshal's. We inspect, document and repair fire doors, same-day when the schedule allows, with a free written estimate for anything beyond adjustment.