Fire door installation is hanging a certified doorset so the leaf, frame, seals and ironmongery work as they were tested. Book it for stair cores, apartment entrance doors that the drawings mark as rated, plant rooms, and corridors in towers and commercial suites.
A fire door is not a thick timber door with a sticker added later. Dubai Civil Defence and the other emirate civil defence authorities look for a tested assembly, traceable to a standard such as BS 476 or EN 1634-1, installed to the gaps on the certificate. Ordinary UPVC, a shaved flush door, or a glazed patio door is the wrong product for a rated opening.
The set, not only the leaf
Ratings people ask for are FD30, FD60, FD90 and FD120, single or double leaf, sometimes with a vision panel. The panel, the glass and the bead have to be part of the same evidence as the leaf. A closer, the right hinges and intumescent and smoke seals are not optional extras on a door that was tested with them.
Published fitting guidance used on these projects keeps the leaf close to the frame, commonly within about 3 mm at the head and sides, with the undercut limited by the certificate rather than by how much tile was added. Those numbers come from the door’s certificate, and the certificate wins if it differs.
Leaf, frame, seals, closer
The parts that were tested together stay together. A domestic lock from a bedroom door is not swapped onto a rated leaf.
Gaps checked, not guessed
Head, sides and undercut are checked against the certificate. A fire door is not planed to clear a new tile.
What we will and will not do
Included, when it is in the scope, is supply coordination of a certified set, frame fixing, seals, closer, and a gap check. The manufacturer’s certificate stays with the set. Not included is a promise that civil defence will approve the building. Approval sits with the authority and the project drawings. We also do not cut vision panels into a leaf that was not tested that way, and we do not hang a rated leaf in an unrated frame to save cost.
- FD30, FD60, FD90 and FD120 where that rating is what the opening needs
- Single and double leaf, including certified ironmongery
- Intumescent and smoke seals kept continuous
- Not a trimmed interior door with a fire sticker
- Not a civil defence approval sold as part of the hang
Questions about this door
Market quotes for a certified wooden fire-door leaf commonly sit around AED 4,000 to 8,000, varying with rating, size, core and finish. That is the leaf. The frame, seals, closer, hinges, lock and the hanging are further lines. Steel double-leaf sets are quoted on their own, often around the high four thousands before accessories. Price the opening, not a leaf on its own. The written scope is the figure for your door.
No. Planing the edge or the bottom can open the core and break the test. If new tile reduced the undercut, the fix is the floor, a certified threshold detail, or a set made to the finished size. It is not a site cut.
Civil defence approval is per project. What we install is a manufacturer-certified set, and the paperwork that comes with that set is handed over. We do not stamp a building approved. If the drawings ask for a rating the product does not have, the product changes, the drawing does not get ignored.
No. A fire test and a forced-entry test are different. Some steel doorsets are sold for both, and only those should be described that way. A timber FD60 leaf is not automatically a security door, and a steel security door is not automatically FD60.
Typically stair enclosures, escape corridors, some apartment entrance doors, plant rooms and risers, as the fire strategy draws them. A bedroom inside an apartment is usually not one of those openings. If you are unsure, the drawing or building management decides before a leaf is ordered.
A standard rated veneer leaf is often several weeks from approved sizes, not a same-day warehouse item. Double leaves, vision panels and unusual heights take longer. The survey and the shop size happen before that clock starts.
Other fittings
Send the rating and the opening
If you have the drawing note, FD30 or otherwise, send it with the width and height. If you do not, say it is a stair, a flat entrance, or a plant room.