A great amount of hard work and effort goes into establishing, and running your business on a daily basis. Therefore, protecting it is something you have to do in order to ensure the safety of your customers and employees. With safety in mind, if your company has taken the extra step and installed fire rated overhead garage doors, it is important, and required, that they be inspected once a year to ensure they operate properly in the event a fire occurs in your facility.
After all, it gives you the satisfaction that your doors are in good working condition, meet the required fire and safety requirements and that the fire door will close automatically during a fire emergency. A fire drop door test is an important test, which is carried out when doors are first installed, but not everyone knows that the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA 80) requires building owners and managers to test their fire doors once a year as well? A written documentation of these inspections must also be maintained.
What is NFPA 80?
This standard regulates the installation and maintenance of assemblies and devices used to protect openings in walls, floors, and ceilings against the spread of fire and smoke within, into, or out of buildings.
What does NFPA 80 address?
NFPA 80 addresses general requirements and provisions for care and maintenance of fire doors and other opening protectives., Opening protectives that are addressed include swinging doors, horizontally sliding doors, vertically sliding fire doors, rolling steel doors, fire shutters, service counter fire doors, hoistway doors for elevators and dumbwaiters, chute doors, access doors, fire windows, glass block assemblies, fire dampers, and fabric fire safety curtains.
What is a Fire Door Drop Test?
The fire door drop test ascertains whether your fire doors meet the required fire safety compliance. As your doors are used daily, they tend to become coated in grease, dust and other debris over time. With fire door drop testing , however, you can make sure that your door’s components are free from all sorts of debris, all parts are undamaged and in working order, and more importantly, that the fusable links are in working order.
What Does a Fire Door Drop Test Entail?
By working with a reputable door solutions provider, you can get a qualified and trained door maintenance technician to perform the test to make sure you remain in compliance with the fire safety standards set by the National Fire Protection Agency. So, what does a fire drop test include?
The inspection, testing and certification of your overhead garage fire door and fusable links. The drop test is performed using the manufacturer’s drop test instructions. The door must be fully open before drop test. The door must close fully so the bottom bar rests on the sill. The average closing speed must be between 6″ and 24″ per second. Each automatic closing option for the fire door must be tested.
A written fire door drop test report that records each service call for a facility, and recommends any product repairs or replacement.
Copies of the fire door drop test report are kept with the technician in case of an emergency or compliance questions.
Regular fire door drop testing and preventative maintenance will keep your commercial overhead garage doors working more efficiently. So, if you have not had your doors tested yet, what are you waiting for? Contact a reputable door solutions provider right away, and get a fire door drop test scheduled.
