Count the Openings. Then Talk About Fixing Them. Speak to the coordinator: (333) 333 333
Annual inspection and remediation

Fire Door Inspection in Charlotte, NC

Say roughly how many rated openings you have.

Call (333) 333 333

The inspection is not the hard part. The record is

NFPA 80 requires fire door assemblies to be inspected and tested annually, and requires the findings to be documented in writing and kept available. Buildings get cited on the second half of that sentence far more often than the first.

It happens the same way nearly every time. Somebody was inspecting, on some cadence, through some contractor, and the paperwork lives in an email chain that left with an employee in 2022. The doors may well be fine. There is simply no way to demonstrate it.

What we produce is a numbered register of every rated opening in the building, with its label details, its measured clearances, its deficiencies, and the date. It is designed to be handed to an inspector without translation, and designed so that next year's inspection appends to it instead of starting over.

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Elevation of a fire door showing NFPA 80 clearance limits: 1/8 inch maximum at head and jambs, 3/4 inch maximum undercut where there is no threshold
NFPA 80 clearance limits, section 6.3.1.7. Gaps are exaggerated here for legibility. Where the manufacturer label is more restrictive than the general standard, the label governs.
Scope

What gets checked, and against what

The inspection follows the criteria in NFPA 80 for the assembly type in front of us. Swinging assemblies and rolling steel fire doors are different procedures producing different records, and a building with both needs both. The recurring theme across every finding below is that the manufacturer's label governs: where a label imposes a tighter limit than the general standard, the label is the number, and citing the general rule against a more restrictive label is a common way to produce a wrong report.

Label present and legible
On the hinge edge of the leaf and on the frame. Painted-over labels are extremely common and are a finding on their own, because an assembly that cannot demonstrate its rating effectively does not have one.
Clearance at head and jambs
Maximum 1/8 inch for most rated swinging assemblies, per NFPA 80 section 6.3.1.7. Measured with a gauge, recorded as a fraction, not as a pass mark.
Undercut at the bottom
Maximum 3/4 inch to the finished floor or threshold where no threshold is present. This is the finding that new flooring creates and nobody re-measures. If a temperature rise rating applies, the listing may impose a tighter limit than the general maximum.
Meeting edges on pairs
1/8 inch with a 1/16 inch tolerance, plus a coordinator that actually sequences the leaves so the inactive closes first.
Self-closing and positive latching
The door has to close and latch from the fully open position with no help. Doors that latch from halfway and stall from full open are common and fail.
Hold-opens and obstructions
Wedges, kick-downs, and doorstops on a rated door are prohibited outright. A listed hold-open tied to the fire alarm and releasing on alarm or loss of power is the only acceptable arrangement.
Hardware listed for the assembly
Closer, hinges, latch, exit device, coordinator, protection plates. NFPA 80 section 6.4 requires all of it be listed for use on a rated assembly. Aftermarket hardware fitted by well-meaning maintenance is the most common way compliance is lost.
Field modifications and damage
Holes, cuts, and dents. Undercutting to the label limit is generally permitted; trimming the top or width generally is not. A hole through a steel fire door needs listed repair material or a replacement leaf, and body filler is not an answer regardless of how tidy it looks.

How inspection and remediation are priced

LineBasisNotes
Annual inspection, per openingPer-opening rate, banded by volumeRate falls as count rises
First-year survey upliftOne-time, per buildingNumbering, tagging, and baseline record creation
Adjustment-level correctionsTime and material on the same visitCloser settings, latch alignment, hinge tightening
Hardware replacementParts plus laborListed product only; lead time stated before approval
Leaf or frame replacementQuoted separatelyFollows a measured opening, not the inspection sheet alone
Rolling steel drop testPriced per doorDistinct procedure and a distinct record

Corrections are not bundled into the inspection price and are not assumed. The finding sheet is written so you can price it elsewhere, and some buildings do.

How we work it

How an inspection runs

  1. 01
    Establish scope and count
    How many rated openings, of what types, and where. Counts are usually low. Call (333) 333 333
  2. 02
    Walk and record
    Every opening numbered, tagged, measured, and photographed against the NFPA 80 criteria for its assembly type.
  3. 03
    Rank and report
    Deficiencies sorted by exposure, with the correction named and the reason given in plain language.
  4. 04
    Correct and append
    Approved corrections scheduled, completed, and written back against the opening they belong to.
Why us for this

What you get that you would not get elsewhere

Measurements, recorded as measurements
A gap logged as 1/8 inch is defensible in an audit. A gap logged as acceptable is not, and it tells you nothing about whether the opening is drifting year over year.
Findings ranked by exposure
Life-safety first, then likely-to-fail, then cosmetic and explicitly safe to defer. Somebody has to make that call so a budget can follow it.
The label beats the general rule
Where a listing is more restrictive, the listing is what we inspect against.
The register is yours
Numbered openings, label data, clearances, dates, photographs. You keep it, including if you replace us.
Swinging and rolling handled separately
Different criteria, different procedures, different documents. A building with both gets both rather than one sheet pretending to cover the lot.
Related

Other work on the same openings

Talk it through before anybody quotes it

Bring your opening count, whether any documentation exists, and when the last inspection happened if anyone knows.

(333) 333 333

Scoping call, no charge. A number given before anyone has measured the frame is a guess wearing a suit.

Arrange a survey
Call (333) 333 333