Looking for an FD30 door

[bobiscuit]

We're thinking of knocking through the wall and installing a door to our integral garage.

I know we need an FD30 door for regulations, and we need a secure door for insurance/security... But we also want it to look like a standard 4-panel door.

Does that exist? I can't find one anywhere.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yes, everywhere. Where have you looked?

 

[bobiscuit]

All the ones I've found as labeled as "interior" doors. But I think for security/insurance we need an external one, don't we? And I haven't found any "external" 4-panel normal looking FD30 doors

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Why does it need to be an external grade? Being an FD will make it secure enough. I don't know where you've looked but I wouldn't have bothered with the sheds anyway. As mentioned panelled fire doors are widely available.

 

[JohnD]

FD30 doors are generally 44mm thick and made of chipboard with a moulded or veneered or ply face. Chipboard will not stand up to rain or damp so they are internal only. I have a houseful of them, and like the moulded panelled Premdor ones which replicate 6 or 4 panelled doors.

I have heard people say they are not very strong, but I have carried and sawn them and they seem pretty sturdy to me. With three heavyweight hinges and a BS mortice lock, supported if you wish with hinge bolts and rack bolts, I think them pretty secure. You should ask your insurers what they require for the communicating door

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

eg http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Stir...e-Grained-Moulded-4-Panel-1981x762mm/p/180116

 

[chappers]

Also don't forget you need a 100mm step down into the garage

 

[u587162]

Why do you need a step down?

 

[JohnD]

Assuming Building Regs still require it, it is so that, when your car catches fire, the petrol running out of the tank stays inside the garage and cannot run into the house.

Also if other flammable liquids leak out onto the floor from storage containers.

 

[Tipper]

Why do you need a step down?

Or a step up and a step down...

That's what my house to garage door has. It's an 'internal' fire door with 3 fire rated hinges, fire rated 'fat' door stops and a 5-lever mortise lock. It weighs a ton, I can't lift by myself!

 

[u587162]

I will be having a double door from my playroom to the garage fitted in coming months. It needs to be FD30 with those smoke seals. Thinking about security however, is it best to consider two leaf external wooden doors for this area that leads to the garage (with the only other exit being the large cross sectional door).

 

[^woody^]

Thinking about security

Think about putting the security on external doors not internal ones

 

[u587162]

We're having good security on the front anyway but I suppose a door leading from the inside of the garage to the house should be as secure.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

If for example you were buying a new-build house with an integral garage and an internal door separating the garage and the house, with respect to security, an FD30 internal grade door and a five lever lock and an ordinary Garador or similar standard garage door with its basic lock would be adequate to meet insurance demands.

In order to comply with the Regs and meet household insurance requirements, with regards to a step down, the garage floor does not need to be 100mm lower, this is just one way of achieving compliance. If it is sloping away from the internal door to the garage door opening that would also comply as would having a 100mm step over the door threshold.

 

[chappers]

indeed there are several ways to comply, just wanted to point out that the OP cant just put a doorway in and that there are regs surrounding it.