Why is annual inspection of fire-rated door assemblies required?
NFPA 80 has required the frequent inspection of fire-rated doors, and their immediate repair, for many years. The challenge was that it was nearly impossible to define what ‘frequent’ is. Does ‘frequent’ mean every day, once a month, once a year or some other period of time? NFPA 80 2007 has helped to define the frequency of inspections as annually – once a year. What exactly is going to be inspected on fire-rated openings? Former editions of NFPA 80 have established guidelines for the installation and maintenance of fire-rated doors. There are certain baseline elements, which are common to all Swinging Doors with Builders Hardware no matter when they were installed. The 2007 edition of NFPA 80 simply requires these baseline elements to be inspected on an annual basis (yearly). 11 INSPECTION STEPS Chapter 5, Section 5-2 Inspections, Paragraph 5-2.4 Swinging Doors with Builders Hardware lists the elements that are required to be inspected. It requires, ‘fire door assemblies to be visual
