Fire door inspection in Epsom
Old hospital buildings turned into homes, students near the college and flats in the town.
Get a priceWest of Epsom there is a very unusual group of housing estates.
At one time this area had a cluster of big psychiatric hospitals, five of them, more or less side by side. Most have since closed. Long Grove, Horton and the others have been turned into homes, some in new houses and some inside the old hospital buildings.
If you live in or manage a flat in one of those, the fire door question is an interesting one.
Old institutions as flats
Hospital buildings had long corridors, wide openings and doors made for trolleys.
Converting one to flats means dividing up spaces that were never meant to be divided, and fitting doors into openings of odd sizes. The conversion was presumably signed off when it was done. That says nothing about what has happened to those doors since then.
Long shared corridors make a difference to how fire and smoke travel, so the doors across them matter a lot. The first thing we look at is whether those doors are still self-closing and whether they still meet in the middle.
Double doors are harder to get right. They have to close in the right order, the meeting edges need to seal, and any gap there is smoke getting through.
Students near the university
The University for the Creative Arts has a campus at Epsom, and there is student housing around it.
Shared houses here get the same treatment as anywhere. Closers disconnected, kitchen doors propped, new locks added. Have a read of our page on student lets and HMOs if that is your world.
Race week
Epsom's Derby brings a very large number of people to the Downs for a few days.
It is not a good time to book, so we will leave it. If you run a hotel or guest rooms the days before are a good moment to make sure bedroom door closers work and that nobody has wedged open a door to the stairs.
Town centre flats and shops
Epsom High Street and the streets around the clock tower have flats above many of the shops.
Check the stair access and the door between the shop and the stair. Find out who is responsible. If you do not know, ask the freeholder, and ask again in writing if you have to.
Workplaces
Offices and light industrial units around the town come under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Look at the doors your staff use most. Those are the ones with the worst closers, because they do all the work.
Repairs and how far we go
We inspect in Epsom. Repairs are done by our own crew only, so whether we can offer them depends on the job and on where the crew is working. Ask us. You can take the report to any competent carpenter and they will be able to price from it.
Local details
Epsom is in Epsom and Ewell, in Surrey. Your council for housing and HMOs is Epsom and Ewell Borough Council. Surrey Fire and Rescue Service enforces fire safety. Ewell, Stoneleigh and Langley Vale are nearby.
We come from Luton and we do not have an office in Surrey. We group visits where we can.
Questions we get asked
Our flat is in a converted hospital. Who is responsible for the corridor doors?
Usually the management company or freeholder. Check your lease and your service charge details.
Do you check double doors differently?
Yes. We look at how they close in order, the meeting edges and the bottom gap on both leaves.
Send us the postcode and a rough door count. You will have a price the same day.
Get a price