Fire door inspection in Surbiton
Big Victorian villas cut into flats, and 1930s blocks near the station.
Get a priceSurbiton's big houses were built for families with servants.
Now a good many of them hold four or five flats, and the grand staircase is a shared escape route. The doors along it have had to be fitted into openings that were never meant for them.
Look at the frames. In these houses the opening is often tall and out of square, so the door has been packed out or trimmed to fit. That is where the gaps get big.
The villas around the Crescent and the hill
Tall ceilings mean tall doors. A door over the usual height needs testing evidence to match, and a door cut down from something bigger may have lost the seal groove along with the timber.
Fanlights over flat doors are another thing to check. People keep them because they are pretty. Unless the glass is rated and fitted properly, the fanlight is a hole above your fire door.
Then there are meter cupboards built under the original stairs. A door there is on the escape route and it has to be treated as such.
1930s blocks
Surbiton's railway station is an art deco landmark, and the same decade left a number of purpose-built blocks around the town.
Older blocks like these tend to have heavy solid doors that look good and may be nothing to do with fire resistance. Weight alone proves nothing. Without a label or a record of what was fitted, we have to report that the door cannot be confirmed.
If the block is over 11 metres the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 apply, so communal doors need three-monthly checks and flat doors need yearly ones.
Students by the river
Kingston University halls at Seething Wells sit right on the riverside, and the shared houses spread out from there into Surbiton's side streets.
A shared house is hard on doors. Closers come off, kitchen doors get propped, and locks get swapped. If you let to students or sharers, have a look at our page on HMOs. The checks are the same in Surbiton as anywhere, and the summer is a good time to do them.
Shops on Victoria Road
Many of the shops along Victoria Road and Brighton Road have flats above them, reached by a side door or a stair at the back.
Find out who is responsible for that stair. Often it is less clear than it ought to be, and the freeholder may not have looked at it in years.
Who enforces it here
Surbiton is in the Royal Borough of Kingston, so housing questions go to Kingston Council. London Fire Brigade deals with fire safety enforcement.
Berrylands is in the same borough and has the same arrangement. Tolworth and Hook, a little further down the A3, are the same again.
How we get to you
We travel down from Luton. Kingston and Surbiton often go on the same day, so tell us if your dates are flexible.
You do not need to get everyone in. A morning with access to the common parts tells us a good deal, and individual flats can follow.
Send a postcode, a door count and a few photos if you have them. A price comes back the same day.
Small blocks and old doors
Villa flats on three floors are usually under 11 metres, so the fixed three-month checks do not apply. The doors still have to work and somebody still has to manage them.
Fond of the original doors? A panelled door voids the rating, so we point people to a plain certified doorset. If the building is listed, talk to the council first.
Send us the postcode and a rough door count. You will have a price the same day.
Get a price