As a business owner with your own building, it is important to keep your property up to code. But that's not just to comply with regulations. It's also important because it helps keep your building safe for you, your employees, and your customers. One of the many ways that you can provide extra fire safety for your structure is the installation of one or more fire doors. These doors are designed to keep fire and smoke from spreading from one room to another or one floor to another. A fire door in the right spot might save your building or even someone's life. But when you have a fire door in your building, the door itself might not be enough. Fire door gap fillers play a critical role in keeping your door up to code and in keeping the flames at bay. Here's why these fillers are so important.
Structures Can Shift or Settle Over Time
When your fire door was first installed, perhaps it was airtight without even a smidge of a gap anywhere to be found. But buildings can shift and settle over time, especially after new construction is finished. What once might have been a gap-free fit for your door might no longer be the case. Even if the gap is hard to see, it might be there. As such, having the filler in place to close the gap could be critical. Your fire doors should be inspected at least once per year if not more often to ensure that any gaps are taken care of with the proper filler.
Smoke and Gas Don't Need Much Room to Get Through
Closing down all gaps on your fire protection doors isn't just about staying up to code. It's also about keeping people safe. Even if the door mostly works at stopping the flames, it doesn't take much of a gap for gas or smoke to make its way to the other side. The inhalation of this gas or smoke by you or your coworkers could prove dangerous. As such, it's important to have fire door gap fillers.
A Fire Door With a Gap Is a Liability That Could Fail Inspection or Cause Legal Trouble
Pretend the worst-case scenario happens and a fire occurs. Maybe your fire door did stop some damage, but a gap allowed some heat, smoke, or flame to make its way through. Did your building suffer property damage as a result? Did someone get injured? A fire door with a gap won't just cause you to fail inspection, it could also leave you open to a negligence claim if someone sues you for not doing more to protect people from the fire. That's why you should have a fire door gap filler in place.
For more information, contact a company that provides fire door gap filler solutions.
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