General Information
Fire doors exist to keep guests in commercial structures safe from danger. To ensure every commercial building lives up to the same set of standards, the National Fire Protection Association has outlined what are known as NFPA-80 requirements, which provide a wide range of achievable stipulations.
These requirements are important to protect your building and the people who visit it. To maintain compliance with NFPA-80 requirements, you must have your fire doors inspected and drop tested at least once a year. Additionally, you must have evidence that you’ve undertaken this inspection and test.
NFPA-80 Requirements
Fire door drop test requirements are pretty simple. Basically, they say that your doors must be inspected at least once a year by a professional who knows they are doing. Your doors must be fully operational, and you must document this in a way that captures the doors’ test history.
Before testing, a visual inspection will check for: open holes or breaks in the surface of your door, incorrectly installed components like slats and assemblies, improper clearance, blocked drop release arms, missing smoke detectors and more.
The Actual Drop Test
The drop test includes two steps. A first test checks to make sure your fire doors operate as they should and are providing full closure. A second test checks to make sure the automatic-closing devices resets properly. Any failure to pass this test needs to be immediately remedied through repairs.
After the repairs are made, the door may be tested again. If the door again fails to pass the drop test, replacement is then an option.