Behind every fire door should be a history: what the doorset is, where it came from, what level of fire resistance it was designed to provide, when it was installed, what documentation supports it, when it was last inspected, what defects have been identified and what remedial work has taken place.
The problem is that, in many buildings, that information does not necessarily stay with the door.
Certificates may be stored in one folder. Inspection reports may sit somewhere else. Installation photographs may be buried in an email. Maintenance records may be held by another contractor entirely.
Years later, someone responsible for the building may be standing in front of a fire door with a very simple question:
What exactly is this door, and what has happened to it during its lifetime?
Finding the answer should not have to become an investigation.
That is why Premier Fire Doors will soon be introducing Digital Fire Door IDs as an optional service for our clients.
The principle is simple: give each fire door its own unique digital identity, accessible through a QR code attached to the doorset, so that the information relating to that particular asset can be organised and accessed far more easily.
One door. One identity. One accessible record.
Under the planned Premier Fire Doors service, an individual fire door can be assigned its own unique Digital ID.
A QR code associated with that ID can then provide access to the digital record for that particular doorset.
Depending on the information available and the scope of the service, that record could include items such as:
- unique door or asset identification number
- building and door location
- fire resistance rating
- doorset specification
- manufacturer and product information
- installation information
- relevant certification and supporting documents
- installation or condition photographs
- inspection dates
- defects identified
- maintenance and remedial work
- replacement components or alterations
- subsequent inspection history
Instead of trying to work backwards through spreadsheets, folders and historic emails to establish which document belongs to which door, the intention is to create a clearer connection between the physical fire door and its information.
Scan the door. Identify the asset. Access its record.
It is a relatively simple idea, but it addresses a problem that the construction and fire-safety industries have been discussing for years.
Traceability has been a major issue since the Hackitt Review
Following the Grenfell Tower fire, Dame Judith Hackitt's Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety examined significant weaknesses in the way building-safety information and construction products were managed.
One of the issues specifically identified was traceability.
Recommendation 7.5 of the final Hackitt Review called for the construction-products industry to:
“develop and agree a consistent labelling and traceability system”
and specifically encouraged the use of available digital technologies.
The report went further than simply suggesting that products should be identifiable when they leave a manufacturer. It discussed digital identification as a means of allowing product records to be captured, stored and checked throughout the lifecycle of a building.
That is significant.
A label is useful because it tells you what something is.
A digital identity can potentially tell you what something is and what has happened to it since it was installed.
For a life-safety product such as a fire door, that distinction matters.
The information should not disappear when the project finishes
The Hackitt Review also placed considerable emphasis on what has become known as the Golden Thread: maintaining reliable building information throughout a building's lifecycle rather than allowing essential information to become fragmented or lost between designers, contractors, owners and subsequent building managers.
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry later discussed the value of building information being:
“simple, easy to find and clear about what it contains.”
That is a useful way of thinking about fire door records too.
A building may technically possess an inspection report, a door schedule and certification. But if the person managing the building cannot easily establish which information relates to Door A on the second-floor corridor, there is still an information-management problem.
Digital identification creates a direct link between the asset and its records.
Fire door information does not stop being important after installation
A compliant fire doorset does not simply get installed and then remain untouched for the rest of the building's life.
Doors are used constantly.
They can be damaged. Closers can develop faults. Hinges and ironmongery can change. Seals can become damaged. Doors can be altered. Contractors can carry out remedial work. Components can be replaced.
Government guidance for residential care premises specifically recommends regular checking of fire doors and states that organisations may find it useful to:
“keep a log book of all maintenance and testing.”
This is particularly relevant in care environments, where fire doors may experience significant daily use and where many residents may require assistance to reach safety during an emergency. The government's residential-care fire-safety guidance is specifically intended for residential and nursing homes and similar care premises.
A Digital Fire Door ID does not remove the need for inspections, competent maintenance, fire risk assessments or appropriate fire-safety management.
It can, however, make the resulting information much easier to organise around the asset it belongs to.
Record keeping is becoming increasingly important
The wider direction of UK fire-safety regulation is also important.
Changes made through Section 156 of the Building Safety Act strengthened the information-recording responsibilities placed on Responsible Persons under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.
Since October 2023, Responsible Persons in premises covered by the Fire Safety Order have been required to record their fire risk assessment in full and record their fire-safety arrangements. Government guidance also emphasises information sharing and maintaining a continual record of relevant fire-safety information when responsibility for a building changes.
Digital Fire Door IDs are not a statutory requirement created by Section 156, and we do not suggest otherwise.
What they can provide is a much more practical method of organising one particularly important category of fire-safety information.
Why attach the information to the door itself?
Imagine a care home with 80 fire doors.
An inspection identifies defects on seven of them.
Several months later, remedial work is undertaken by another contractor.
A year later, another inspection is completed.
Someone then needs to establish:
Was this particular door one of the seven?
What defect was recorded?
Was it repaired?
Who completed the work?
Is there evidence of that repair?
Has anything subsequently changed?
Without good asset identification, answering those questions can involve comparing door schedules, room numbers, photographs and several different reports.
With a unique Digital ID, each event can instead be associated with the same asset.
The history follows the door.
It can also make inspections easier to manage
Government fire-door guidance already recognises electronic record keeping as a practical option.
When discussing the recording of fire-door checks, the government's guidance states:
“You could also use electronic means to plan and record checks.”
The same guidance uses a fire-door checklist that starts by recording the floor, door and door type, and its action plan includes a specific door identifier.
Identification matters because an inspection record has limited value if there is uncertainty about which physical asset was actually inspected.
A QR-based system provides one way of making that identification immediate.
A clearer handover when people or contractors change
Buildings outlive individual contractors, facilities managers and Responsible Persons.
That creates another common problem: institutional knowledge disappears.
Someone may know exactly where all the certification is kept today.
That person may not be responsible for the building five years from now.
Section 156 guidance now requires outgoing Responsible Persons to share relevant fire-safety information with incoming Responsible Persons, reinforcing the principle that important safety information should survive changes in personnel or ownership.
A well-maintained digital asset record can support that continuity.
Instead of relying entirely on one person's knowledge of a filing system, the building itself retains a clear method of identifying each door and locating its associated information.
What could you access through a Premier Fire Doors Digital ID?
Our aim is to make the system genuinely useful rather than simply placing a QR sticker on a door.
For a new doorset supplied through Premier Fire Doors, the Digital ID could become the starting point for that door's record from the beginning of its life.
For example:
At supply
The doorset receives a unique asset identity and the available specification, rating and supporting product information can be associated with its record.
At installation and handover
The door location can be confirmed and relevant installation information, documentation and photographs can be added.
During inspections
Future inspection information can be associated with that same door rather than existing solely as an isolated report.
When defects are discovered
The issue can be connected to the relevant asset, creating a clearer history of what was found.
Following remedial work
Information about repairs or maintenance can be added so that the history does not end when the defect is closed.
Years later
The building manager, Responsible Person or other authorised user can identify the physical door and access the information available for that asset.
That is the real value of the system.
It turns the fire door from an anonymous component in a building into a managed, identifiable fire-safety asset.
Particularly useful for buildings with large fire-door estates
The benefit becomes increasingly obvious as the number of doors increases.
Care homes, residential developments, hotels, hospitals, universities, schools and other large facilities may contain dozens or hundreds of fire doors.
Managing that quantity of assets through spreadsheets and disconnected reports can become difficult very quickly.
A digital system can help provide:
Faster identification
Know exactly which fire door you are looking at.
Better organisation
Keep information associated with the correct asset.
Improved traceability
Build a history from supply and installation through inspection, maintenance and repair.
Simpler handovers
Reduce dependence on individual staff members knowing where historic information has been stored.
Easier inspection management
Create a clearer connection between an inspection result and the physical door.
Better visibility of remedial work
See whether defects have been identified and what subsequent action has been recorded.
More accessible documentation
Reduce the time spent searching different folders and systems for information about a specific doorset.
Why this matters particularly in care homes
Fire-safety management in a residential care environment carries an additional practical responsibility: many occupants may not be able to evacuate without assistance.
Government guidance for residential care premises specifically covers buildings where many or most residents require carer assistance to reach safety.
Fire doors are part of the passive protection intended to restrict the movement of fire and smoke and support the building's fire strategy.
That makes knowing the condition and history of those doors valuable.
A care provider may have maintenance teams, external inspectors, fire-risk assessors, contractors, administrators and senior management all interacting with the same fire-safety information.
Giving each doorset a persistent identity can provide a common point of reference between all of them.
Instead of:
“the fire door near Room 14”
you have:
a specific identified asset with its own record.
Learning from Grenfell means improving the information as well as the products
The lessons following Grenfell have not been limited to individual products.
A recurring theme across the Hackitt Review, subsequent legislation and the Grenfell Tower Inquiry has been the importance of knowing what is in a building, what work has been carried out, who is responsible and where the supporting information can be found.
The Hackitt Review itself highlighted concerns about the ability to trace fire doors manufactured to a particular specification following testing failures.
The Grenfell Phase 2 report also examined problems with historic building information and noted that work had previously been carried out at Grenfell Tower — including the replacement of fire doors — without a complete health and safety file being available when later refurbishment began.
Better information does not make a defective fire door safe.
But when something needs to be inspected, repaired, verified or replaced, being able to identify the asset and understand its history can make managing that process considerably clearer.
Coming soon from Premier Fire Doors
Premier Fire Doors is now preparing to introduce Digital Fire Door IDs as an optional service for our clients.
Clients purchasing qualifying fire doors and doorsets will be able to choose digital identification as an additional part of their fire-door package.
Our intention is to establish the Digital ID alongside the doorset information available through the project, assign the individual door its unique identity and provide the QR-based access point that connects the physical asset with its digital record.
The service is designed to complement — rather than replace — proper fire-door inspection, maintenance, certification, fire risk assessment and the responsibilities placed upon those managing fire safety.
Think of it as the identity and information layer that helps connect those activities together.
Because ten years from now, somebody should not have to ask:
“Does anyone know what fire door this is?”
They should be able to identify it.
And, increasingly, we believe the information that matters should be able to follow the door throughout its life.
Interested in adding Digital IDs to your fire doors?
The Premier Fire Doors Digital ID service will be available soon as an optional addition for clients.
If you manage a care home, residential development or other building with multiple fire doors and would like to discuss how Digital Fire Door IDs could work across your premises, speak to the Premier Fire Doors team.
One door. One identity. A clearer record throughout its life.