Fire Door Inspection Schedule (BS 8214)

Fire door inspection isn’t optional — it’s a legal duty. Yet many organisations struggle not with the inspections themselves, but with scheduling them effectively. Missed inspections, inconsistent intervals, and poor record-keeping create compliance gaps that put building occupants at risk and expose Responsible Persons to prosecution.

A well-designed fire door inspection schedule transforms reactive maintenance into proactive compliance management. This guide explains how to create a schedule that meets BS 8214 requirements, aligns with your legal obligations, and actually gets followed.

Why Inspection Scheduling Matters

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, Responsible Persons must ensure fire doors are maintained in good working order. The Building Safety Act 2022 strengthens this requirement for Higher-Risk Buildings, demanding accessible, accurate records as part of the Golden Thread of building safety information.

But legislation doesn’t just require inspections — it requires evidence of inspections. A fire door inspected once and forgotten is as problematic as one never inspected at all. Effective scheduling ensures:

• Consistent inspection intervals appropriate to building risk
• No doors missed — every door on a documented cycle
• Audit-ready records demonstrating compliance over time
• Early defect detection before failures become dangerous

Industry data consistently shows that irregular inspections correlate with higher defect rates. Doors inspected annually have significantly fewer critical defects than those checked only when problems become obvious.

How Inspection Frequency Is Determined

BS 8214:2016 is the British Standard code of practice for fire door assemblies. Importantly, BS 8214 does not mandate specific inspection intervals. Instead, it states that inspection frequency should be determined by your fire risk assessment, taking into account building use, occupancy type, and risk factors.

That said, many organisations use six-monthly inspections as a baseline, with more frequent checks for higher-risk or high-use doors. The following table reflects common industry practice — not codified requirements from any British Standard:

Building Type	Common Practice	Rationale
Higher-Risk Buildings (HRBs)	3-6 months	Vulnerable occupants, complex evacuation, regulatory expectations
Hospitals & Care Homes	3-6 months	Sleeping risk, dependent occupants
HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation)	6 months	High use, multiple households
Schools & Universities	6-12 months	High traffic, term-time patterns
Offices & Commercial	6-12 months	Lower risk, supervised occupants
Lower-Risk Premises	12 months (minimum)	As identified by fire risk assessment

Important: This table is not from BS 8214 or any legal requirement. It reflects common practice based on guidance from bodies such as the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) and Fire Door Inspection Scheme (FDIS). Your actual inspection frequency must be justified by your fire risk assessment — the intervals above are starting points, not rules.

Factors that may warrant more frequent inspections include:

• High door usage (corridors, main circulation routes)
• History of defects or damage
• Building age or condition
• Vulnerable occupant groups
• Previous enforcement action

BS 8214 does recommend additional inspections after any event that may have affected fire doors: building works, damage reports, or fire incidents.

Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022: Legal Requirements

The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 introduced specific fire door inspection requirements for residential buildings in England. These are legal requirements, separate from BS 8214 guidance.

For buildings over 11 metres in height (typically 4+ storeys):

• Quarterly checks of all fire doors in common areas (corridors, stairwells, lobbies)
• Annual checks of flat entrance doors that open onto common parts
• Records of all checks must be maintained

For all residential buildings with two or more domestic premises:

• The Responsible Person must ensure fire doors are maintained in working order (RRFSO duty)
• Best practice is to follow the quarterly/annual regime even where not legally mandated

What these checks involve:

The regulations require checking that fire doors close correctly around their full perimeter, checking for obvious signs of damage, and ensuring seals and self-closing devices are in place and functioning. These are often referred to as “simple checks” and can be conducted by trained building staff — they’re not the same as full BS 8214 inspections by competent persons, though both may be needed depending on your compliance strategy.

Higher-Risk Buildings (over 18 metres) face additional obligations under the Building Safety Act 2022, including Golden Thread record-keeping requirements.

Common Scheduling Pitfalls

Before building your schedule, understand what typically goes wrong:

1. Paper-Based Calendars and Spreadsheets

Paper calendars get lost. Spreadsheets fall out of date. Neither provides the audit trail regulators expect. When inspections are tracked manually:

• Reminders depend on someone remembering to check
• Records lack timestamps proving when work was done
• Photo evidence is disconnected from inspection records
• Handover between staff creates gaps

2. “We’ll Do It When We Can”

Reactive scheduling — inspecting doors only when problems are reported — guarantees missed defects. Fire door issues often aren’t visible to building users until they’re severe. By the time someone reports a door that won’t close, multiple components may have failed.

3. Inspecting All Doors on One Day

Annual “blitz” inspections seem efficient but create problems:

• Surveyors rush to complete high volumes
• Quality suffers under time pressure
• Entire building cycles in and out of compliance together
• Remedial work backlog becomes unmanageable

4. No Follow-Up on Defects

Identifying defects is only half the job. Without tracking remediation, you have:

• Documented failures with no documented fixes
• No evidence the door was returned to compliance
• Gaps that become normalised over time

5. Assigning Inspections Without Accountability

Scheduling inspections without clear ownership means no one is responsible when they’re missed. “The facilities team will handle it” isn’t accountability — named individuals with deadlines are.

Building Your Fire Door Inspection Schedule

Step 1: Create Your Fire Door Asset Register

You cannot schedule inspections for doors you haven’t identified. A complete asset register includes:

• Every fire door in the building (including flat entrance doors in residential buildings)
• Unique identifier for each door (QR code, reference number, or location code)
• Door specifications (fire rating, smoke seals, glazing)
• Location (floor, area, room)
• Last inspection date (or “never inspected” for new registers)

For buildings with dozens or hundreds of fire doors, digital asset registers are essential. Paper lists quickly become unmanageable and difficult to update.

Step 2: Determine Inspection Frequency

Using your fire risk assessment and the guidance above, assign an inspection frequency to your building or zones within it. Consider whether different areas warrant different frequencies:

• Main corridors (high use) → 6 months
• Back-of-house areas (low use) → 12 months
• Plant rooms (rarely accessed) → 12 months
• Vulnerable occupant areas → 3-6 months

Document your rationale. If regulators question your approach, you need evidence that frequencies were risk-assessed, not arbitrary.

Step 3: Schedule Inspections Across the Year

Distribute inspections to create manageable workloads:

For quarterly inspections (residential flat entrance doors):

• Q1: January-March
• Q2: April-June
• Q3: July-September
• Q4: October-December

For six-monthly inspections:

• Cycle 1: January-February and July-August
• Or align with other compliance activities (fire alarm testing, emergency lighting)

For annual inspections:

• Consider spreading across quarters to avoid year-end backlogs
• Align with lease dates for multi-tenant buildings
• Avoid peak operational periods

Step 4: Assign Responsibility

For each inspection cycle, identify:

• Who will conduct inspections — named individual or team
• Who reviews completion — supervisor or manager
• Who handles remediation — maintenance team or contractor
• Who signs off compliance — Responsible Person or delegate

Clear accountability prevents the “I thought you were doing it” gaps that lead to missed inspections.

Step 5: Set Up Reminders

Relying on memory guarantees failures. Effective reminder systems:

• Advance notice — alert assigned surveyors 14 days before inspection due
• Due date reminder — notification on the scheduled date
• Overdue escalation — alerts to supervisors if inspection isn’t completed
• Automated tracking — system knows what’s done and what’s pending

Manual reminders (calendar entries, recurring tasks) work for small portfolios. Buildings with more than 20-30 fire doors benefit from automated reminder systems.

Step 6: Document Results and Track Remediation

Every inspection must produce records showing:

• Date and time of inspection
• Who conducted it
• Findings for each door (pass/fail/defects identified)
• Photo evidence of defects
• Remedial actions required
• Target dates for remediation
• Confirmation when remediation is complete

This documentation is your audit trail. When a regulator or insurer asks “how do you manage fire door compliance?”, these records are your answer.

How Digital Tools Change the Game

Paper-based scheduling requires constant manual effort to maintain. Digital fire door management systems automate the administrative burden:

Automated Scheduling and Reminders

• Set inspection frequency per site or door group
• System calculates next inspection dates automatically
• Email or push notifications alert surveyors when inspections are due
• Overdue inspections flagged for management attention

Mobile Inspection with Instant Records

• Surveyors complete inspections on smartphones or tablets
• Findings recorded against each door’s digital profile
• Photos captured and linked automatically
• Timestamps prove when work was done

Remediation Tracking

• Defects logged with required actions
• Assignments tracked to completion
• Evidence of repair captured
• Full history maintained per door

Audit-Ready Reports

• Generate compliance reports showing inspection status
• Demonstrate patterns over time
• Export records for regulators or insurers
• Support Golden Thread requirements for Higher-Risk Buildings

QR Code Door Tracking

• Each door identified by unique QR code
• Scan to access door history and start inspection
• Eliminates misidentification errors
• Links physical door to digital records

Sample Inspection Schedule Template

Site/Zone	Doors	Frequency	Cycle 1	Cycle 2	Assigned To	Reminder Lead Time
Main Building - Corridors	24	6 months	February	August	J. Smith	14 days
Main Building - Offices	18	12 months	March	—	J. Smith	14 days
Residential Block A - Flat Doors	32	Quarterly	Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct	—	K. Patel	14 days
Residential Block A - Common Areas	12	12 months	May	—	K. Patel	14 days

Adapt this framework to your building portfolio. The key elements are: knowing your doors, setting appropriate frequencies, assigning clear ownership, and tracking completion.

Maintaining Your Schedule Long-Term

A schedule only works if it’s maintained:

• Review annually — adjust frequencies based on defect patterns
• Update after changes — new doors, removed doors, building alterations
• Monitor compliance rates — track what percentage of inspections are completed on time
• Address patterns — if certain doors consistently fail, investigate root causes
• Keep records accessible — ensure authorised personnel can access history

Conclusion

Fire door inspection scheduling isn’t bureaucracy — it’s the foundation of effective fire door management. Without a documented schedule, inspections happen inconsistently, defects go undetected, and Responsible Persons cannot demonstrate compliance.

Key takeaways:

1. Base frequency on risk — BS 8214 provides guidance, your fire risk assessment determines specifics
2. Document everything — schedules, inspections, defects, and remediation
3. Assign clear accountability — named individuals with deadlines
4. Use automated reminders — memory-based scheduling fails
5. Track remediation to completion — finding defects without fixing them isn’t compliance
6. Consider digital tools — automation reduces administrative burden and improves audit trails

Regular, scheduled inspection is how organisations move from reactive firefighting to proactive compliance management. The time invested in building a proper schedule pays dividends in reduced defects, defensible records, and genuine building safety.

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This guide is provided for general information purposes only. Inspection frequencies should be determined by your fire risk assessment and verified against current editions of BS 8214 and applicable regulations. For definitive guidance, consult appropriately qualified fire safety professionals.

IgnisTrack fire door inspection software includes automated scheduling, inspection reminders, and audit-ready compliance records. Start your 14-day free trial to build your fire door inspection schedule today.