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5 Ways To Help Prevent A Fire Spreading
Lambert Hall & Fairfield House, Manchester: Fire Door Remedials and Replacements
across two occupied student accommodation blocks.
Fire door case study
Fire Industry Specialists delivered a £400K fire door replacement and remedials programme across two separate, occupied student accommodation buildings in Manchester, Lambert Hall and Fairfield House, for iQ Student Accommodation.
We provided a full turnkey solution on both sites, covering the supply and installation of every doorset and component, our own site accommodation and full site management. Students lived in both buildings throughout, and the work was carried out under COVID-19 restrictions.
The programme was completed on time and to budget, to a zero-defects standard.
The project at a glance
- Location: Lambert Hall & Fairfield House, Manchester
- Client: iQ Student Accommodation
- Sector: Student accommodation
- Service: Fire door remedials and replacements, turnkey
- Value of works: £400K
- Buildings: one six-storey and one eight-storey block, both occupied
About the buildings
The two buildings are separate student accommodation blocks in Manchester, and both are home to a mix of tenants and users. Fairfield House is an eight-storey block, and Lambert Hall has six storeys. Every floor in both buildings combines bedrooms, shared kitchens and studio apartments.
In a building like this, fire doors do a lot of work. Flat entrance doors, kitchen doors, riser cupboards and corridor doors all hold back fire and smoke, which keeps escape routes clear. Many of them are opened and closed hundreds of times a week. That makes wear, damage and poor adjustment a constant risk.
The challenge
The client needed a large number of fire doors across both buildings repaired or replaced to bring them back to the required standard.
Where a door could be made compliant, it was repaired. Where it couldn’t, it was replaced.
The complexity lay in the setting:
- Two sites at once, each with its own tenants, site managers and operational needs
- Fully occupied buildings, where students’ rooms, kitchens and escape routes had to stay usable and secure
- An evolving programme, which had to adapt to access, occupancy and the client’s priorities
- COVID-19 restrictions, which affected how and when our teams could work
Our approach
1. One point of contact on each site
All communication went through the client’s on-site Operations Team, and we kept a close working dialogue with each building’s site manager. That way the programme could be planned and re-planned around room access, tenant needs and COVID-19 measures without disrupting the residents.
2. A full turnkey package
We took responsibility for the whole package: supplying all doorsets, ironmongery and materials; setting up our own site accommodation; and managing the site day to day. The client had one contractor accountable for delivery across both buildings.
3. Remedials where possible, replacements where needed
Each fire door was assessed. Doors that could be brought up to standard were repaired and doors that could not were replaced with new certified sets.
4. Zero-defects quality control
Every fire door was checked against strict quality control before it was signed off. This kept to a zero-defects regime across the whole programme.
Working in occupied student accommodation
Students stayed in both buildings throughout, so our teams worked in a way that put them first:
- Around residents: the programme was managed around occupied rooms and shared spaces.
- COVID-safe: working methods were adapted to the restrictions and guidance in place at the time.
- Zero defects: strict quality control on every doorset.
- Clean and safe: each area was left ready for students to use again straight away.
The result
Both buildings now have fire doors that are repaired or replaced to the required standard, protecting students on every floor of both blocks. The £400K programme was delivered on time and to budget, with both buildings occupied from start to finish.
Services used on this project
Planning a fire door programme across multiple buildings?
FIS delivers fire door surveys, remedials and replacements for student accommodation operators, housing providers and property managers across Manchester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Sheffield and the wider UK.
We can take on a single block or a multi-site programme, with one point of contact and one team accountable for delivery.
Call us on 0333 444 0070 or request a callback.
Fire safety is a responsibility that never rests and we’re here to implement complete fire protection for your business. Get in touch with our industry-leading experts to learn how we prevent fires, protect lives, and ensure compliance for you.
Frequently asked questions
- Should a damaged fire door be repaired or replaced?
- It depends on the damage and the door’s certification. Many issues can be put right by a competent installer without affecting the door’s performance, such as excessive gaps, worn intumescent strips or smoke seals, and faulty closers or hinges. Where the leaf or frame is badly damaged, has been altered, or can’t be traced to its certification, replacement is usually the safer option.
- Can fire doors be replaced while students are living in the building?
- Yes, at Lambert Hall and Fairfield House both buildings stayed occupied throughout. Working through the client’s operations team, we planned access room by room so students kept secure, usable rooms and escape routes at all times.
- How often should fire doors in student accommodation be inspected?
- In blocks of flats in England, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 require communal fire doors to be checked every three months where the building is over 11 metres tall. Flat entrance doors must be checked at least annually, on a best-endeavours basis.
- Can you manage fire door works across more than one site?
- This project covered two separate buildings under one turnkey package, with coordinated programmes and a single point of accountability.
- Do you carry out fire door surveys before remedials?
- Yes, a fire door survey sets out the condition of every door and whether it needs remedials or replacement. That gives you a clear, costed scope before any work starts.
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