First, as in any industry, not all manufacturers maintain a 'best practice' policy and sometimes the provision of a fire test report is not necessarily a guarantee of performance. This makes it very difficult for anybody to tell the valid from the not-so-valid...the 'good' arrangement from the 'bad' arrangement.

Second, not every door arrangement can be fulfilled by using a standard fire rated product. So what happens to its fire-rating if it has to be altered after purchase...cut a door blank down or add a glazed aperture and then how does the claimed fire-rating stand up?

Soon after Timbmet Doors was formed (back in 1993) it became very obvious that confusion, ignorance and negligence to fire safety in fire door products, was rife throughout the business. So much so that we began testing, for ourselves, the products that we were sourcing.

We realised particularly, that manufacturers' fire test evidence could easily be invalidated when incorrect glazing, ironmongery, leaf re-sizing, frame specification and intumescent products become part of the equation.

As a distributor of products that could be effected in this way we felt we had an additional and very serious responsibility to our customers and therefore undertook fire tests of our own (through Chiltern International Fire) to extend existing manufacturers' evidence. We very quickly created a bank of Timbmet Doors generated fire test reports and global assessments.

We embraced the idea of independent third-party certification and believe we were one step ahead of other suppliers when the UK Government amended Building Regulations - Approved Document B to Include its recommendation that a third-party certified fire door assembly should always be used.

. Timbmet Doors Blank fort Fire Door Blanks - the first UK door blanks to be granted the Q-Mark (BM TRADA Certification).

. Timbmet Door Viscount Fire Doors - the first door product in the UK to be awarded both Q-Mark.

. Timbmet Doors Fire spec Fire Doorsets (FD60, FD90 and FD120) - Q-Mark (BM TRADA Certification) approved

. Timbmet Doors Vision spec Fire Doors Glazing Service - Q-Mark (BM TRADA Certification) approved

There are schemes currently in place in the UK for providing independent assurance to architects, specifies, users and building owners that the fire door products they are buying meet their specified technical and regulatory requirements:

. Q-Mark - operated through BM TRADA Certification

. TDSL's unique life cycle and durability test evidence (Chiltern Dynamics), providing full scale third party mechanical and cyclic performance assurances