Fire Seals Help Fire Doors Save Lives

Fire doors are designed to save lives. That is why these doors are a requirement for so many buildings that we live and work in today. However, there are always flaws inherent in any product. Even the best doors could be improved to provide more safety than they currently do in case a fire does break out. One of the easiest ways to make life-saving improvements to all of your fire doors is to add fire seals to them. The fire seal is a product which closes any gaps that exist around the door. This reinforces the purpose of the door and makes it a lot more likely that it will do its job the way that it is supposed to. These seals can be used in other places throughout the building but they are particularly effective when used in conjunction with existing fire doors to create a safe space for everyone in the event of an emergency.

Fire doors are designed to resist fire so that everyone in the building can get out of the building safely if a fire does break out. Unfortunately, they don't always work quite the way that they are supposed to. The most common problem that is seen with fire doors is that they aren't hung exactly right. Because of this there are gaps between the door and the floor or the door and the frame of the door. These gaps allow heat and smoke to come through the door. This minimizes the ability of the door to truly do its job. At best it can mean that smoke gets through to the rest of the building more quickly. At worst it can mean that the door will break down and become totally useless. It's ridiculous to spend so much money to install fire doors and then to fail to deal with these almost-inevitable gaps. Fire seals are the solution to this problem.

Fire seals are seals which are designed to be installed around the frame of fire doors. They are not noticeable to you most of the time because you don't have any reason to pay attention to the fire doors when there is no emergency. If a fire breaks out, though, these seals will come to the rescue. The way that they work is that they expand when there is heat. The product increases in size (although not in density) and therefore creates a fire-stopping seal in the gaps that might otherwise exist around the fire door. This seal lasts for approximately an hour. This gives you an hour during which the fire door is working properly and you can get everyone to safety.

The most important thing that fire seals do is that they help hold the door in place and to make it totally resistant to fire. However, they have the additional benefit of blocking smoke from coming through any gaps. This is important because smoke can cause a lot of problems to people who are caught in a fire. People who don't suffer any kind of burns can still require hospitalization due to smoke inhalation. The less smoke that you are exposed to during a fire the more likely it is that you are going to get out of that building safely. Since these seals are also designed to block smoke they further help people during fires in this way.

Fire seals aren't actually designed only to be used on fire doors. There are seals that can be used on all different sorts of areas that might be problematic during a fire. For example, seals can be used on windows or pipes which might have gaps that can exacerbate the problems related to a fire. They can even be used around cables and in other smaller parts of a building to further improve the building's fire safety level. It's great to use them in this way, but fire seals are clearly best used when they are installed on fire doors. If you're only going to put them in one place on the building then that is the place to start.