Plenty of buildings hire one company to inspect fire doors and another to fix them. On paper it looks like a check on the work. In practice, the report sits on a desk, the repair quote takes weeks, and the doors stay failed. Here is what you lose when the two jobs are split, and what to ask of a vendor that does both.
How the split usually goes
The inspector walks the building, tags the doors and sends a report. The report goes to facilities, then to purchasing. Someone asks a door contractor to price the list. The contractor walks the building again, because the report does not say which hinge, which closer or which strike. Weeks pass. Then the repair crew comes, does the work and leaves.
Now the doors need to be inspected again. NFPA 80 calls for an inspection after repair work, and that record has to be kept. So the inspector comes back. That is several trips and two companies, and a door that failed in the first month can stay open on your list for months.
What gets lost between two vendors
Time. Every handoff adds days. A failed door is a finding waiting for a surveyor the whole time.
Detail. An inspection report says a door does not latch. It may not say why. The repair crew has to diagnose it again.
Small fixes. A loose screw or a closer out of adjustment takes minutes to fix. When the inspector does not fix it, it becomes a line item, a quote and a second visit.
A clean record. The repair company's paperwork and the inspector's report often do not match. Door IDs differ. Nobody updates the original report. When a surveyor asks for proof a door was fixed, you have two documents and a gap between them.
What one vendor changes
Small failures get fixed on the first visit
Most fire door failures are minor: a strike that has shifted, a sagging hinge, a closer set too soft, a missing screw, a torn gasket. When the inspector carries hinge and strike shims, fasteners, gasket and edge seal, those doors pass before the crew leaves the floor. The fix happens once, the re-inspection happens on the spot, and the door never becomes an open item.
Bigger repairs come priced
For doors that cannot be fixed that day, the person who found the problem prices it. The report lists each repair line by line, sorted by risk, so you can approve the work without a second walk.
The record stays in one place
Same door ID, same report, same portal. When a door is repaired, its line changes from failed to closed, with before and after photos and the re-inspection result. That is the record a surveyor wants to see. We do not charge to re-inspect a door we repaired.
The fair question: will they find more to fix?
Some owners worry that an inspector who also does repairs has a reason to fail doors. It is a fair question, and the answer is in the report. Every failure should come with a photo, a measurement where it applies, and the code section it fails. If a finding cannot be shown, it should not be on the list.
You can also check the work. Hand the report to anyone you trust. And if another firm's report is what you have now, we will price the repairs from it and re-inspect each door after the work, so you do not have to start over.
What to ask any vendor
Do your inspectors carry parts and fix small failures on the visit?
Do you re-inspect repaired doors, and is there a charge for it?
Does each repair close out the original line in the report, with photos?
Can you work from another company's report?
What to do next
If you have a stack of failed doors from last year's report, or you are planning this year's test, put both jobs with one crew. See how our annual fire door inspection and fire door repair work together, then get a quote or call (610) 684-9715.
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