Fire door inspection
Every fire door in your building inspected, photographed and recorded — to the Ontario Fire Code’s monthly requirement and NFPA 80’s inspection criteria, with a written record for every opening and a copy for your building file.
What a fire door inspection actually is
A fire door is not a door. It is an assembly — leaf, frame, hinges, closer, latch, seals and glazing — tested and listed as a unit. Change any part of it and the listing no longer describes what is standing in the opening.
An inspection checks that assembly against a defined set of criteria. It is not a visual walk-past; it is a physical examination of each opening, checking clearances with a gauge, operating the door, confirming it latches under its own power, and reading the label.
The output is a record. Having inspected the doors and being able to show that you inspected them are two different things, and it is the second one that matters when a fire prevention officer asks, when an insurer reviews a renewal, or when a building changes hands.
What the Ontario Fire Code actually requires
The Ontario Fire Code is O. Reg. 213/07 under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997. Every duty below is cited to its article, so you can read the wording yourself rather than taking ours for it.
Monthly inspection — 2.2.3.4(4)
“A door in a fire separation shall be inspected monthly.” Division B, Article 2.2.3.4(4). This is long-standing law rather than a recent amendment, which is precisely why so many buildings have never done it. It applies whether or not the door is in regular use, and there is no exemption — the exceptions at 2.2.3.4(3) relieve a door from being held closed, not from being inspected.
Kept closed, kept clear — 2.2.3.4(1), (2) and (5)
A door in a fire separation is kept closed when not in use, and checked as frequently as necessary to ensure it remains closed. The opening and the area around it are kept clear of anything likely to obstruct or interfere with the free operation of the door.
Maintained and never wedged — 2.2.3.1 to 2.2.3.3
Damaged closures are repaired so the integrity of the fire-protection rating is maintained. Hardware is adjusted and repaired to ensure proper closing and latching; inoperative hold-open and automatic releasing devices are repaired or replaced. Closures are never obstructed, blocked, wedged open or altered. No frequency is attached to these — they are continuous.
New on 1 January 2026: those duties now reach every closure — 2.2.3.2(1) and 2.2.3.3
Until 31 December 2025, both of those articles opened with “Closures in fire separations”. Those words were struck out effective 1 January 2026, so the duty to maintain a closure in operable condition, and the prohibition on wedging or obstructing it, now reach every closure in the building — not only the ones in a fire separation. It is the quietest of the 2026 changes and the one most likely to be missed.
Exit doors open under 90 N — 2.7.2.1(1)
Except where the Building Code permits otherwise, every exit door shall be designed and installed so that, when the latch is released, the door opens in the direction of exit travel under a force of not more than 90 N applied at the knob or other latch releasing device. This is one of the very few numeric criteria the Code states directly, and it can be measured with a gauge rather than judged by feel.
Dampers annually — 2.2.3.5
Fire dampers and fire stop flaps are inspected annually, or on an approved time schedule. Routinely missed, because they sit above a ceiling rather than in front of you.
New on 1 January 2026: egress doors — 2.7.2.3(1)
All doors forming part of a means of egress are checked at intervals not greater than one month to ensure that they are operable. This is a separate duty from the monthly fire separation inspection, and it catches a different set of doors. The two overlap, but neither one contains the other.
New on 1 January 2026: 12-month tests — 2.7.2.3(2) to (4)
Revolving door safety features, sliding doors required to swing on their vertical axes in the direction of egress, and electromagnetic locks are each tested at intervals not greater than 12 months. Sentence (1) opens “Except as provided in Sentences (2), (3) and (4)”, so these doors take the 12-month test in place of the monthly egress check — but if the same door also sits in a fire separation, 2.2.3.4(4) still applies on its own footing.
Records of those tests — 2.7.2.4
Records of the tests required by 2.7.2.3(2), (3) and (4) are made and retained in conformance with Subsection 1.1.2 — kept at the building for examination by the Chief Fire Official, for at least two years, and so that at least the most recent and the immediately preceding record are retained.
A failure found is a repair owed — 1.1.1.2(3)
Anything that does not operate, or does not appear to operate, as intended when checked, inspected or tested as the Code requires is repaired or replaced where the failure would adversely affect fire or life safety. Finding the defect is not the end of the obligation.
The obligation falls on the “owner”, and the Code’s definition is wider than most people expect: “any person, firm or corporation having control over any portion of the building or property under consideration”, and it expressly includes the persons in the building (Division A, Article 1.4.1.2). Article 1.2.1.1 then makes the owner responsible for carrying out the Code. In practice that reaches property managers and long-term lessees, not only whoever is on title.
One thing the Code does not do is publish a checklist. It says the door shall be inspected; it does not say what to look at. Where the Code makes no specific reference to how a fire safety device is checked, Article 1.1.1.2(2) requires that device to be maintained so that it operates as per its design requirements — and for a fire door, the design requirements are the listing the assembly was tested to. That is why our inspections work to NFPA 80’s criteria: it is the recognised standard defining what a fire door inspection examines. To be clear about its status, NFPA 80 is not named anywhere in the Ontario Fire Code and is not adopted by it. We use it because it is the criteria set the industry agrees on, not because it is law in Ontario.
The inspection criteria, in plain language
Fire door assemblies are assessed against a defined checklist. Here is what each item means and why it matters.
Labels are present and legible
The label identifies the door’s rating and the organization that listed it. Painted over, removed or damaged beyond reading, and the assembly cannot be verified as rated. This is the single most common deficiency we expect to find.
No holes or breaks
Holes drilled in the field for hardware that was later removed, or damage through the leaf or frame, compromise the assembly’s integrity.
Clearances within tolerance
The gaps at the head, jambs, meeting stiles and underside are specified and measured with a gauge, not estimated. Too wide and fire and smoke pass through.
Glazing and vision panels intact
Rated glazing, glazing beads and their fixings must be in place and undamaged, with no field-installed substitutions.
The door closes fully on its own
Released from any position, the self-closing device must return the door to the fully closed position without assistance.
Positive latching
The latch must engage the strike and hold the door closed under pressure. A door that swings shut but does not latch will be pushed open by a fire.
Coordinators and hardware functioning
On pairs, the coordinator must close the leaves in the right order. All hardware must be present, secure and operating as intended — which is also what Article 2.2.3.2 requires be maintained.
No unauthorised field modifications
Added hardware, cut-outs, applied materials or anything not part of the listed assembly puts the rating in question.
Gasketing and edge seals intact
Smoke seals and intumescent strips must be present, undamaged and not painted over. They are part of the rated assembly, not an accessory.
Signage and obstruction
Required signage present, and nothing wedging, blocking or holding the door open other than a listed hold-open device that releases on alarm. Article 2.2.3.3 is explicit that closures are not to be wedged open.
What you get back
The report is the product. The inspection is how we produce it.
- Every opening numbered and tagged, so doors can be identified on site and in the record
- A photograph of each deficiency, not a written description of one
- Findings graded — code failure, developing wear, or cosmetic
- A recommended correction against each finding
- A summary for the building file and for your fire prevention officer
- Records retained and carried forward, so next inspection compares to last
Graded, not dumped
A list of forty deficiencies with no priority is not useful — it is a budget problem with no starting point.
We separate what must be corrected to meet code from what will need attention within the year and what is purely cosmetic. Then you decide what to spend and when, and you have the reasoning in writing.
Most fire doors fail on something
This is normal and it is not a crisis. Published industry inspection data consistently reports that the majority of fire doors fail on at least one criterion, and most of those failures are small and inexpensive.
A misaligned strike, a tired closer, a painted label, a missing seal. None of these require a new door. Most are resolved in under an hour by someone who knows what they are looking at.
We quote the remediation separately, and you are free to have it done by someone else. The report is yours either way — it is not held hostage to a repair order.
The label problem
Missing or illegible labels are the deficiency we expect to find most often, and the one people assume means replacing the door.
It often does not. Some embossed labels remain readable once paint is removed. Where a label is genuinely gone, field labelling through a certification organization is sometimes possible — a fraction of the cost of a new rated assembly.
We will tell you which situation you are in before anyone quotes a replacement.
If your building has fire separations, it has fire doors
Stairwells, corridors, mechanical and electrical rooms, storage, service risers, between tenancies, and every exit route.
Office and commercial
Stairwells, corridors, risers and demising walls between tenancies.
Healthcare and long-term care
Heavy fire separation density and documentation regulators expect to see.
Industrial and warehouse
Rated separations between production, storage and office areas.
Institutional and retail
Schools, municipal buildings, shopping centres and multi-tenant retail.
Inspection questions
How often do fire doors need inspecting in Ontario?
Who is allowed to inspect a fire door?
Can we do the monthly inspection ourselves?
Does the Code require records of fire door inspections?
What about doors with electromagnetic locks?
How long does an inspection take?
What if we have never had an inspection?
Do you inspect doors you did not install?
Can you do the repairs as well?
Find out where your doors stand
We will walk the building, count the openings in fire separations and tell you the scope of the obligation before anyone quotes a number.
Managing several buildings? We can assess the whole portfolio and quote it as one scope.
Monday to Friday, 8am–5pm. After-hours by arrangement.
Request service
We reply within one business day.
Articles on fire door inspection
What inspections find, what the criteria mean, and what the record should contain.
The ten most common reasons fire doors fail inspection
What we actually find, in order of frequency — and which failures are cheap to correct.
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Fire door records: what to keep and for how long
Which records the Code actually requires, what a useful one contains, and how long it has to stay at the building.
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The door closes but will not latch
The most common fault in any building, and on a fire door a code failure rather than an irritation.
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