Smoke and fire damper maintenance
Our experienced and highly trained in-house engineers can service and maintain any existing smoke dampers, smoke and fire dampers and volume control dampers (VCD) regardless of who manufactured or installed them, helping to keep your building safe and compliant.
Our smoke and fire damper maintenance service
Smoke and fire dampers play key roles in controlling the spread of flames, toxic gasses and smoke within a building in the event of a fire, helping to support safe evacuation, aid firefighters and protect property. To ensure these systems function correctly, Colt International proactively services and maintains smoke dampers, smoke and fire dampers and smoke control systems on hundreds of buildings across the country.
Regardless of who made or installed your dampers, our highly trained and experienced engineers can ensure they’re properly maintained to SFG20 and BS 9999, the industry benchmark standard. With decades of experience and certification to leading standards, including IFCC SMR 01, SDI 19 and 05, our team will keep your smoke and fire dampers proactively serviced for seamless compliance.
Working with Colt
We build our service contracts around each building’s specific requirements. During the initial onboarding, we can carry out a review of the existing system documentation along with a thorough asset compilation. This ensures the system is functional, properly specified and that you have all the necessary documentation and records to ensure compliance with key standards, including the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RR(FS)O). We will then set up a clear service and maintenance schedule, supporting in-house staff to understand their responsibilities when it comes to regular inspections.
As a leading manufacturer of smoke control solutions, we can also replace or upgrade existing systems with a range of advanced products, including our Defender F2 smoke control dampers.
We operate a UK-wide network of service engineers backed with extensive training in line with IFCC SDI 19 and 05, meaning wherever your building is, we can send a local engineer for rapid support. Where possible, we will assign the same engineer to a building for each visit to ensure they’re fully up to speed with your building. We prioritise a rapid response on emergency call-outs, allowing our engineers to quickly assess any issues, keeping your site operating safely.
All repairs and replacements can be undertaken by our team of factory trained engineers who’re supported with an extensive spare parts service. These works can include installing additional access hatches, damper repairs or replacements, fire stopping repairs and installation and repair of fire barriers.
Smoke and fire damper maintenance guidelines
Ensuring smoke control systems, including smoke and fire dampers, are fully functional and proactively maintained is a legal requirement for the person responsible for the workspace or building under the RR(FS)O. Alongside six-monthly assessments and annual services by trained smoke control professionals, this also requires facilities teams to undertake weekly inspections and regular system testing. As a Colt service customer, we can help you to understand your responsibilities and what to look for during testing and inspection to ensure all systems are functioning correctly. With our 24/7 365 emergency call-out service, you can also be reassured that we’ll be there to help if you do find any issues.
FAQs
What regulations cover smoke dampers?
As with all life safety systems, smoke dampers are subject to a wide range of regulations to ensure they are properly designed, installed and maintained. These include the Building Regulations (and accompanying guidance documents), the Building Safety Act, and a number of national regulations and acts (such as the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005) which govern fire safety when operating buildings.
How often should smoke dampers be serviced?
Smoke dampers require regular inspection, testing and service to ensure they’re functioning correctly at all times. This should include:
- Weekly - Checking all dampers are opening and closing correctly — typically carried out by a suitably trained in-house team member.
- 3-monthly – A full system functionality test to ensure all components are operating correctly — typically carried out by a suitably trained in-house team member.
- 6-monthly – A detailed inspection of the complete smoke control system, including recording flow rates at a representative sample of smoke dampers - should be carried out by a smoke control system maintenance organisation that has been certified to IFCC SMR 01.
- 12-monthly – A full system service — should be carried out by a smoke control system maintenance organisation that has been certified to IFCC SMR 01.
What is the lifespan of a smoke damper?
Smoke dampers that are properly and regularly maintained can have a functional lifespan of 20 years or more. We thoroughly inspect and test your dampers as part of our service contract and support our engineers with an extensive spare parts service. This means that any worn or faulty components can be quickly replaced so that the damper remains in good working order.
How does Colt maintain smoke dampers?
As part of a Colt service contract, we develop a dedicated maintenance programme for your facilities, ensuring seamless ongoing support for your building to keep it safe and compliant. We offer a UK-wide network of highly trained engineers and, where possible, we look to assign the same engineer to your building for each visit. This ensures they’re intimately familiar with the layout and function of your smoke control system (including smoke dampers). All this work is carried out in line with SFG20, ensuring full compliance with the latest industry standards and best practice.
Talk to us
Get in touch with our team today to discuss setting up a regular service contract for your smoke dampers.