Fire door inspection in Gravesend
Riverside flats, big old houses cut into flats, and the rooms above the shops.
Get a priceGravesend is built on a slope down to the river, and the buildings show it.
At the bottom, close to the water, there are newer blocks of flats. Further up, there are tall brick houses from the nineteenth century, many of them divided into flats long ago. In the middle, shops with homes above them.
Those are three very different jobs for a fire door inspector.
Houses cut into flats
A house that was split into flats has a lot of history in its doors.
Someone cut the front door of each flat out of whatever was to hand. Over the years it has been planed, repainted and had a new lock put in. The frame is the original, and it has a hundred years of shrinking behind it.
We look at what the door is made of, what the gap is like, whether there is any seal at all and whether the closer can really shut it onto the latch.
If a flat door is a thin hollow door from a builders merchant, the answer is usually replacement with a certified doorset, not repair.
Flats above shops
The stairs to the upper floors are often the only way out, and they are narrow. The door at the bottom is the one that matters most. It separates the shop from the stairs.
We see doors there that are lightly built, with a thumb-turn lock someone fitted for convenience and a gap you can see daylight through.
The newer riverside blocks
Newer buildings can still have faults. See our page on new-build flats for what to look out for.
Who is in charge
Gravesham Borough Council is the local authority. Kent Fire and Rescue Service looks after fire safety enforcement.
If either has written to you, send the letter with your enquiry.
Getting here
From Luton it is a bit over an hour, normally via the M25 and the Crossing. We try to combine Gravesend with other work in Dartford or Northfleet the same day.
The Southeastern high-speed line from Gravesend to St Pancras has made flats here popular with people who commute, and that tends to mean a lot of rented flats with an agent in the middle. If that is your block, we can work with the agent on getting access.
Questions we get asked
Can you inspect a block where some flats are empty?
Yes. Empty flats are quicker. Tell the agent which ones have no tenant and we will arrange keys.
The doors in my converted house are old. Do they have to be replaced?
Not always. Some can be repaired and some cannot. The inspection tells you which is which.
Send us the postcode and a rough count of doors. A price comes back the same day.
Get a price