Fire Door Inspections in Slough: Flats, Shared Houses and Schools

The rules for blocks of flats

Regulation 10 of the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 is the one to know.

In a residential building taller than 11 metres, the responsible person must check communal fire doors at least every three months. They must also check flat entrance doors at least once a year, as far as is reasonably practicable. Residents must be told that fire doors should be kept shut and how to report faults.

That duty sits with the managing agent, freeholder or resident management company. Slough has plenty of flats, from converted offices to purpose-built blocks, so check the building height first. If you are unsure who is responsible, read who is responsible for fire doors in flats.

Blocks under 11 metres are not covered by regulation 10, but the Fire Safety Order still requires the shared doors to be maintained. See fire door regulations for flats.

Shared houses

Licensing is changing in Slough. The doors are not.

A house let to five or more people from more than one household needs a mandatory HMO licence. Slough Borough Council ran its own wider schemes, which have expired. It consulted from 15 July to 23 September 2026 on replacing them. Check the council licensing page for the outcome.

We cannot tell you what a licence condition will say about doors, because that is the council's to set. We can tell you what we check: closing, gaps, seals, hinges, glazing and the frame. Our fire doors for HMOs page covers the detail, and so does the fire door inspection checklist.

Schools

Big doors, heavy use, short holidays.

School fire doors are opened thousands of times a term. Closers weaken, hinges loosen and wedges appear. Inspections are best booked in the holidays, when classrooms are empty and repairs can follow straight away. See fire doors for schools and the school fire compliance guide.

What our inspections find

Our own figures, from our own surveys.

• 700+ fire door inspections carried out
• 72% of doors on a first inspection needed at least one repair (339 of 470 doors, 8 surveys)
• 42% had a gap over 4mm (156 of 371 measured)
• 724 door inspections written up across 10 itemised surveys

Expect something similar from an older block that has not been looked at for years. Most faults are cheap to fix once they are on a list. See fire door inspection statistics and what to do after a failed inspection.

Cost and what happens next

A price per job, then a list you can act on.

An inspection starts from £250 + VAT for a small building. The price rises with the number of doors and how hard they are to reach. Repairs are usually £150 to £900 a door, depending on what is wrong. A new FD30S doorset is typically £2,500 to £4,500 fitted.

Each door gets a photo, a pass or fail, and the fix. Where we carry out repairs, they are done by our BM TRADA Q-Mark / FIRAS-certificated contractors. A fire risk assessment is a separate service. It does not replace an inspection, and an inspection does not replace it. They sit side by side. See the national fire door inspections page, fire door repairs, and our Thames Valley fire doors page.

Sources

• Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Licensing private rented property in Slough (Slough Borough Council consultation)
• House in multiple occupation licence (GOV.UK)

Updated October 2026 by Sebastian Grabowski, DC Fire & Security, 2 Winsdon Court, Luton LU1 5LZ.