Social Housing

Following the highly publicised and tragic Grenfell Tower disaster, there has been a laser-like focus in recent years on all aspects of fire safety within social housing properties.

One of the primary measures to be implemented is the upgrade of apartment front doors including the use of automatic door closers to prevent the spread of fire. A consequence of this is that many disabled and elderly residents face difficulties with access and effectively feel trapped in their own homes. This can often lead to the unsafe practice of propping open doors and more worryingly the disablement or removal of the door closer altogether. These issues present Local Councils and Housing Associations alike with concerns over residents’ welfare, as well as compliance with fire safety regulations.

Generally, it is a free-swing solution such as Freeway that is required to address both issues. When there is a building fire alarm system installed, there are several options available including various hard-wired and wire-free systems. However, when no building fire alarm is present and the only alarms are individual smoke detectors the choice is often between an expensive automatic door opener or the sometimes unreliable and inconsistent acoustic device options.