Fire door inspection cost

How fire door inspections are priced

Two models dominate the UK market. Small sites are quoted as a single fixed fee covering travel, time on site and the written report. Larger portfolios are priced per door, usually between £10 and £25 + VAT, with the rate falling as door numbers rise. The crossover point is around 15 to 20 doors: below that, the per-door rate cannot cover the visit, so a minimum charge applies.

Worked examples

• Five-bed licensed HMO, six doors — £150–£250 + VAT, fixed fee, register and photographs included.
• Small office suite, ten doors — £200–£300 + VAT.
• Block of flats, 40 communal and flat entrance doors — £500–£900 + VAT, typically £15–£20 per door.
• School or care home, 120+ doors — £10–£15 per door, often split across two visits to work around occupancy.

What should be included

An inspection you can rely on produces a register, not a certificate. Expect each door to be numbered and located, with its rating, the checks made, measured gaps, a photograph, a clear pass or fail, and a prioritised remedial action where it fails. You should also get a summary that separates immediate risks from planned maintenance, so you can budget rather than panic.

What pushes the price up

• Access — flat entrance doors need appointments and repeat visits. No-access rates are the biggest hidden cost in residential blocks.
• Out-of-hours working — schools, restaurants and retail often need evening or weekend attendance.
• Missing information — where no door schedule exists, the first inspection includes creating one, which adds time.
• Certification chasing — unlabelled doors take longer to assess and may need destructive investigation to evidence a rating.

Why the cheapest quote often costs more

A £4-per-door quote usually buys a tick-sheet produced from a phone app with no measurements and no photographs. It will not satisfy a fire risk assessor, will not stand up to an enforcing officer, and will need repeating. The value in an inspection is the evidence trail, not the visit itself.

Budgeting for the remedials

Plan for remedial work alongside the inspection. On a first inspection of an older HMO, expect a majority of doors to have at least one defect. Most are inexpensive: replacing intumescent strips is around £15–£35 per door, fitting a compliant closer £60–£120, adjusting hinges and gaps £30–£60. Full door set replacement is £550–£1,200 fitted, which is why catching problems early is worth the annual fee several times over.

Combining visits to save money

If you already need a fire risk assessment, extinguisher service or emergency lighting test, book them together. One visit, one travel charge, one set of paperwork — typically 15–25% cheaper than three separate appointments, and it keeps all your renewal dates aligned so nothing quietly lapses.

What we charge

We quote a fixed fee before we attend, based on the number of doors and the building type, and the written register is always included. Quotes come back within one working day and we cover Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire with same-week availability in most weeks.