And to be fair, if you are wanting to fit a standard sized kick plate of around 150mm or 200mm high, there is generally no issue with this.
However it’s when the plate gets taller that you need to be careful. The larger the plate is, the more likely it is to affect the performance of a door in a fire situation. As the plate heats up in a fire, it can affect the distortion of the door leaf and thus impact on its critical fire resistance.
This leads to some restrictions on various door fire test assessments.
For instance, according to the WarringtonFire Field of Application Report for Strebord 44 FD30 cores (Chilt/A02066 Rev O),
‘Face fixed push plates and kick plates are permitted up to a maximum of 20% of the door leaf area if mechanically fixed and a maximum of 30% if bonded with a thermo-softening contact adhesive.’
This means that on a standard 2M high door (and assuming the kick plate width is similar to the width of the door), you could have a kick plate of up to around 400mm high mechanically fixed or 600mm high bonded. You would also need to take into account the area covered by any push plates on the door.
Another common restriction is that plates must not return around the door leaf edges.
Similar parameters are specified for most other door cores, for instance Certifire’s Certificate of Approval for Premdor’s Tubecore FD30;
Plates should be thinner than 2mm. Should not occupy more than 20% of the door leaf in total, or exceed 500mm in height for kickplates and 300mm for mid plates, whichever is the smaller.
Again, the plates aren’t allowed to wrap around the vertical edges, and on the closing face mustn’t extend beneath the door stops.
Whilst the last point about plates not extending beneath the door stops isn’t mentioned on many fire test assessments, this it something that should always be adhered to – obviously a 1.5mm thick plate coming between the door and the stop will prevent it from closing fully.
So next time you’re asked to fit a big kick plate or crash plate to a fire door, check carefully before agreeing! It would probably be a better option to fit 2 smaller separate plates, i.e. a kick plate and a mid plate of around 200mm high each, rather than one large plate of 800mm or 1M high.
Please do get in touch if we can help you further with kick plate requirements. We are trade only suppliers to commercial and refurbishment contractors, fire door manufacturers and installers, facilities management and maintenance companies.
Please note that advice given is advisory only and to the best of our knowledge at time of writing. We cannot be held responsible for loss or damage incurred as a result of actions taken based on this article.