Northwood has big houses, and big houses get divided.
A detached house with five bedrooms is not the easiest thing to sell, and some owners turn it into flats or a home for several people. Others have been care homes for years. Either way there is a lot of door, and most of it is old.
What the old doors look like
Original doors in older houses are usually panelled, heavy and many times painted. They look solid. A panelled door is not automatically a fire door and, when it has been planed or had a closer fixed to it, it is hard to say what it will do in a fire.
We look at every one and write down what it is. If it has been adapted and no longer meets what it was, we say. The advice we give is a plain certified doorset, rather than trying to patch.
Care homes and retirement homes
Plenty of care homes in this area are converted houses. Corridors are narrow and the doors open straight into them. Some are wedged back so a resident with a frame can get through, and the person who wedged it was only trying to help.
We go round with the manager. We move at the home's pace, and a door that is open for a reason stays open until we have talked about it. On the homecare job in Hemel Hempstead and Kings Langley we did 16 doors over three properties, and most of the care went into working out how to do that gently.
The report names each door by room or position. A manager can show it to a care inspector, and an owner can see where the money has to go.
Where there is a wedge we say what could replace it. A hold-open that is wired to the alarm lets the door stand open and shuts it when the alarm goes. Your fire risk assessor has to agree that one.
Flats in a converted house
If a house has been divided, each flat's entrance door matters, and so does the stair door. See our page on flat front doors for more.
Which fire service
Northwood is in the London Borough of Hillingdon, and the fire and rescue authority is London Fire Brigade.
Price and travel
A house with ten doors starts from around £250 plus VAT. We come from Luton, there is no office in Northwood, and we usually pair it with a visit in Uxbridge.
Questions we get asked
Can you inspect a care home while residents are in?
Yes. We agree the route with the manager first and work round the residents.
What about a listed house?
Listing can limit what you may do to a door. Tell us if yours is listed.
Send the postcode and a rough number of doors. A price comes back the same day.
Get a price