With over 10 years’ industry experience, Rob Mottram, Head of Product and Compliance at steel door manufacturer Robust UK, provides insight into how steel doors are designed to meet the specific demands of educational environments.
Q: What makes door specification in education different from other sectors?
A: While there are some similarities in performance needs across every building, education environments often demand higher performance to meet safety and security requirements. In schools, there are multiple priorities to be concerned with, such as fire safety, safeguarding, accessibility, acoustic control and durability. Plus, with high footfall, doors can be exposed to constant use, wear and frequent maintenance.
Q: How do security risks influence door specification?
A: There has definitely been a shift in how external security risks are considered within school design, particularly around controlled access, security and lockdown capability. The rise in external threats has led to the creation of Martyn’s Law, which mandates schools to have lockdown procedures in place. Coming into force in 2027, Martyn’s Law aims to ensure that schools take proportionate steps to improve security. Now, specifiers rarely look for security performance on its own. They want a doorset that delivers proven intrusion resistance, the right fire performance, durability, thermal efficiency, compliant escape hardware and a finish that works architecturally.
Doors that meet these multi-performance requirements and achieve security certification to PAS 24 (2022) or LPS 1175 can help simplify specification, support compliance and provide confidence that the complete assembly has been tested to recognised industry standards. Security doors that are Secured by Design-approved provide greater reassurance that a product has not only been tested, but assessed against standards intended to reduce vulnerability to criminal attack, supporting safer security strategies.
Q: Where are fire doors needed in schools?
A: Schools follow a fire safety strategy which identifies where fire doors are needed. The most common areas are stairways, long corridors and escape routes. Protected stairways and escape routes are designed to provide a safe and enclosed route of escape that is separated from fire and smoke, allowing staff and pupils to evacuate the building safely. In long corridors exceeding 12 metres in length, self-closing fire doors should be installed.
Q: What level of fire resistance is required for doors in schools?
A: In most schools, you will typically see doors specified with 30 minutes’ fire resistance to comply with Approved Document B requirements for internal compartmentation and protected escape routes. That being said, it does depend on the fire strategy and location within the building. High-risk areas, such as kitchens and science labs, require higher ratings, such as 60 or 90 minutes. Some steel fire door solutions can offer up to four hours of fire resistance, tested in accordance with EN 1634-1.
Q: Can doors be both fire-rated and security-rated?
A: Yes. Fire-rated and security-rated doors do serve different purposes, but they can be designed to meet both standards at the same time. This provides enhanced protection against fire and forced entry, making them suitable for environments where safety and security are equally important.
Q: Is durability a major concern in schools?
A: Absolutely. It is one of the most important considerations of product selection. That’s why we often see steel doorsets chosen over timber alternatives, as those made from corrosion-resistant materials like Magnelis® steel provide excellent impact resistance and durability. These properties allow steel doors to withstand heavy use and knocks without compromising performance. Unlike timber doors, which can weaken at joints or degrade over time, steel doors maintain their performance as they are less susceptible to wear, moisture damage and deformation.
Q: How do you balance security, performance and design?
A: The balance comes from designing the doorset as a complete system rather than in isolation. Security starts with the fundamentals, including leaf construction, frame strength, reinforcement strategy, hinge integrity, locking points and hardware selection. Performance considerations involve fire resistance, acoustic control, thermal transmittance, corrosion resistance and operational durability. Design quality comes in when those requirements are integrated properly, with flush detailing, glazing, louvre options, colour choice and hardware presentation.
Q: Are there any common specification trends you are seeing in the education sector?
A: Customers are increasingly looking for a solution that does not just tick one box. Doors are a multi-performing system that must balance safety, security, durability and compliance all at once. There is also a stronger focus on lifecycle value rather than upfront costs. As lower-cost alternatives often lead to more frequent maintenance, customers are much more aware that they can result in significantly higher long-term operational costs.
In summary, doorsets are required to deliver fire protection, security, compliance, durability and aesthetics within a single solution. Recent innovations reflect a clear shift towards application-specific systems designed to support safer schools, colleges and universities through improved thermal performance, robust construction and more efficient installation. More significantly, the industry is moving towards fully integrated, certified doorset systems that simplify specification, reduce on-site risk and give education providers greater confidence in long-term building performance.
For more information on fire-rated doorsets for education environments, visit: https://www.robust-uk.com/sectors/education/ or contact 01782 592900 / sales(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)robust-uk.com.