There are plenty of tasks a facility manager can take their time on and areas they don’t have to put too much time or effort into. Fire safety isn’t one of these. It’s vital for protecting employees, patients, customers, and other third parties, while also being an area commercial facilities are legally mandated to look after.
But, that doesn’t mean just having an annual fire door inspection and hoping for the best. Instead, it means making sure everything’s working as well as it should be. That’s where companies like Paratec Door Solutions come into play.
The business offers a leading fire door inspection service designed to make the process as smooth and straightforward as possible. But, does it live up to that? Let’s get into a Paratec Door Solutions review.
What Does Paratec Door Solutions Actually Inspect?
Contents
Paratec Door Solutions’ commercial fire door inspection service covers several areas, but the NFPA 80 fire door inspection is worth focusing on.
The company claims its inspections cover rolling, sectional, and swinging fire-rated door assemblies. Its process includes drop-testing of rolling fire doors, checking clearances and gaps, verifying labels, and inspecting hardware like closers, latches, panic devices, and smoke seals.
That’s important because a fire-rated door isn’t just a large piece of metal or a heavy door panel. The complete assembly has to work properly.
A damaged component, excessive clearance, missing or illegible label, faulty closer, or other deficiency can compromise the assembly’s ability to perform its intended function. Paratec’s approach seems to go beyond looking whether or not the door’s in good condition.
Why NFPA 80 Matters
NFPA 80 is the National Fire Protection Association standard covering fire doors and similar installations designed to protect against fires. For facility managers, the important takeaway isn’t memorizing the standard. It’s understanding that fire-rated doors need to be inspected, tested, maintained, and documented.
Paratec knows that fire-rated doors need annual NFPA 80 inspections and testing, with functional testing documented for compliance. And it understands exactly what it takes to make sure these fire-rated doors are actually compliant.
It’s part of demonstrating that the building’s fire-rated openings are being properly maintained. It helps make sure fire safety is actually being maintained.
But, you’ll still need to make sure Paratec’s actually the right option for you. While this can depend on more than a few factors, it’s worth going through a more comprehensive Paratec Door Solutions review to see how it lives up to its marketing claims.
Paratec Door Solutions Review: How Its Fire Door Inspections Hold Up
Documentation Might Be the Biggest Advantage
There’s an old facilities management problem that doesn’t get much attention; proving that maintenance actually happened. It’s one thing to have someone inspect a door, but it’s quite another to have a documented record of what was inspected, what was found and corrected, and what still needs attention.
Paratec’s inspection reports are designed for AHJ requirements, insurance audits, and health and safety surveys. The company provides written reports with photos, measurements, deficiencies, and code references, along with corrective action recommendations.
For companies operating in regulated industries, that can make the inspection process a lot easier to manage. It also creates an audit trail.
If a deficiency is discovered, the facility has a record of it. If it’s fixed, there’s documentation of the corrective action. This helps make sure companies can prove their compliance with any and all relevant regulations.
That’s a much more useful approach than treating compliance as a once-a-year event.
A Particularly Interesting Option for Healthcare
Healthcare facilities usually have almost no wiggle room when it comes to compliance, and for good reason. Hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare environments have a large number of doors, many of which are part of wider safety and accessibility systems.
Paratec specifically markets its inspection documentation toward healthcare companies, including those that need to meet Joint Commission and CMS requirements.
That’s worth considering because a healthcare facility doesn’t simply need someone to tell them if a fire door has a problem. It needs a repeatable process for inspection, documentation, correction, and record-keeping. The same principle applies to hotels, warehouses, retail properties, and more than a few other commercial properties.
Thankfully, this seems to be an area where Paratec Door Solutions stand out.
Where Paratec Stands Out
The biggest advantage here isn’t necessarily that Paratec can inspect fire doors. Plenty of companies offer this. It’s the way the inspection fits into the company’s broader service model that stands out.
Paratec offers commercial door installation, repairs, preventative maintenance, emergency service, and inspections. The inspection service can feed directly into maintenance and repair work, which could make this one of the more straightforward options to go for.
That matters because inspection and maintenance shouldn’t be separate areas. If an inspection finds a worn component, the next step should be obvious. If several doors repeatedly fail for similar reasons, it highlights a maintenance problem.
By keeping everything under one roof, it looks like Paratec makes the process a lot more straightforward to install, repair, inspect, and maintain your fire doors.
Is Paratec Door Solutions Worth it For Fire Door Inspections?
This still begs the question of whether Paratec Door Solutions is worth going for. If you’re responsible for a commercial facility in Florida with fire-rated doors, it could definitely be worth considering.
Its NFPA 80 inspection service covers the key elements you’d expect from a professional fire-door inspection, including testing, labels, clearances, hardware, photographic records, deficiency reporting, and corrective measures.
The company’s 24/7 emergency service across Florida also means businesses will have less to worry about when an issue pops up. For companies worried about downtime or health and safety, this could make it more than appealing.
The strongest selling point here, though, is the combination of inspection, documentation, and repair. That’s what a reliable fire door inspection service is supposed to offer.
Final Thoughts
While Pratec Door Solutions has a few drawbacks, these mightn’t be as negative as you’d expect. The potential upside makes them more than worth it for facility managers across Florida, especially considering its long-term support and service.