Three hundred photos and a spreadsheet
Your inspector spends a day at a residential block, inspecting communal fire doors and flat entrance doors floor by floor. They photograph each door, the frame gaps, the closer, the hinges, the signage, the certification label. They make notes in a spreadsheet on a tablet, or on paper. By the end of the day there are hundreds of photos on the camera roll with names like IMG_4417.
Back at the office, someone matches photos to doors by the order they were taken and the notes. A door on floor six was skipped and inspected later, so every photo after that point is offset by one. The report takes days, and the customer receives it with a photo of the wrong door next to a finding.
Why door records fall apart
Fire door inspection is detailed, repetitive work across many near-identical doors. Without a clear identity for each door and a way to attach evidence to it on the spot, the record depends on the inspector's order of work.
- Doors are identified by description, such as flat 23 or riser cupboard floor 4, which varies between inspections.
- Photos are taken on a camera or phone and sorted later.
- Findings are written in free text, so the same issue is described differently.
- Previous inspection records are not available on site for comparison.
- Reports are assembled by hand in Word.
What an inspection checks, and what a finding means, is for your competent inspectors under the approach they follow. We do not advise on door requirements. We deal with the record keeping.
What disorganised records cost
Reports take a long time to produce, holding up remedial quotes and invoices. Mismatched photos undermine the credibility of the whole report. Customers who need to show their own records to others want to be able to rely on your inspection records. And when doors are reinspected, the lack of a clear history means each inspection starts from nothing.
A record for every door, filled in at the door
We build a fire door inspection app where the door is the unit of record, and every photo and finding is attached to it as the inspector works.
- Each door is registered once, with a unique reference and a label or tag, its location on a floor plan or list, and its basic details.
- On site, the inspector opens the door record by scanning the label or picking from the floor list, and sees the previous inspection's findings.
- The inspection checklist follows your own inspection approach, with findings picked from a list of your standard wording and free text where needed.
- Photos are taken inside the app, so each is automatically attached to that door and that finding.
- Doors that cannot be accessed are recorded as such with a reason, rather than skipped silently.
- Reports are generated per building: door-by-door findings with photos, a summary by finding type, and a remedial list ready for quoting.
| Part of the job | Today | With door records |
|---|---|---|
| Identifying the door | Description in notes | Label and unique reference |
| Photos | Camera roll, sorted later | Attached to the door on site |
| Findings | Free text | Your standard wording plus notes |
| No access | Easy to miss | Recorded with a reason |
| Report | Assembled in Word | Generated from the records |
An inspection day with the app
The inspector arrives at the block with every door already listed by floor, and last year's findings on each. At each door they scan the label, work through the checklist, take photos inside the app, and move on. Flat 41 does not answer; the door is marked no access. At the end of the day the office can generate the report straight away, and the remedial list goes to the estimator the same week.
What your team and customers get
Reports that are accurate door by door, produced without a day of photo sorting. A history for every door across inspections, so repeat findings are obvious. Remedial lists that feed straight into quotes. And customers who can find any door's record in their report without scrolling through photos.
Is this your inspection process?
- Photos are matched to doors after the inspection.
- The same door is described differently from one inspection to the next.
- Reports are built by hand in Word.
- Previous findings are not available on site.
- No-access doors are not reliably recorded.