Context
The University of Southampton required a specialist contractor to carry out a comprehensive fire door inspection programme across its student accommodation and communal areas - covering 49 individual residential blocks both on and off campus, and a total of 15,000 doors. The university needed a partner who could not only deliver inspections to the required standard but also work collaboratively to plan and sequence the programme around the academic year, keeping disruption to students to an absolute minimum throughout.
Challenge
Delivering a fire door inspection programme at this scale across a large, dispersed campus estate with thousands of student residents in occupation presented significant logistical and operational challenges:
Scale and geographic spread: With 49 residential blocks spread across and beyond the main campus, coordinating access, sequencing inspections, and maintaining programme momentum across such a large and varied estate required careful planning from the outset.
Minimising disruption to students: The inspection programme ran across a full 12-month period, meaning works coincided with the academic year and the daily lives of a large student population. Avoiding unnecessary disruption to residents - in their accommodation, communal areas, and study spaces - was a non-negotiable priority for the university.
Producing inspection outputs fit for procurement: Beyond the inspections themselves, the university needed detailed, actionable door schedules that could be used directly to tender remedial and replacement works. The quality and precision of the inspection output were therefore as important as the inspection programme itself.
Solution
Capital Fire Doors, part of Complii, worked closely with the university to develop a programme of works designed around the institution's operational needs as much as its fire safety requirements:
BM TRADA-certified fire door inspections across 15,000 doors: Detailed inspections were carried out across all 49 residential blocks, covering every fire door in the university's student accommodation and communal areas. All inspections were conducted to BM TRADA standards, ensuring the findings were robust, evidenced, and defensible.
Collaborative programme planning: Capital Fire Doors worked closely with university staff throughout to develop an inspection schedule that minimised interference with student activities and the day-to-day rhythm of campus life. Access arrangements, timing, and sequencing were agreed and adapted in partnership with the university at every stage.
Detailed door schedules prepared for tender: Following the inspections, accurate and comprehensive door schedules were produced for each block, clearly outlining the required remedial actions and replacements, along with the relevant specifications. The schedules were prepared specifically for tender purposes - giving the university everything it needed to move directly into the next phase of works.
Results
The full inspection programme was completed successfully within the 12-month timeframe, giving the University of Southampton a clear, evidence-based picture of its fire door estate and a ready platform for the remedial works that followed:
15,000 doors inspected across 49 blocks: BM TRADA-certified inspections were completed across the full estate - on and off campus - within the agreed programme, providing comprehensive coverage of the university's entire residential fire door provision.
Minimal disruption to students: The collaborative scheduling approach ensured the inspection programme was delivered without significant impact on student residents or wider university operations throughout the academic year.
Inspection outputs enabled immediate procurement: The detailed door schedules produced by Capital Fire Doors gave the university clear, actionable guidance, enabling remedial and replacement works to be tendered efficiently and without delay on completion of the inspection programme.