Perivale is small. The Hoover Building on the A40 is the one thing most people know, an Art Deco factory frontage that is now a supermarket. After that it is housing, a golf course, a park and the business units along the road.
For us the business units are the interesting part.
Working doors
A unit is a different place from a block of flats. Fewer doors. More wear on each of them.
The door at the back of a workshop takes a trolley, a sack truck and the occasional kick. The office door at the front has a keypad on it so the staff do not need a key. The kitchen door, in a unit with a kettle and a microwave, is often the only fire door nobody has thought about.
Look at the photo on this page. A keypad lock fitted to a door. This is the kind of thing we find on business premises. The lock has to be one that the door can carry, and the person using it from the escape side must not need to know the code. We write down what is fitted and say whether we think it suits the door.
The person in charge
If you run a business from a unit and you control the premises, you are the responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. If you are one of several tenants and the landlord controls the shared parts, the duties are split.
Ask your landlord for the last fire risk assessment of the building. It should say who does what. If the shared doors are the landlord's and your own doors are yours, an inspection of yours is a separate job from theirs.
What we do in a unit
We ask for a plan, or sketch one on the day, and number each door.
Then the usual set. Gaps, label, hinges, seals, closer, latch, glass, signs. A closer that is missing on a door that was supposed to have one goes at the top of the report.
Anything cut into the leaf gets its own line. Cable holes. Hole saws for a lock. A letter plate in a door that should not have one.
Where the unit is part of a longer terrace of units, the walls between them are a matter for a different kind of survey, and a fire risk assessor would look at those. We stick to doors.
Not a fire risk assessment
A fire risk assessment covers the whole building and how people get out. It is a legal requirement for most workplaces. An inspection of the doors is not a substitute.
Flats nearby
There are flats and houses near the park and around the station. Any building of more than one home with shared parts has a responsible person, so the same checks apply as in any other part of Ealing.
Cost
A small building starts from around £250 plus VAT. A unit with five or six doors that is empty at the weekend is usually quick.
Where from
We drive over from Luton and have no office in Perivale.
Questions we get asked
The keypad on our front door was fitted by a locksmith. Is it fine?
It might be. It depends on the door and the lock. We look at both and tell you.
We rent a unit. Do we pay for the inspection?
Usually, for the doors that are yours. Read your lease, and ask the landlord about the shared parts.
Send the postcode and a rough number of doors. We will come back with a price the same day.
Get a price