The Passive Fire Protection Federation has urged Channel 4 to correct misleading and potentially dangerous advice given on one of its property programmes last week. If you watched Property Snakes and Ladders on Channel 4 last week, you will have seen presenter Sarah Beeny advising a family putting in a loft extension that, rather than installing fire doors, it would be possible to upgrade (and so retain) the Victorian feature panel doors by using intumescent paint. She demonstrated the enhanced performance of an intumescent coated panel of a door compared with a normally painted panel by exposing both to a small blow torch. She went on to state that she had confirmation from the local fire authority that this solution worked and was perfectly acceptable, and that she had recommended and used this solution on many developments in the same area. Nevertheless, the family decided to stick with the fire doors they had already purchased and installed. David Sugden, Chairman of the Passive Fire Protection Federation, has written to the programme’s producers, Talkback Thames, and to Channel 4 on behalf of all its member federations, warning them that upgrading fire doors is far more complex than the programme implies. He said that it was necessary to take into consideration the door, in terms of the timber used and type of construction, the hardware and ironmongery used, the need for intumescent seals and ensuring that the intumescent coating is applied accurately. The letter is also signed by the Chief Executives of the BWF and the Association of Specialist Fire Protection. In addition, David Sugden has posted a response on the programme’s blog to warn anyone who picks up on this through the website. One viewer had already sought further information on the intumescent paint to help her persuade the same local authority to allow her to keep her panel doors. The programme can be viewed on the Channel 4 catch-up site (//www.channel4.com/4homes/on-tv/property-ladder/episode-information/leatherhead-battersea-09-06-09_p_3.html – the section headed “Dodgy Doors”. The blog post is at //pfpf.org/articles_press.htm. The BWF-CERTIFIRE Scheme’s annual Opinion Trend Monitor surveys for 2008 and 2009 have found that upgrading of existing doors has emerged as a pressing issue following the most recent revision of Approved Document B and the new fire safety regime. John Fletcher, who conducts the survey for the Scheme, commented, ‘For homeowners who want to keep their feature panel doors, intumescent paint must seem like a God-send. But the average DIY-er probably won’t realise the complexity of the task, and so may inadvertently put themselves and others at risk. It doesn’t help that some building control officers are actively advising people to use this as a solution. We need to cut through the confusion and get some clear advice out there…