BM TRADA Certification
Why BM TRADA matters
A plain-English guide to BM TRADA Q-Mark third-party certification for fire doors and fire stopping, and why choosing a certified company gives building owners, FM providers and contractors evidence they can rely on.
What is BM TRADA?
BM TRADA is an independent UK certification body, now part of Element Materials Technology, with a long history in timber, fire and building products. It runs the Q-Mark certification schemes for companies that manufacture, install and maintain fire doors, and for companies that install fire stopping.
BM TRADA is itself accredited by UKAS, the UK’s national accreditation body. The organisation doing the checking is also checked, which is what gives a BM TRADA certificate its weight.
What third-party certification means
Any contractor can say its work meets the standard. That is a first-party claim. Third-party certification means an independent body has looked and agrees.
Under Q-Mark, BM TRADA assesses a company before granting certification and then audits it regularly. The audits cover the company’s quality procedures, how it plans, records and signs off work, the products and tested systems it uses, and a sample of completed installations on site.
Certification is not a one-off badge. A company that stops meeting the scheme rules can be suspended or lose its certificate, so standards have to hold up job after job.
The schemes TECS-UK holds
TECS-UK is certified by BM TRADA under three Q-Mark schemes:
Fire door installation. Fire doors and doorsets fitted to the manufacturer’s tested specification, with the right frame, seals, ironmongery, glazing and gaps.
Fire door maintenance. Inspection, adjustment and repair of existing fire doors using compatible components, so each door still performs as tested.
Fire stopping. Sealing service penetrations, joints and gaps in fire-resisting walls and floors with tested systems that restore compartmentation.
Why certification matters to duty holders
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires the Responsible Person to make sure fire safety measures are maintained by a competent person. Choosing a third-party certified company is one of the clearest ways to show that duty has been met.
Approved Document B recognises independent certification schemes as a way of giving confidence that fire protection is installed to the right standard. Fire risk assessors, building control, insurers and principal contractors increasingly ask for it, and for higher-risk buildings the Building Safety Act 2022 expects an accurate golden thread of information about the fire doors and fire stopping in place.
The benefits of using a BM TRADA certified company
Independent evidence of competence. You can show that the company doing the work has been assessed by an accredited body, rather than relying on its own word.
Work installed as tested. Fire doors and fire stopping only perform if they are fitted the way they were tested. Certified companies are audited against that requirement.
Traceable certificates and labels. Certified work is labelled and certificated, so each door or seal can be traced back to the job, the date and the products used.
Fewer failed inspections and less rework. Getting it right first time avoids the cost of opening up, replacing and re-inspecting defective work later.
Easier sign-off. Building control, fire risk assessors, insurers and main contractors can accept certificated work with fewer questions, which helps at handover and audit.
Standards that stay checked. Regular surveillance audits mean the company is checked long after its first certificate is issued.
An independent route if something goes wrong. The certification body runs a complaints process, so you are not relying on the contractor alone.
How to check a company is certified
Ask for the company’s BM TRADA certificate number and check it against the certification body’s online directory of certified companies.
Check the scope. Fire door installation, fire door maintenance and fire stopping are separate schemes, so make sure the certificate covers the work you are buying.
Ask for the certificates and records for your own job. A certified company should hand them over at completion, not just show a logo on its website.
When full certification isn’t the right fit
Not every job needs, or can budget for, fully certificated work. As well as BM TRADA certified installation, we also fit fire doors that are not BM TRADA certified, and carry out repairs to existing doors as betterment where budget, programme or other constraints mean a full replacement or certified upgrade isn’t practical.
Betterment repairs improve a door’s condition and performance, for example by adjusting gaps, replacing seals and closers or repairing damage, but they do not turn an uncertified door into a certified one. We always tell you up front which work is certificated under BM TRADA and which isn’t, and record both in OneTrace so your fire risk assessor can see exactly what was done.
How TECS-UK works under BM TRADA certification
TECS-UK is audited as a company under the BM TRADA Q-Mark schemes. Our procedures, records and completed work are checked by BM TRADA, and every certified fire door and fire stopping seal we fit carries a certification label.
Every job is also recorded in OneTrace with photographs, locations and certificates, so you get an audit-ready record for your fire risk assessment and golden thread.
For certified fire door or fire stopping work, or to see our certificate details for a tender, call 0800 368 9954 or request a quote and we will come back within one working day.