Fire safety - knocking through wall & bricking up doorway

[senfre_]

I have a typical terraced house with a brick wall separating the living room & dining room

Plan for this year was to knock that through using an RSJ to support the load and brick up the doorway between the hallway / living room.
I was thinking this would be straightforward as far as building control goes but the issue of fire safety has occurred to me, particularly this part of approved doc. B:

2.1 See Diagram 2.1a. All habitable rooms (excluding kitchens) should have either of the following.
a. An opening directly onto a hall leading to a final exit.
b. An emergency escape window or door, as described in paragraph 2.10

Putting aside 2.1.b, is the new layout likely to fail 2.1.a? Or would the new merged living / dining room be considered a single room?
Obviously final decision depends on the building inspector and what mood he's in that day but wanted some thoughts beforehand

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

No problem with that, the two rooms merely become one and it still opens onto a protected escape route ie the hallway.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Don’t know the modern regs but I’ve seen that done in loads of houses.

 

[senfre_]

No problem with that, the two rooms merely become one and it still opens onto a protected escape route ie the hallway.

Hope the BI agrees, cheers

Don’t know the modern regs but I’ve seen that done in loads of houses.

Yeah half the houses on the street have the same layout but most were done before the 90s and I know a lot has changed with the regs since