Loft conversion and fire doors/ alarms

[palmerasun]

Hi
Thinking of having our loft converted but am confused over a couple of matters regarding fire door and alarms. different builders have advised different things and i want to know what would be correct.

Our loft would not have a door on it as there would not be enough space, so the new loft stairs would go from our landing up into the new loft room.

Some builders have advised that i would need fire doors on all rooms off the stairs and hallway with mains powered smoke alarms in the hallways.

Others have advised just the alarms in the hallway is ok.

My sister had a conversion done and although she does have a door on her conversion, its not a fire door and neither are the rest in her house, but the builders have put mains powered smoke alarms in every room.

I did contact my local building regs dept but they didn't seem to help much either and confused me too!

So what would be correct for my conversion? smoke alarms, doors or both? Want to get it right and employ the right people!

Thanking you in advance for your input!

 

[^woody^]

You'll need fire doors on all habitable rooms off your exit route - ie off the landing and hallway. Depending on the layout this may also mean a fire door at the top or bottom of the new stairs

And a new fire alarm on any new landing and interlinked with alarms on the other two floors

Its a waste of time asking builders what they think at this stage as you need someone to design the conversion, and its what is in his design what matters not what the builders did on their last job

 

[indus]

I'm surprised your local council.BR dept has not been more helpful, you should pursue them on the matter. Mine gave me a number of options when I had my loft done

1) Have all habitable rooms fitted with firecheck doors. Even here there were options ie I didn't need to change the door stoppers if the new doors had intumescent strips fitted.

2) All habitable rooms to have mains wired and intercommunicating smoke alarms. Hallyways to have same.

3) Original doors and stoppers could be treated with fire retardant material.

So there are many options available. You should get your BR dept to be specific about all the different options they find acceptable

 

[jeds]

Builders aren't necessarily the best people to go to for design advice. Go to a designer that knows what he/she is doing. In short you need fire doors AND alarms but it all needs to be considered as an overall fire strategy.

 

[harrogateLoft]

I'm surprised your local council.BR dept has not been more helpful, you should pursue them on the matter. Mine gave me a number of options when I had my loft done

1) Have all habitable rooms fitted with firecheck doors. Even here there were options ie I didn't need to change the door stoppers if the new doors had intumescent strips fitted.

2) All habitable rooms to have mains wired and intercommunicating smoke alarms. Hallyways to have same.

3) Original doors and stoppers could be treated with fire retardant material.

So there are many options available. You should get your BR dept to be specific about all the different options they find acceptable

@indus - can you tell me which area building control gave you this advice? I'm looking at option 2 in my area and they say they've never come across this and would require a fire engineer to visit and certify. If i can provide proof of it being allowed in other areas, it will help my case.

Thanks

 

[BlackSpot]

3) Original doors and stoppers could be treated with fire retardant material.

I'm interested in this as I'm going to do a loft conversion on my Edwardian eot house. I'd hate to have the original doors changed.

 

[indus]

Harrogate, I don't like to give out personal details like that on the open forum. However, if you send me a personal message I will of course oblige.

Blackspot, my building control officers have specifically recommended this company's products.

http://www.envirograf.com/

 

[pmgltd]

http://www.labc.uk.com/Media/Defaul...911 Loft Conversions in two storey houses.pdf

Hi

Try the above link. This is a document produced by LABC, which is the member organisation for all Local Authority Building Control Departments and I would hope that all Building Control Teams accept this guidance.

Basically the standard approach for achieving a satisfactory fire safety provision in two storey houses having the loft coverted (to form a third storey) would entail having all habitable/usable rooms accessing onto the stairenclosure being fire doors, with mains operated and interlinked smoke detection being provided in the hallways/landings at all levels.

There is other guidance relating to the retention of existing doors, but this depends upon the nature of the existing doors; thickness, style, glazing, etc.

There is also other guidance from LABC which suggests a door is not required to the top of the stairs (i.e in the loft room - assuming only one room created) based upon fire doors and escape windows to all rooms on the lower stories