LOFT CONVERSION & EVERY DOOR IN HOUSE FIRE DOOR YES OR N

[Nicetoseeyoutoseeyounice]

I am debating converting my loft and have spoke with the person who would be doing my plans. I am told that any door leading to the stairs whether on the ground or first floor, must be a FIRE DOOR. That would mean, all our downstairs doors open onto hallway and stairs, then there are the 3 bed rooms and bathroom opening onto the landing and proposed stairs to loft conversion.
In other words every single door in my home has to be renewed to a fire door, unless they are of very high quality wood.
Is this correct, does every single door need to be changed??

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Strictly speaking in principle your person doing your drawings is correct (ish). Essentially these doors need to fire resistant to give those in upper storeys more time to evacuate in the event of a fire however whilst upgrading the doors is usually the easiest (although not necessarily the cheapest) solution there are several possible alternatives (well two that I know of) that your Building Inspector may (or may not) accept.

You can apply special fire resistant coatings to the doors depending on their construction/suitability to increase their fire resistance or you can install linked smoke alarms in all habitable rooms. As mentioned these are not guaranteed solutions as the regs are not cast in stone and there is an element of flexibility there and some inspectors accept some things that others do not.

Also if you have non-standard size panel doors then upgrading the doors to fire doors will be impossible anyway as new fire doors are only available in standard sizes which only allow for very limited trimming.

 

[DevilDamo]

Not "all" doors onto the staircase need to be replaced. For example, doors to bathrooms/W.C's can remain.

Ask your architect (plan drawer) to speak to the BCO as they can provide alternatives in providing compliance. Your agent is going by the Approved Documents only, which only provides guidance in achieving compliance.

However, FMT has pretty much summed it up

 

[Nicetoseeyoutoseeyounice]

Thanks to you both, but, where is the 'THANKS' button ???
I scoured the net last night and found similar advice and I suppose its really down to my building regs man at the end of the day, so I will be ringing them before I start to spend any money just to check what they are willing to accept.
Please see my new post on washer draining into toilet and coming up everywhere, could poss sort it out but I need to fathom it out first.

 

[DevilDamo]

 

[chappers]

Not "all" doors onto the staircase need to be replaced. For example, doors to bathrooms/W.C's can remain.

Unless they contain a boiler or water heater in which case they do.
There are some excellent copy period fire doors have a look at Door Deals, or alternatively your BCO may let you fit interlinked mains smoke detectors to all habitable rooms and passage ways/landings

 

[JohnD]

I like the traditional-looking smooth 6-panel fire doors, I am working round to fitting them throughout my house. The best price I have seen is at Wickes (they have a special offer on at the moment if you buy 5)

as well as being attractive and fire-resistant, they are satisfyingly heavy, and are more sound-resistant than cheap modern doors, so I am planning to fit them to the bathroom, WC, utility room and even the airing cupboard as well as all the "habitable rooms".

They are very heavy and awkward so I am getting a professional joiner to fit them for me. You need heavy hinges to suit.