Fire Prevention

Good afternoon. Can anyone please assist. In a block of flats when is an External Wall Survey needed for fire spread??. The premises are 4 storey, no commercial premises, external walls are brick, UPVC windows, no infill panels in the wall, good compartmentation - visual survey completed. Good maintained fire doors and fire alarm systems. Single stairs with 2 flats per floor. Using a stay put evacuation for over 55's (specialized housing - no wardens on site). Used the The Government Fire Risk Assessment Prioritisation Tool and it came out as low risk. PAS 79-2 has some good info on the topic but to my knowledge it is still suspended. Can anyone please p…

I am a director of a freehold company owning a block of flats, where there are 64 leasehold flats. Most of the flat entrance doors are original (1930's) aged doorsets, but many have defects and issues. Some defects are minor and could be remediated. However we are being strongly recommend that serious consideration should be given to replacement of all the doors for new Certified Fire Door sets, rather than simply being remedied. The difference in cost between remedying the doors or replacing them with certified doors is a difference of c£200k. The obvious solution to us, due to the cost, is simply to remedy the door, but we are told that in the future unless the doors ar…

Hi all. We have 2 ceiling leaks in our privately rented house. One from rainwater in the kitchen and one from the bathroom leaking above the dining room. The kitchen leak has been getting worse and worse and the water staining has now reached the light fixtures (those little embedded circle lights). One now has a full ring of water staining around it and the issue gets worse every time it rains. This has been ongoing for 2.5 months. The 2nd leak is from the upstairs bathroom above the dining room. It didn't seem so bad before this week, just some light discolouration. But on Monday the stains grew and the fuse tripped. When we reset it it the dining room lights …

My neighbour is storing about 12 old pallets and lot of other old timber in his garden (he is an amatuer builder). They now piled up against a 2'6" dry stone wall with trellis above which is my boundary between my house and his. The pile is about 3' from the porch for my front door... It is no more than 5' from two rooms up stairs and downstairs. I am very now very worried about the fire risk this poses... It looks like an enormous Guy Fawkes bonfire. I can ask nicely for him to move things, but as he also building a large timber double garage right up against the same boarder wall and will shortly be subject to a visit from planning enforcement as it is only inches fro…

I am constantly being asked by LA's & FRA to upgrade ceilings in bar areas to 60 minute protection as per Part B, where living/sleeping areas are above. This is just about every pub and reasturant in the country. Is this retrospective a requirement for every establishment or just new builds/refurbishments? Most pubs/reasturants will have 30 minute plasterboard ceilings and L2 systems in place, so does it need a 2nd plasterboard skim, which would involve massive distruption and removal refitting of many services or is there another option? Thanks for you replies.

Hi. In a four-storey block of purpose-built apartments with 2 apartments per floor, do all the apartment doors need to be fire doors? There are 2 exits from the communal areas, one to the front and one to the rear and each flat has its own fire escape.

Hi there I'm trying to establish whether the front doors to the 5 flats in our Victorian conversion block need to be fire doors in order to comply with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. They all open out into the communal hallways. I've seen online that front doors should be fire doors but I'm wondering if this applies only to new builds and whether the requirements in this case might be different? Having recently acquired the freehold we are trying to work out whether we should take out buildings insurance that requires an inspection and any remedial works to be done, or pay extra for insurance which doesn't require compliance with this Order. …

Hi, I needed to change the lock on one of the internal doors in my flat. It's an CF218 FD30 fire rated door, and the existing lock has been replaced with an assa abloy that has been assessed EN1634-1 for 60 minutes and one of their cylinders. Do you see any problem with the change? Thank you

Hi all, We have a bit of a predicament with one of our neighbors. We live in an 1880s terraced house that's been converted into three flats. Our immediate neighbor beneath us is a bit tricky. I'm forever picking her cigarette ends out of the drain, bushes, steps, and whatnot. And it's clear that she likes the odd one out the window too, as there's one stuck to her window sill. Any rd, we are currently in the process of having fire-rated closers fitted to all of the internal front doors. She currently has a Double Sided Door Draft Excluder on her door. And I'm pretty sure that it will be an obstruction to the new closer + wouldn't this ignite and help the door burn …

I've read a couple of topics similar to my question but couldn't find a direct answer to my query. When creating a new timber stud partition to then fit a fire door lining/door etc, do you have to leave a gap between the rear of the frame and the new stud work? I created a new stud partition and fixed the lining tight to the stud leaving no gap (using appropriate length fixings, positions etc) and I've just been pulled up on this saying there HAS to be a gap which you then fill with an appropriate mastic/foam. Surely if there is no gap at all then this is better then making a gap just to fill with mastic? Appreciate any advice.

Hi I am looking for a little help with a Building Regs Regularisation application for a loft conversion that was carried out in the early 1990s - the process involves making sure that the works comply with the Regulations current at the time (ie 1985 Building Regulations). The Victorian panel door to the loft was upgraded to the then required FD20S standard (lining with Supalux and fitting with a Perko closer and intumescent smoke seals) and is hung on two fire rated hinges. The miodern standard seems to be three hinges together with intumescent hinge pads, but I'm not sure that either was a requirement in 1990; however I can't find when the requirement for…

Hi, Looking for a bit of help if possible from any fire door inspectors. Can you please explain the actions to be taken if the labels or plugs were not present on a fire door on a fire door certified inspection. Kind regards Nigel c

I am replacing the intumescent seals on the firedoor frames of a small theatre. It seems when they were installed in 1997 the chippy cut bits out to accommodate the hinges, this cant be right. Do I need to relocate all the hinges to clear the channel for the strip or can I cut the strip either side of the hinges and fill the channel? The door sets came from Shapland, I can't find any data about them.

We have recently moved a farm with 12 stables in a block with hay and straw storage, plus tack room, rug room and staff kitchen. Less than 5 staff. Please can you advise what system is best to warn us of a fire to protect the horses and complies with my duty as an employer without breaking the bank?

for which accommodation types Class 3/ D-s3 is unsuitable?

What is the maximum length of a corridor permitted before it should be subdivided by fire doors? and What is the maximum number of people permitted to escape through an inward opening door?

Internal fire door requirements retrospective?

Hi all I'm looking for advice and or information to evidence on any stipulations on timeframes that a fire alarm call point can be activated and the delay between that activation and the full system activation especially with monitored systems. Is there any UK guidance on acceptable delay timeframes such as this? Scenario is a special school where the students are activating call points multiple times a day in the worst cases. School has tried covers\screamers etc but that actually made the situation worse. I know some of our Care homes \ Day centres have key operated call points, but this school is quite big with over 80 staff and I think their worry is the amo…

My work is mostly related to compliance issues within the hospitality industry. I note the increasing number of venues, especially private member’s clubs, that are are installing lifts to assist those with limited mobility to access facilities on upper floors. That has to be a good thing but it cannot be done without careful consideration of how these folk can be safely evacuated in the event of fire. I have one such example where the new lift serves two floors above ground in a relatively large social club. The lift is a standard slow moving contraption within a protected shaft with no stairs and simply discharges into the room space via a lobby. The protected stair…

Hi I live in a 2 bedroomed flat, and I have decided to buy at least 1 fire extinguisher, possibly 2, though I do not know what types are most suitable i.e. foam, liquid etc. My kitchen has a gas boiler and gas hob in it, apart from that there are no other heat appliances elsewhere in the flat, except radiators. Can anyone advise what will be most suitable type(s) of fire extinguisher to buy for my flat? Thanks in advance. Michael

In the RRO quite a few of the regulations are prefixed with the words Where Necessary. (as my subject) But not sure how this is implemented, as the first one states 14.—(1) Where necessary in order to safeguard the safety of relevant persons, the responsible person must ensure that routes to emergency exits from premises and the exits themselves are kept clear at all times. But does the prefix go along with all following regulations, as this wouldn't make sense, so (d) emergency doors must open in the direction of escape; this shouldn't be "where necessary" surely this is a must i would think, and similar applies to others in the category. Like the below. g…

Hi, Im interested in getting into fire door installation and maintenance and was wondering about suitable training that is widely recognised by future customers. I was looking at BmTrada courses and the fdis diploma (which I am aware isn’t installation based). Would I be on the right track with these two avenues? Any advice greatly appreciated.

A landlord has been advised by their chartered surveyors to instal Internal fire doors into 1 bed high rise flats, as the travel distance to front door is 10.4m. Personally, I believe it not reasonably practicable to bring the block up to current benchmark standards, and a needless expense to leaseholders. Account should be taken of the addition of smoke detection and good standard of compartmentation. But that’s just me. Views please My question about the doors. Are newly fitted internal fire doors to be included in the ‘best endeavour’ annual checks like all flat front doors, under the new regs (Fire door regulation 10). Is it not necessary, or has thi…

Hi All, A local pottery uses a domestic building to fire the kilns to make pottery. no one lives in the building ,the kilns are contained in a separate area and has natural venting only. these are left on at night as the process takes 8-12 hours depending on what’s being produced. there is a store area upstairs and the owner can be above the area where kilns operate. there is no fire door separation to upstairs or no linked detection. The only risk is during the day when the owner can be upstairs whilst kilns are on downstairs and wouldn’t have any early detection of a fire downstairs. This is a business with 1 person operating in an emp…

Apologies if this has been raised before... I am specifying scatter cushions for a commercial interior (hotels and care homes) and I need to make sure they comply with the latest regulations. Reading an overview (on this site) of the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988/1989, 1993 and 2010), it states: Summary. Item 5: A display label must be fitted to every item of new furniture at the point of sale (with the exception of mattresses, bed-bases, pillows, scatter cushions, seat pads, loose covers sold separately from the furniture and stretch covers). Product ranges covered by the Regulations. Products covered by …