Fire Exits

I am working on a renovation of a Victorian house which is split into two flats (sketch attached). There is a small entrance lobby shared by the Ground Floor (GF) and First Floor (1F) flats. Both doors to the flats are fire rated with smoke seals. The 1F flat is under 4.5m above ground level and it doesn't have a loft. The GF flat is open plan and each room has a direct escape to the outside via a window. As part of the renovation, the approved inspector is asking us to introduce an internal protected hallway in the GF flat by putting a door is the corridor. Why is this necessary if we already have a protected lobby between the two flats? I had an identical project signe…

Disabled Refuge Points Do these need specific signs to comply with BS 5499 or are the signs on the intercom adequate( wheelchair logo on green backgound)?

Can a fire exit in a supermarket also have a sign on it which says "this area is for staff only? Thanks

Hi, we live in an apartment, bought from our landlord a few years ago. Our kitchen, living space has french patio doors to a small decked platform 6-7feet high above and stairs that exit into our neighbours land. during lockdown we power washed and painted the deck and steps as it was unfit to walk on. We don’t use the deck usually but during lockdown our toddler played out a few times. It is our only means of escape downstairs and our deeds show it was some rickety old steps out to the yard before 2011. It also shows we have a joint right of way down this yard back up to the front which has been blocked and stone stairs completely removed. So in the event of a fire we…

Are there any minimum sizes for fire doors to remain compliant? My kitchen doorway is narrow (670mm) and short (1964mm) Also what overhead door closer would be best for a door of this size? PS. I have found a solid core FD30 blank door that can be trimmed excessively providing it is re-lipped.

Hi, I am in the process of buying a house which has a metal, external fire escape staircase down from an attic floor. Currently this is a single, straight run of steps which terminates pretty close to another wall/door for the garage. (The space is perfectly sufficient for people to get away in real terms but I would be surprised if it would be acceptable for a commercial premises, for example). My irritation is that it prevents effective use of the garage door as you have to sort of slink past the staircase. So, my question is - is there likely to be anything wrong with having a half way landing installed, enabling the staircase to reverse direction and ex…

Hello there. My mother is disabled and on friday had a new fire door installed, the only exit to her flat, but the workmen didn't have a handle. Because the door has an electric/disability mechanism on it to open and close it using a fob, they have clearly felt it was safe to leave it without a handle over the weekend, and however long it takes them to come back and get it done. The issue is that all electronics can fail, or power can go out, and if this happened at the wrong time my mother doesn't even have a handle to try and open her door with. She is effectively trapped should this (even unlikely) eventuality occur, which seems to me a rather concerning lapse on …

Hi. I work in a 4 story building. The bottom floor that I work on has a fire exit that leads out onto a closed stairwell used for the flats above. Outside of our fire door is a small courtyard that has a gate entry code. The floor above us is inhabited by a second home owner that lives there 6 weeks of the year. We have had trouble with him in the past as customers have used the fire exit as en exit to the shop and left the code entry gate open. For the last year I have ensured that we do not let customers use the fire exit door when it is open. Today I have had a massive telling off from him for using the gate, even though I have closed it behind me on exit end re-entry…

Hello all, Please help me understand how best to reconcile the exisitng boiler room arrangments we have and the current fire safety standards: - it is a large private estate with arround 320 flats, upto 8 floors - boiler room is large approx. 200m3, at lower ground level, with two doors - original doors with large free area over 1m2 (wire mesh type) at either end of the room. - each door leads into lower ground, roofless lobby and from the lobby one can enter a service stairwell - this would be the escape route from the boiler room; at present the door between the lobby and the stairwell is not fire rated. Question: - can we maintain the origina…

Hello. I currently live in a student house and we have a fire door from our main corridor into the kitchen. this has had a dart board on it and consequently has a few dart holes in the door itself, we are moving out in 6 days and need to know whether it is worth trying to fix? is it safe to polyfil a fire door ourselves?

In an office building , can fire doors be locked at night when know one is at work or does the fact an exit says fire exit then it must remain day and night? The reason is the building can be accessed 24hr a day by staff from another area , although no one would be working there at night and would have no reason to be in there at night. The fire escape route goes from a corridor , through an office and into a carpark. The door gets locked to the office as security I'm presuming. Once a week at night I check the fire alarm at night. The management say that they can take the signs down but due to travel distances they cannot . Its just the overni…

We have a fire escape window on our upstairs landing and I've just found out my 3 year old twin girls can open the window. As there is no lock or anything on this window, is there anything we can fit to childproof this window without compromising fire safety?

HI there - I know there are a lot of questions about whether a front door needs to be fire rated but I couldn't quite find the answer to this one! I am the ground floor flat in a Victorian Terrace house with one flat above me that is two stories. We both have doors that exit into a shared hallway and then out the front of the house. We are jointly replacing the shared front door (the one that exits outside) and I wondered if this has to be fire rated because it leads to the stairway of the upstairs flat? Thank you! Rachel

Hello - I have a ground floor flat in a victorian terrace which shares a common entrance with the flat above. We are replacing our shared external front door that exits out of the house. Does this external door need to be fire rated? Thank you.

I've just got pulled into a job where the customer told me the job was fitting a door and frame, I asked if it was standard timber door and frame and they said yes. I turn up and find out he has a fd30 for a fire exit door and frame to fit door both are 9inch to heigh, Am I right that it's still not possible to modify the door or frame in any way beyond manufacturing instructions. I have for now re measure brick to brick so he can try to get a set to fit properly. It's in a salon for the rear exit out onto carpark and the old frame and door are so rotten that it needs replacement asap I am clued up for internal work on flats and dom…

Scenario is a new office block - ground plus 4 storey above (no basement). All office / administration use. All standard construction and each floor has lobby approach to staircase. No alternative means of escape from the upper floor levels. Under ADB Vol 2 (3.3 - Single escape stairs) from what I can read, a maximum of 60 occupants is permitted at each floor level subject to travel distance criteria being met and if any floor is above 11m, a second means of escape is made available... But, then looking at 2.9 in ADB Vol 2 (Number of occupants and exits) if the total occupancy for the building is >60 then 2 or more final exits are required... In my example…

Hi I have been notified by our building management; the front door to our rented property (flat in a building) is not a fire safety door because it is a UPVC none rated fire door! My flat’s front door opens to the street, having said, there is also a flat next door but has it’s own front door separately. We both share a common 3 steps metal stairs that leads to the street. I’m not sure if the management is right, do I really need to change my front door and what is best, FD30 or FD60? Many thanks in advance

Can a front door of an office be a fire door

We have a social club with the main entrance doors open in. The doors are on one of only two escape routes. The building has three storeys with a possibility of around 600 persons. Conditions of licence made by LABC say that either the doors are held open or they are manned. Neither condition is likely to be met as the main entrance does not have a lobby and the weather would just pour in. Manning is likely to be by a wee man who gets paid in pints and needs to visit the loo on a regular basis. My FRA rejects the situation as most unwise. Don’t know what you think but FRS didn’t either notice or comment on the arrangement, which I find strange.

Hello, we have a cabin inside a warehouse near a fire door. we are planning to put a wall up and an extra door in the cabin, so customers can walk straight in through the fire door into the cabin without being able to go in the warehouse. there are 2 other fire exits in teh warehouse and a roller shutter door at the front. Attached are some before & after plans... We would basically be diverting the fire escape route for the warehouse through the cabin. But not sure if this is legal? Be glad of any advice. thanks

Hi Were having a new main entrance / only fire exit door fitted to our block of 12 flats. Were also having a new fob operated acess control system fitted. We have a hard wired fire alarm system that is fully maintained and tested as it should be. do we spec a fail safe or fail secure electric lock strike ? any advice appreciated ? cheers Davey

Hi, I have a client that runs a care home for children with severe learning disabilities linked to autism. The care home is a converted 1 storey residential property. There is only one staircase (escape route) that leads from the top floor (1st Floor) to the ground floor and it is not a protected staircase. There are however fire doors are fitted to all bedrooms (Ground & First Floor) that lead onto this route. There is a storage cupboard built under the stairs. This is used for storing a few cleaning materials and cleaning equipment. Does this storage area under the stairs need to be fire protected i.e. fire door fitted and fire resistant construction? Also above the…

Travel distance for a C2 risk profile in one direction according to Table 15 in 9999 2017 is 9m. At the bottom of the same table it says; “The two-way travel distance limit for hotels is measured from the entrance to the bedroom/suite, not from the most remote part of the bedroom/suite”. Thus the implication is that one way travel should not be measured from the entrance door of the bedroom. That would be almost impossible to achieve and I do believe a mistake has been made in 9999 in that regard. It would seem to me that an allocation of 9m in the bedroom and 9m in the protected corridor would be appropriate. Now if we put sprinklers in, then we move down one risk p…

Hi, I have an industrial unit of approx 3000 square feet. The max travel distance to the one hour fire corridor is 14.5 mts. The fire corridor is accessed from inside the unit through a 1 hour fire door with a push pad. I was hoping to install an external door with a fail safe electric strike/intercom and beyond that a roller shutter than would be closed on leaving the unit at the end of the day for security. My landlord reckons this is not permitted for fire safety reasons. Could you offer any advice on if this acceptable. There are a very limited number of members of the public who visit the unit as we are an e commerce company.

I have a marquee situated about 2m from an emergency exit from a hotel. The marquee has an occupancy of around 300 so that gives some idea of size. Marquees are exempted from building regulations so it would appear that any perceived risk is assessed using standard methods. Anyone have comments or had issues?