Fire Exits

Our fire exit is in the corner of a parking area which used to be kept clear and the door would swing open to the wall for exiting. However due to changes in bye-laws the large wheeled waste bins for the restaurant below us are now kept against this wall and can sometimes be moved very close. This has made me realise that if the bin stops the door opening fully we are faced with a wall. Whereas if the door swung the other way there might at least be a chance of squeezing out. I know the wheeled bin is a problem and I'm working on it but is there any regulation about the way the door should swing. I think this is a structure created by the restaurant quite possibly…

Hi, I have a question I need some advice with regarding fire exits and main entry points into a building. We would like the main entry and also secondary entry point to also count as escape doors. It is for an "assembly" building - and when I check the regs it says that the doors should not have locks / latches and should be fitted with panic fastenings. So my question is - how do I properly secure the main entrance? In some cases these would need to be secured internally (when locking up). Panic fastenings on these doors does not seem to be the correct thing to do...Thumb turn locks would be good is possible. Also do all emergency exit doors need to be "fi…

We have just fitted an external steel fire escape to a office building consisting of ground and first floor. The fire escape has been built to approved document K requirements. Our client is now asking us for a certificate. What certificate is he referring to?

Hi, We are considering purchasing a B&B. It is situated next door to another B&B (terraced) and the vendor currently owns both, and has run both as one hotel. We now want buy half as they are for sale separately with separate deeds. There is a doorway in the roof space (4 floors up) between the 2 properties with fire corridors to either side. We have been told by the vendors that we can't block up this doorway or remove the fire corridor as it is fire access to both sides. In other words next doors customers could potentially escape down our stairs and vice versa. The door that is between the properties is too small for a fire escape though (you would have to duck…

Hi, I've been nominated to start doing the regular fire tests at my place of work which includes testing all the fire call points and emergency exits. For the most part the doors are push bar to exit or have the Redlam bolt which i can deal with but 3 of our doors have a weird break glass to emergency exit panel on them with no visible way to actually open the door apart from breaking the glass or having to unscrew it. I've tried searching the internet and not found anything that looks like this, so i'm guessing it's really old. I've attached a picture and would be very grateful if anyone had any information on it. Kind regards, Shaun.

I have a room that is accessed from a corridor, the corridor has access to a final exit but the travel distance is 25m, so would it be acceptable to have an alternative exit route through another room off the corridor which has access to a final escape. This would limit the travel distance to 11m.

Hi l have recently moved into a ground floor flat, within a 3 storey block of 6 flats (2 per floor), built in 1995.The flat is accessed via a communal lobby which connects to a stair case serving the upper floor flats. The entrance lobby has a fire door with an over head closer, which connects to a small lobby, which connects to an inner hallway, which has a smoke detector, within which all connecting doors are fire rated, and fitted with perco closers. In order to make entry more user friendly, l would like to remove the door connecting the private lobby to the inner hall, is it possible to do this without affecting the integrity of the the means of escap…

An external wooden staircase leading to the rear of 1st floor of our 2-storey bloc of 4 flats needs to be demolished as it is beyond repair. We plan to retain however the balustrade/balcony. There is an internal staircase leading from the front door to all flats as a fire escape The 1st floor is less than 4.5 m above ground. is there a legal requirement to replace the external staircase as an additional exit ?

My garden is an escape route for my next door neighbour and an estate agents. However I was recently burgled by people coming into my back garden. Can I put a combination lock on the gate and let my neighbour and estate agent know the code?

Hi there! I'm wondering if anyone can help me? We have a building that is being refurbed into a shared, serviced office rental area. There is a main stairwell within the building that links all the floors internally, but there is also a secondary external stairwell / fire escape (bottom right hand side of the attached plan). As you can see from the attached plan, my client is proposing to build separate office suites along the entire perimeter of the floor area. This will in turn block off the secondary / external fire escape route for the majority of personnel on the floor. I have been reading that only 1 escape route will be required (as the…

Hi all, Our basement is already converted and is in a habitable condition. It as two fire exits, one being via the internal staircase leading to the ground floor of our flat, then the second is an external leading to our front garden via concrete stairs. So this means the basement has its own private access. We regularly have family/friends visit who sleep down there but we are in much need of extra storage, so we are wanting to use the stairs as a means of storage)ie like a loft space) which will obviously block the internal fire exit off completely. This still leaves an exit route via the basement door by using the stairs connecting to the front garden…

For a Nursery with 0-5 in attendance is there a maximum height for a crash bar attached to the fire door?

Hi All, I need to connect some doors in a corridor so the residents can't go through them, a code on 1 side and a push button on the other, now this I fully understand, but the home have been told this needs to be connected to the fire panel so when the panel picks up an emergency the doors release from the magnets, I've been advised this can be carried out by connecting a nearby sounder to the door control gear, any help much appreciated Alex

Good morning, We have a fire door exit from a car park which does not allow re-entry to the car park once outside. What are the legalities of a fire door. Is this correct that you cannot re-enter the fire door or is this optional? thanks

Can a 24 hr department store lock two of its three main entrance/exits at 10:OO PM. ? Can a door marked "Exit" be locked?

My employers, a branch of a large supermarket chain has a long bar over the fire doors that has to be removed every morning and put back at the end of the day. When the bar is in place the fire doors can not be opened. Obviously this is open to human error and I have often seen the bar still on the doors after 5pm. Is this safe or legal? Who can I contact about this. My manager has dismissed my concerns.

I want to put in a fire escape to a first floor room. Do I need permission? How near/far away to neighbours wall must I be? anything else?

I have an internal fire exit door which doesn't fully close and one final exit door which has been damaged due to having the self closer mechanism removed, as these are fire exits and not fire doors, does this pose a problem?

Hi Our office is a very old building and the fire exit door has 2 routes to it, one from our office via a small alleyway and from the first floor down a set of fire steps. The fire exit door leads out onto an alleyway but we have a big problem of pigeons and they keep nesting right in front of the door. They have just hatched 2 more over the weekend. We have put up spikes in places but that hasn't stopped them nesting in front of the door. The door can still be opened but obviously if there was a fire we would be disturbing the nest. Where do we stand and how can we stop them nesting again next year as I know bird nests are protected! They nested twice last year.

We are currently relocating our stores warehouse into our main factory building, so there will be about four rows of ceiling height racking approximately 200M in length with fork lift access between. I'm undecided whether or not additional fire exit signs are needed, what is the rule of thumb for this?

Are you allowed to escape directly from a third storey (a loft conversion, for example), via an external fire-escape staircase?

Hi, Is it possible to have a step at the final exit door from a protected stairwell. WE have app 180mm difference between the inside FFL and the external pavement. Is it permissible to incorporate a step at the door and where would we find guidance on this? Thank you.

What is the minimum width of a final exit door?

Thank you for reading this message. Could anybody direct me to where I can find out more information/regulations on the force required to open a final exit/fire escape door on a block of flats. The doors present require significant force to open, and I am concerned that a disabled or elderly person would not be able to open them. Thanking you Tony Campbell

Is this the correct signage for a block of flats with a 'Stay Put' fire escape policy in place? Just had new signage placed up and it seems more appropriate for an 'evacuation' fire escape policy.