Fire Exits

I am converting the ground floor of an existing 4-storey office building to restaurant use. The ground floor will be let out. 60min fire protection is required between occupancies. Now a protected stair serves the upper floors which remain as office accommodation. D2 will provide an alternative means of escape from the restaurant. I am of the view that the wall separating the restaurant and the protected stair should be 60min and D2 should only be used for MOE and not used for any other purpose. I could see deliveries coming in from the yard area where there is a large open car park. Knowing restaurants as I do, I could see D2 propped open, damaged, with loss of integrity…

We recently had a metal gate installed at the communal outdoor entrance pathway to two single dwelling residential homes (ours and our neighbours). Unfortunately to my belief, our neighbour was ill advised on the gate, as the gate can only be opened on both sides by a physical key, locking the only entrance and most importantly, exit out of our home in case of an emergency, as there is only one foot only 40m pathway that leads away from the houses to the street. Similar to some mews or courtyard houses we are fenced in on sides other than the one pathway. To my belief as it is a shared private entrance/exit pathway for 2x residential houses, the gate must be openable…

Hi, do final exit doors have to open onto level landings, or can they open onto a slope ?. Thanks.

Our front door electric mortice (intercom) is faulty: when it is released via trades button/internal intercom button it remains openable, so needs replacing. It is a fail secure type, but there is an Yale lock enabling egress without activating the electric mortice or need for key. I told the locksmith there is an electric mortice available at Toolstation for £15. He said it was a fail secure type and therefore would be breaking fire regulation fitting, it, it would put the safety of residents life in danger, and I would be liable for corporate manslaughter. Is he correct?

Can anyone help?

Could you answer this question for me please. If a fire exit door opens outwards onto private residential land from a commercial building, can they use this exit for there deliveries. Is it not just a fire escape? Look forward to a reply as this is becoming a problem for out community Thanks

Hi a small industrial unit newly built 150 sq mtr no mezzanine. Main entrance door leads into a small office with a fire door leading off into the warehouse area and roller shutter door to front. Number of staff at any one time would be 2 in the office and installers collecting stock from the warehouse throughout the day (lpg FLT). EML fitted throughout but no fire alarm, if a fire occurred in the office no one in the warehouse would know and could potentially block off that escape route leaving the only exit once aware of any fire would be via the roller shutter which is not defined as a suitable means of escape. Without installing a full fire alarm system is there anyth…

What are the safety requirements for these doors? we currently have 5 doors that are released by fusible link, is this le

Hi. Advice needed please. My local Leisure Centre has a main hall with 3 double door emergency exits . These doors are kept locked so the push bar system doesn’t open them. I think this is illegal??? However the doors are connected to the centres fire alarm system so when the alarm is sounded the doors unlock automatically and the push bars operate normally opening outwards when pushed. My concern is in the event of a non fire emergency and evacuation is needed members wouldn’t be able to evacuate causing panic. The hall isn’t in the sight range of main reception.

Hello I purchased a newly constructed, purpose built, ground floor flat in a block of 5 in 2010. The flat has FD30 fire doors throughout with an automatic closer on the front door. There have been no changes or alterations to the door or frame. The management company has had a fire door safety review and has reported that my flat's front door (in common with all of them) has no intumescent strips and it has a gap of 6mm on both the top and side of the door. Apparently the gap should be 2.4mm. On checking the regulations it seems that where a door never had a strip fitted this might not actually be necessary? Also I am not sure if the gap issue is actually s…

Hello, we have a gate at the side of our house leading from our garden which is a fire exit for our house and the houses next to us but someone has put their own private lock on it so we can't get in and out of it easily and they refuse to make any other keys for us so I was wondering if you could help me with what to do. This is a fire exit and should be accessible. Thank you for your help.

Hi Can anyone advise - customer contacted me to take a look at a upvc outward opening door (designated fire exit) fitted with a strand panic bar, the home has a problem with residents wondering out through this exit, can anyone suggest or advise. I wondered if a maglock connected to the fire alarm system along with break glass box would be acceptable. Any advise much appreciated.

is there a minimum distance for a nursing home bedroom door to be away from a fire exit?? we have been informed we must knock a new door hole out as our bedroom door hole is to close to the fire exit for the resident. it is 2 meters away from the exit.

Hello. I hope someone may be able to help me. I recently moved my business into a unit on the local industrial estate. The building next door is a warehouse and vehicles are coming and going all day. They are frequently parked up close to my fire exit, which opens outwards and is therefore regularly blocked. The chap who runs the warehouse seems to think I am fussing too much and hasn't done anything about it, although I've mentioned it a couple of times. Does anyone know what I can do - I don't want to fall out with my neighbour but I am worried.

I have a fire escape to the side of my leased commercial property, it’s 1 storey high and was installed for the sole purpose of being a fire escape new commercial tenant moved in next door and is either parking their car under the escape or using it to dump rubbish! I am of course concerned that should the be a fire the car or rubbish would catch fire and block the fire escape as flames would come of through the steps and landing area is there a specific law or code that I can use to get them to stop, I have contacted the management company but they are not doing anything about it

Hi I wanted to ask you if it is a legal requirement to have a fire exit in a shop? If it is then whose legal responsibility is it to provide a fire exit in a shop. Is it the landlords or the leaseholder? Thanks Kamesh

Hello we are currently planning the layout of our office and wonder how much space we need to leave around the fire exits

Hi, Can you give advice? Does a new mortice lock on the front door of a first floor flat have to be the kind that can only be unlocked from the inside without a key because of fire regulations? I've been told by a lock smith that it does but from what I've read that only applies to second floor flats and above. Many thanks, Simon

Hi there We have 2 sets of double doors( push bar fire escape doors) these are only exits. On one side of our room I've completely sound proofed that side of the building in order to keep the neighbors happy, the weakest part of the sound proofing is the doors. Am I able to build a mini hall way and install another set of doors that swing both ways I front of the current doors. In effect making a kind of mini porch on the inside. The doors would be 1600mm wide, the same as the current doors and be 1200mm in front of the current doors I would obviously make sure the little room between the two doors is fully lit Cheers

We have a laboratory in the middle of our factory with only one exit/entrance. Is there a regulation stating the amount of exits within a fully enclosed room?

You can see by the travel distances that this is quite a small first-floor restaurant. Two exits to the right hand side of the room. As far as a I can interpret the requirements of diagrams 2.1 and 2.2 of ADB V2, the arrangement is compliant. Point A is the furthest point in the room, C is access to a protected stair and D is the head of a stair that is separated from the ground floor.

Exit gate in perimeter fence. I have a scenario where a public library has a final exit fire door from the building which leads into a fenced area behind the building. Currently there is no way to then leave this area without re-entering the building. It is proposed to put a pedestrian gate into the fencing so staff/visitors can escape to a place of ultimate safety. Is there any specifications regards the gate dimensions. Is it a min of 750mm (suitable for up to 60 persons) then further informed by risk assessment.

My building has 2 stories. Lower story has 2 regular door in the front and the back, and 2 emergency exits on left and right wings. Upper story has 2 emergency exits on left and right wings. We use emergency exit as daily entrances (regular doors) because the because the doors are closer to parking area. Moreover, we block them up with a brick to keep them open. Is this allowed? If it is not, what standard that prohibit? Thank you, Ziyad

I visited a school yesterday and one thing that stood out to me is that there was no fire exit signage anywhere. There was none above final exits, and none in corridors or above any other doors to point towards the final exit. I think I know the answer, but my question is, is there any possible justification? The building itself is approximately 10 years old so relatively new. It's a large, complex building so I'm really struggling how this could possibly have been missed. The site has annual external fire risk assessments, and the academy trust has a central health and safety department. I saw the list of actions to complete from the latest fire risk assessment and …

Hi everyone.. I live in a basement flat which has a side walkway to my front door..we also have french doors at the back of our flat which lead onto the garden area..At the top of our walkway is a security gate which we keep locked and have done for 21 years... The property freehold is owned by social housing though we own our flat.. We have just come back from holiday and the social housing team have taken the deadlock l lock out of the gate leaving it unlocked not informing us and saying it's against fire regs and we should have a thumb nail lock that we can open from the inside..I said we use this as our security gate and anyone who wants to break in wil…