AnthonyB

The inch rebate harks back to the days of fire doors before the introduction of intumescent strips and cold smoke seals and isn't usually needed on a door with such items fitted. Manufacturers instructions should be followed and it should be noted that a tested rated doorset includes the frame as well as the door so care needs to be taken with a new door in an existing frame. The fire door specialists on here will give a more detailed response.

Are the children to be supervised?

Because flats are private dwellings and the historical approach legally has been for almost ever is that "an Englishman's Home is his castle" so the government does not intrude into the privacy of the home except where absolutely necessary (most often at the build and alteration stage through Building Regulations).The Housing Act does apply, mostly focusing on housing that is let. Correctly built flats do not usually benefit from communal alarms and these have led to deaths in a couple of cases. Where you have flats not built to standard or that are poorly converted then alarm systems that include some elements in the flats would be appropriate. A history of the legislation as well as the current approach for new & existing flats is in https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/fire-safety-purpose-built-04b.pdf Information for HMO's and certain conversions is at https://www.rla.org.uk/docs/LACORSFSguideApril62009.PDF

A fire risk assessment must be reviewed regularly and updated if there are any changes to risks, processes, people, structure, layout, etc No set timescale exists for a review, but the benchmark standard based on court cases and enforcement notices indicates annual as a minimum. Some premises have FRAs that are several years old, but as they have been reviewed annually and nothing has changed, have been deemed adequate. So if they are just commissioning a review then they are in the right as it's grossly overdue, although if using an external provider most would (rightly) insist on a full reassessment after an 11 year gap

As it's Building Work for the Purposes of Building Regulations I would guess they want a completion certificate from Local Authority Building Control or the Approved Inspector the work was notified to?

Whilst you have no obligation to do so I would get an accredited fire risk assessment provider to inspect the premises with a few to the real implications of a split as part of due diligence before purchasing as there is a risk you could inherit a premises with restrictions on usage or requiring capital expenditure to be compliant. Having done FRAs as part of purchasing due diligence whilst many are smooth there have been others leading to either a renegotiated price or even withdrawal from the purchase.

Up to make you go through that door. If there is a change of direction after the door then you add the additional sign there. There is no go through and then turn sign. Left arrow above a door means don't use the door go left instead.

My thoughts are you should get a refund and new FRAs. Approved Document B is irrelevant for FRA in existing flats. LACORS is the correct guide especially if due to the style of conversion they are section 257 HMO's. Even if purpose built the LGA Guide applies which, whilst it does sometimes require smoke control works, is far more holistic than just blindly following new build standards.

London no longer has it's own specific regulations affecting fire safety, the old London Building Acts are gone.

It's very old and similar to a Winchester Bolt and other old fastenings. For most of these the only non destructive way to access, test and service the latch is by unscrewing/disassembly. Whilst existing locks of this type can be tolerated in a Fire Risk Assessment in certain circumstances replacement with a modern approved fastening is preferable, particularly as it's a less common type of older lock for which spare components and glasses will be hard to find.

The Fire and Rescue Service enforce the fire regulations and have specialist inspecting officers for this role (who would know all the rules and regs) so they are the right people to contact, but it must be the right department, the local station may not have one of the inspecting teams based there (so you just got a non specialist firefighter with no enforcement powers) and instead you need to approach the correct department direct, they have different names in different brigades but you can usually find them on the website from the business fire safety pages (or in the case of London it's flats fire safety pages)

I'd second that, your service provider obviously has no clue about extinguishers and is ripping you off. Cartridge extinguishers are rare these days and have no gauge. Correct servicing of these each year involves (amongst other things) opening them up, replacing the O rings to the neck, removing and weighing the cartridge, examining the interior of the body (removing the contents as required to do so) checking the spindle and valve, blowing the diptube and hose to check for obstruction. Stored pressure extinguishers have gauges and cannot be opened up for annual inspection and are check weighed and the gauge tested for free movement using a special tool and the hose removed and blown to check for obstruction and the o ring replaced (amongst other things). If the gauges are in the red then, even if still full of foam or powder the pressuring nitrogen has leaked off (either due to partial use and even less than a second of discharge can lead to this; or through wear and tear of the spindle o-ring; or generally a faulty valve; or rust leading to pinhole rupture) and this THEY WILL NOT WORK! Get them replaced along with the cowboys who are 'servicing' your equipment.

You wouldn't normally design that in a building, but I have seen it done in existing buildings where historically it was the only and lowest risk way of adding a second exit.

That's for new builds or refurbs and where Approved Document B is not being used. BS9999 is NOT a risk assessment guide, is NOT a legal requirement and is NOT retrospective. The law is quite clear that all provisions are risk based. Far too many practitioners spend other peoples money by getting RP's to put stuff in that is not legally required as it's easier than actually assessing the risk and giving RP's an informed choice. Would it be nice if every lift was upgraded to include fire alarm interfacing? Yes Does it actually need to be done? No, not across the board for existing buildings. When was the last time in the UK when there was a fatality or even a near miss from someone using a lift in a fire? Never seen it done in 20 years of evacuation drills either, except where managed use of the lift was part of an evacuation plan.

Based on the draft revision to Building Regulations then yes: [Care Homes] Sprinkler systems 2.53 When a sprinkler system is provided in accordance with section 10, the following variations to the guidance given in paragraphs 2.42 to 2.52 are acceptable. a. Fire doorsets to bedrooms need not be fitted with self-closing devices. b. Protected areas may contain more than 10 beds. c. Bedrooms may contain more than one bed. If any of the variations are made, the management procedures should take account of the larger number of residents that may need assistance, and the need to manually close bedroom doors during sleeping hours. NOTE - this is only a DRAFT, however is likely to be accepted and come in during 2019.

The height of the premises is such that benchmark guidance would require them, the risk assessor is following the correct guidance for compliance with the law and not over reacting. The links Tom has posted will confirm this. The fitting is a lower priority than fire door or compartmentation issues which should be addressed first

All non domestic premises regardless of size must carry out a fire risk assessment and must implement suitable and sufficient preventative and protective measures as required from that assessment. The 5 employees bit only relates to the requirement to record the significant findings of the FRA: Where one of the following applies the FRA must be recorded: - The Responsible Person has 5 employees or more (be it one premises with 5 staff or three premises each of 2 staff) - There is a requirement to be licensed to carry out an undertaking regardless of if anyone is employed and how many - The Premises have been served an Alterations Notice by the Fire & Rescue Service Whether it need be recorded or not it must be carried out and precautions put in place

If it's there then yes (if it was built in the last 20-30 years it would have been put in as a Building Regulation requirement) and a 3 hour test on a small block of flats shouldn't be that expensive you should get other quotes. If it wasn't there because it was an old development then due to size it would be recommended (but a lower priority than fire door issues) as oppose to a high priority action. You have no option but to maintain it appropriately, it would be an offence not to do so.

It depends! Is there are party wall separating the adjacent neighbours thus providing compartmentation that negates the need to consider them or is it less substantial? If the shout (or air horn, whistle, rotary gong) can be heard throughout the barn readily you may not need a manual electrical system (call points, sounders, control panel). The other consideration would be if a fire could develop unseen and prejudice escape, for example if all the staff were in the mezzanine office. In which case automatic detection would be needed - if the barn is large enough to need an electrical manual system then you'd add the detectors to this, if not then a fire risk assessor may justify the use of mains powered interlinked domestic smoke alarms (BS5839-6 Grade D) with detectors to the risk areas and office (the latter to act more as an alarm sounder more than a detector) although technically only commercial alarm systems (BS5839-1) should be used.

No new legislation is on the cards at the moment other than the Approved Document for Fire Safety under Building Regulations is up for review - but this is only guidance and only affects new builds and alterations to existing. Well done for standing up to the misinformation that's flying around at the moment.

If it's a cupboard/store then you can omit closers and mark fire door keep locked shut. It would need to be FD30 (intumescent strips) unless protecting an escape route in which case it would need to be FD30S (strips and cold smoke seals). An existing notional fire door with no strips or seals and 25mm stops may be acceptable, but the FRA must indicate why this is so. This assumes that the location and contents of the room even need to be of fire resisting construction and doors in the first place, whilst desirable for property protection it's not always a legal necessity for life safety.

Why did you have it installed in the first place, is it a Section 257 standard of conversion or purpose built?

What signage? If you are talking fire door signs then they must be to fire door standard and not just normal doors if you are signing them this way. Your FRA, if carried out by a competent person, will detail which doors need to be fire doors, with closers or kept locked shut, and to what standard they need to be (notional, upgraded or current FD30/FD30S/FD60/FD60S standard)

I don't want to go into too much detail (as you'd need to pay me as I'd be doing your FRA!) but it looks like use of the hall for up to 100 would be acceptable with the two front exits - for the larger functions (and certainly over 60) I'd want to consider securing the outer oak doors in the open position whilst in use. Travel distance wise it looks like even the rear rooms don't need to use the stairs down and the exit signage would be best removed as the route is locked anyway. I'd want some protection of the alternative route from the rear via the vestibule by the doors from the hall being fire doors.

Hi, a) I'd need to see the layout, measure exit widths, travel distances etc as part of a Fire Risk Assessment to give a definitive answer - it's not perfect, but could be worse and there are workable solutions b) No as they only have a single power source and aren't interlinked. The point of detection is to give early warning to allow an escape before exit routes are blocked where a fire could start undiscovered. With a single station detector if you are at the other end of the building you won't hear it and if you are near enough you may end up detecting the fire yourself way before it activates. Your FRA will determine requirements, but for this size of building you only need a manual alarm system and possibly dependant on layout some detection on top (all systems start as manual and then add detection as the risk requires). Detection and call points should be on the same system, which as not a dwelling should be a proper Part 1 system with a control panel and not Part 6 domestic smoke alarms, although a risk assessor might be able to mitigate the use of Part 6 equipment (for which you can actually get compatible call points. c) Old 240V 3-wire systems without panels were very common even in large buildings back in the last century as the only minimum requirement then (& now for many premises) is a manual means of fire warning, some had a diversion relay which was a box with a button on the front that would silence the alarms for a period to give you chance to replace the broken glass in the activated call point. These are also now illegal due to having only one power source - fire alarms are required to have two power sources under the Health & Safety (Safety Signs & Signals) Regulations. d) Many competent fire alarm contractor would shy from this due to the age of cable (assuming it's fire resistant MICC otherwise it has to come out regardless if not fire resistant) although it is possible to reuse 3-wire system zones on a new conventional panel as most can be set up to be able to operate a 3-wire zone - as you are changing from 240V to 24V you would need new sounders and call points though (still cheaper than rewiring). Any detection you need should be part of this and can be wired into new soft skin fire resistant cabled zones. Unfortunately premises like yours have a lot of catching up to do as until the Fire Safety Order came in they were not covered by fire safety law unlike workplaces, so you are having to jump from the 1960's to 2018 in one go rather than over decades. The only reason there are any existing older fire precautions at all in places like these is because they will, in part or whole, have required a local authority license (often entertainment and dance) and the old licensing legislation allowed councils to require certain fire safety provisions as conditions of granting a license. The premises must have a Fire Risk Assessment, which normally if not used by someone employing over 5 persons would not need to be written, however as the premises are no doubt being used for licensed activity (even if it's lapsed, something else to look into as you may need a new license) then the FRA must be written even if it had no employees (e.g. just volunteers, self employed, etc)