StratMan

Hi all. I'm looking for some advice on regarding electronically operated sliding doors. The doors are the main customer entrance/exit to the building and also doubles up as a fire exit. The area is a small/medium showroom. However, this area also has 2 other designated fire exits at either side of the building (180 degrees apart from each other and AT LEAST 45 degrees from the sliding doors respectively). Both the other exits are manually operated and fitted with panic bars and ALL exits discharge to open air. Currently, the sliding doors have no emergency override installed (GBGU) and it can't be confirmed if the sliding doors are linked to the fire alarm system or operate a fail safe in power failure. I'm not concerned about the actual exit capacity as that's more than sufficient for the occupancy levels (even when discounting the sliding doors) but I'm unsure whether the sliding doors need the extra emergency provisions given that there are alternate exits. I don't have a copy of BS 7273-4 and I can't find any clear advice for this particular situation in any other guidance. So any help will be appreciated Some extra info based on the responses I'm likely to get Does it NEED to be a fire exit ? No, as there is ample provision all within acceptable travel distance. But it IS a fire exit and that's not going to change. Thanks in advance

Hi, Mike. No, the window is not an escape window and the building wasn't built to ADB. I should clarify that the window opens INSIDE the new unit, not externally. So when the building is finished, it looks as though the toilet window will open inside the building (what part of the building it will be, I don't know). So I would say that it's likely this will remain a problem (probably more so) when the unit is finished.

Hi all. I'm looking for some advice. Recently completed an FRA on a small/medium commercial unit. All pretty straight forward, however, there are building works going on next to the unit -looks like a new unit is being erected. I noticed that when you open the toilet window in my customers unit, it opens directly into the building site next door The building work is nothing to do with my customer (they lease their unit). Obviously, I know this is an issue and the building site activities can affect my customers' unit and vice versa, but is there anything else I need to consider? Any other guidance/legislation. I'm certain this wouldn't meet building regs, but nothing I can do about that. This is the first time I've ever come across this so I'm a bit stumped. The building site was closed when I was there so it wasn't possible to talk to any of the contractors. Any advice will be very much appreciated. Happy to answer any questions. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice regarding fire stopping. I've recently seen some service penetrations (cable trays, wire bundles) that have been 'fire stopped' with what looks to be off cuts of fire rated plasterboard and mastic. The work was carried out by a general builder, not a fire stopping specialist and no fire stopping labels were present. I've put in my report that it was not possible to confirm that the products used meet the required fire resisting properties etc. So my query: Can fire stopping be done with FR plasterboard or should it always be a fire batt/FR mastics etc. I was under the impression that FR plasterboard was only for wall and ceiling linings and not for penetrations and stopping. Thanks in advance.

Thanks, Anthony. I really appreciate the response. It confirmed what I thought. To clarify, it's a small/medium commercial unit.

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice regarding a window in a protected stairwell and whetrher or not it's acceptable/acceptable with caveats. It's a manually operated window, no mechancal sysems/AOVs present in the building. The glass is the same as the other windows in the building and is just standard, glazing. not fire rated. Detection is present at the head of the staircase. Compartmentation is all in good order and unbreached. Externally, there is no fire loading (some AC units at ground floor level but these are not directly below and about 2m away, serviced 6 monthly etc.) external fire spread is unlikely due to construction etc. The final exit is below it but, again about 2m distance. I've had a look through various guidance docs but information is either not available or slighltly conflicting. I personally can't see any issue with the window being there, but I wanted to get some advice from more experienced assessors on whether or not I'm forgetting something I have tried to upload pictures but i keep getting a server error; if theres an easier way to do it, please let me know. If you need anymore info, please feel free to ask. Many thanks in advance