I wondered if you might be able to help (and please forgive me if I’m asking the wrong person!) - I am looking to find a solution to ensure our residential loft conversion complies with Approved Document B and have been advised a fire engineered approach might be an option. As designed and built the loft is ‘open’ (i.e. the stairwell is not protected) and we would like to leave it as such but appreciate we need to install alternative fire measures for safety. Might this be something you could advise on, or if not you perhaps you could point me in direction of the right person?

With best,

Fire engineering in this situation usually means automatic suppression.

As an alternative to domestic sprinklers you may find this system easier to fit: http://www.plumis.co.uk/Fire-refurbishment-building-regulations.html

Fire engineers can help with this, there are fire engineering companies in their own right as well as fire safety consultancies like ours who have a couple of fire engineers on the books for jobs like this. Some Approved Inspectors (private alternative to going through Council Building Control) have fire engineers available with the advantage they can sort out your Building Regs certificate at the same time, e.g. http://www.approvedinspectorsltd.co.uk/services/fire-engineering/ (not an endorsement, but the fire engineering company they partner with is competent)

Make sure who you use is suitably qualified and experienced or you may end up wasting money!