Hi All,

I am trying to find out where I can get a reliable assessment of whether a property needs AOVs and where they should be situated if needed. There are 2 blocks at the property, one with 30 flats and one with 12 flats. Each block has a single stairway and is three floors high above the ground floor. There is no separate fire exit route. There are communal corridors with windows.

We want to change the communal area windows but before we do this we need to find out where AOVs (if any) would be, to finalise the job specification for the windows.

The difficulty I have is that the Fire Risk Assessment we had done 2 years ago amazingly does not deal with AOVs at all, and if I ask an AOV installation company for a quote it is obviously in their interest to say that we need AOVs everywhere, even if there is no statutory need for them. Most companies will not be giving us objective advice, as they want the business.

What we need is an impartial assessment of whether (based on statutory guidelines) we need AOVs, and where they should go.

Can anyone advise who can provide such an impartial assessment ?

Thank you for your help.

Fabian

 

Your FRA should have addressed this. The age of the building, number of storeys, layout (e.g. flats off stair or flats off lobby, etc), etc all feed into the assessment.

In some larger old buildings and even some small new buildings there are alternatives to AOV's, one being if there are large openable windows on each landing that can be used as an OV instead.

You need a new FRA by someone that knows what they are doing...(I can help depending where you are)