Hello all, 

 

We are a joinery workshop with a small storage room (42 m2) for our paints and solvents. There’s around 630l of pants, stains, thinners, hardeners and primers stored in a fire-resistant metal cupboard and in original packaging. There’s a direct exit to an open air area from the room and the emergency route is not obstructed by anything. The question is: are we allowed to store anything else in the room such as a small supply of sandpaper in cardboard boxes, wooden boards, small electric tools, etc.? It’s a small amount of materials that could potentially burn in case if fire started, but nothing that may enhance the risk of starting the fire. Apart from the metal cupboard in the room, there’s still some useful storage space left and we’d like to find out if we can use it and if there are any clever ways for making it more safe. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thank you, 

Robert

Due to the quantity stored it appears to need to be treated as a dedicated store (otherwise the storage amount permitted would be less) so shouldn't have anything else - are you sure it's six hundred and thirty litres as it would have to be a pretty big cupboard?

Guidance:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg140.pdf

https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg51.pdf