Stairwell smoke ventilation window

[Nickfromwales]

Hi. 

Current annoyance is trying to find a supplier for a stairwell smoke ventilation window / roof vent for a pitched roof. 

Anyone got a lead for such a supplier ?

Has to open to 120 degrees from horizontal iirc. 

Thanks all.  

 

 

[Mr Punter]

velux

[Dudda]

What's the required free open area? Do you need one sq meter of open area or less?

[Nickfromwales]

@Dudda 1m2. Seems a lot to me but hey-ho. That the minimum / norm?

Just spoke to Colt and they put me in touch with the most helpful guy I've spoken to in a while. 

He sent me in the Velux direction but as with @ProDave's "corner branch" I just was asking for the wrong bloody thing. 

@Mr Punter Thanks. I'll link the ones I've shortlisted later, complete with kit. 

 

[Dudda]

2 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

@Dudda 1m2. Seems a lot to me but hey-ho. That the minimum / norm?

It all depends where it is and what's it for. At the top of a fire escape stairs it's one square meter in a public building. That's the most common use which is why I used that as an example. I've never heard of one used in a domestic stairwell. I'm used of Irish regulations so it might be more common in UK regulations.

[Nickfromwales]

On 28 February 2017 at 16:13, Dudda said:

It all depends where it is and what's it for. At the top of a fire escape stairs it's one square meter in a public building. That's the most common use which is why I used that as an example. I've never heard of one used in a domestic stairwell. I'm used of Irish regulations so it might be more common in UK regulations.

Just about to start getting to this phase so I'll bump this with options / prices etc. Thanks for the replies so far. 

@Dudda, Theres a basement flat where the stairwell starts, creating the primary means of escape from the 1sr floor flat. The ground floor ( pavement level ) is a chip shop so I think that's where the commercial aspect has arisen from.

The chip shop will have a double fd60 doorway, separating the shop from and creating access to the stairwell, ( NOT as a fire escape route for the shop btw ). As the owner of the shop will reside upstairs eventually, she wanted to be able to enter via the shopfront and go up to her flat from there, rather than go to the isolated rear entrance to gain access where she felt a little vulnerable late at night. The shop access option also means only one flight of stairs to deal with then too. Smoke ventilator is at the very top of this stairwell, but as this primary means of escape passes the sole means of escape for the downsairs flat too I think they've ( BC ) gone for it as a requirement.

Sprinklers already spec'd in the top flat, plus we've now put heads throughout the stairwell too, ( installers insisted on that as BCO basically puts the risk assessment in the hands of the designer aka installer ), plus protected fire lobby's !! I'd really thought that sprinklers would have negated the internal fd30's for the protected lobby at the very least, and we'd have been OK with just the fd60 front door at the top of the stairs......but no . I think the fact that we're doing an attic conversion up there has tipped that scale, as the property is now proposed as a 2-up 1-down from pavement level. 

We'll have to fire board and skim the two main ceilings in the shop too, and add smoke and heat detectors before getting a completion certificate for the upper flat. Getting a part-completion cert next week for the ground floor one, ( temporary certificate of habitation ? ) so the owner can move in down there whilst I complete upstairs. 

 

Question : Regarding the smoke velux, my sparky informs me that they come with the inastllarion kit, including controls etc and break glass. Anyone know if that's right, or any bits of kit I might be missing that I'll need to complete the job?

Just for laughs :-

My sparky told me a story, when prompted by my enquiry. He went to look at a job with a smoke ventilator window, which had been abandoned by its electrician. All finished but needed a little tweaking and signing off. With nobody sure how the smoke ventilator was operated he investigated further. The flexible cable for the smoke window could easily be seen, leaving the window and entering the adjacent wall, but no outlet plate / other. My mate tugged on the cable and it popped out in his hand. It had not been made off!!! The previous sparky thought it would be nice to charge for doing it, but had only cut the lead short, drilled a hole in the wall, and shoved the end in to make it look finished. Nice chap, considering it was a 3-story HMO