Fire door question

[Pigsfoot]

Hi All,

Before i speak to my Building Inspector i wanted to try and get some background info.

 

We have carried out a loft conversion, and some works to our ground floor to open it up a little. We had an inspection yesterday that has gone very well but the inspector has brought up an issue with some doors into our living room.

All doors on the landing and hallway are 30 min Fire doors, all has passed apart from a double set of glass doors from our hall and living room.These doors are located just at the bottom of the stairs and very similar to the image below

 

 

These doors are not fire rated and the inspector has said they need to be changed. I didnt say anything when he was here as i was in a bit of a tiz with everything happening but it dawned on me later on that these doors are mainly for looks and are never really closed. They are to separate the hall from our living room, the hall has two exits ( front door and back door ) and the living room has BiFolds with only an internal handle. The reason i mention this is they are all exits to the outside in case of fire.

 

What i really don't want to have to do is change these doors to be fire rated at presumably quite some cost to never be used. I'd preffer to just remove the doors, maybe leave the side panels so it becomes smore of an arch way.

 

Is this likely to pass fire regs without the doors as it just makes the downstairs more open plan .

I have also attached a VERY crude sketch of downstairs to give a better idea of layout

 

[JohnMo]

2 general reasons for fire doors, to stop fire spread and provide safe means or route of escape.

 

Adding an additional floor level (loft conversion), brings in a whole load of extra rules. 

 

Not sure removing doors will help, either speak to your architect or building control.

[kandgmitchell]

Not sure how removing the doors will improve the situation? Even a non-compliant closed door will hold back smoke within the living room for a short time. A three storey house requires a protected escape route for the upper floors. Those on the first floor in extremis could hang from the first floor windows and drop to the ground, those on the second floor can not and so need the security of being able to get down the stairs, hence the protected route. 

 

This is the requirement:

 

Loft conversions
2.21 Where a new storey is added through conversion to create a storey above 4.5m, both of the following should apply.
a. The full extent of the escape route should be addressed.
b. Fire resisting doors (minimum E 20) and partitions (minimum REI 30) should be provided, including upgrading the existing doors where necessary.

 

The glazed side panels will need to be addressed as they need to be 30 minute fire resistant as well.

 

Didn't your designer mention any of this?
 

[MortarThePoint]

On 31/01/2025 at 09:16, Pigsfoot said:

double set of glass doors from our hall and living room

 

A common problem I think. Glazed simple double doors are about £1500 I think and you may be looking at around £4000 to replace that photo with fire rated. I have only looked briefly and would be delighted to be wrong as I'm interested too.

 

I don't understand the logic, but you can't have the final exit of the protected route from 3rd level as a first floor egress window (unless you have a sprinkler/mist system). If you could do that it would save me needing to get a few thousand pounds worth of fire doors as I'd then only need one.

[ETC]

If you have a bungalow and are creating another storey upstairs then no problem.

 

If however it’s a two storey house and you’ve converted the roof into another storey creating a third storey then you’re in trouble-you need a protected staircase and all doors (apart from bathrooms) onto the protected corridor need to be fire rated.