DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Good Afternoon All...

Need some advice from the experts please..... recently bought a new 5 bedroom house which is built over 3 floors which is essentially a 2 storey property with a loft conversion, the property is fitted with fire doors and self closers to all floors, the developer has told me that when the plans were approved it was a requirement that these FD's be fitted.
They have subsequently told me 'unofficially' that the building regs have changed recently and they are now NOT required!
Can anyone shed any light on this for me?

Many thanks...
HH :?

Hello
In the area i am mostly working in still requires these door closures to be fitted when a loft conversion had been completed. But i do know of other areas which don't. It appears to be a local choice.
The best thing to do is phone the building inspector for your area. DO NOT remove these until you have had the clear as it will void your house insurance if they are removed when they should be still fitted.
Hope you don't need them as they are a flipping pain :D

heavyhand

In residential dwellings where there is an internal floor higher than 4.5m above external ground level, a safe passage is required from the highest habitable room to a safe point of exit. This is most commpnly the stairwell and will have fire doors with automatic closers on all habitable room and kitchen doors.

The last change to the building regs (part B) came into effect on 7 April 2007. There have been no further recent part B (which includes means of escape and fire protection) and therfore the requirement still exists.

Hope this helps

LCL

Just to keep people informed. I have done 2 jobs this week 4 doors apart from each other both have had loft conversions and both required fire doors fitting. One house i didn't have to fir door closures and the other i did. 2 different building inspectors from the same local office. If you are having this work done please contact the actual building inspector who will be passing the conversion.

Since the April 2007 changes to Part B, only fire doors between an integral garage and a dwelling need to be fitted with fire doors. All other doors in a 3 storey property do not need to have self closing devices fitted but the door must be a minimum of a FD20 fire door. In a loft conversion to create a 3 storey property all of the existing non-fire doors do need to be changes to fire doors unless it can be proven that they provide a minimum of 20 minutes fire resistance.

This is the statement off the planning portal website with regards to the 2007 changes to Part B -

[i]Appendix B

l) Self-Closing Devices: Other than doors between a dwellinghouse and an integral garage, fire doors need not be provided with self closing devices.[/i]

Your right doesn't need them. But had building inspector once who insisted he had part p electrical cert off sparky, even though it wasn't required at the time. So instead he made me take plasterboards off so he could check insulation to be arkward. I didn't mind as i screwed them in. When he seen all the walls were ok he then decided i had to remove a wall that had been plastered that morning only wall he hadn't checked :evil: and when i say a wall i mean the whole wall had to be removed. So now if they want, they get....can't be bothered arguing with them its not worth the hassle.