Building a Home Renovating Design Dilemma

Fire doors and loft conversions

3 years ago

Hello, does anyone have experience of loft conversions and what had to be done regards doors elsewhere in the property? We have a 3 bed 1930's semi with pretty standard layout. ground floor kitchen diner and front door open onto the hallway and upstairs three bedrooms and the bathroom onto the landing. access to the loft would extend from this landing. the property was recently rewired so complies with modern regs and has hard wired fire alarms in the hallway and landing. would all doors to the hall and landing required upgrading to fire doors? Are there any alternatives such as special coatings or windows allowing escape onto the roof of the ground floor extension maybe?

Comments (3)

Sarah L
3 years ago
I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure only the loft conversion will need a fire door.
K V
3 years ago
Hi, we've just completed ours. Loft needed fire doors, along with the downstairs hallway, as basically there needs to be a protected escape passage from the loft. We also needed hard wired alarms in every habitable room which meant all bedrooms as well as open plan kitchen. I'd check with your council building control to confirm whats exactly required.
Related Discussions
Loft Conversion Layout (Hip to Gable 1930s house)
Q
Comments (8)
We looked at it briefly - I think you need to get the head height for the shower and it really depends on the apex of your roof. I don't think ours was steep enough for it to work without eating into the bedroom space more than we would have liked.
...See More
Loft Conversion - Two Floor Bedroom
Q
Comments (4)
We used to have something similar - we’re in a Victorian terrace that had a very old attic conversion when we bought it. The stairs were off the middle bedroom - the landing wasn’t altered in any way. The door to the middle bedroom was taken off (architrave remained in tact) - you walked through this gap and turned immediately 90 degrees to go up the stairs (the stairs ran along the bedroom wall). A new doorway was built immediately in front of the old one to preserve the bedroom (you wouldn’t need that in your plan!) The bedroom is quite big, so still felt quite spacious. My sons bed (an Ikea mid height thing) used to go under the stairs quite comfortably. A few years ago, we moved the stairs to come off the landing. The reason we did this was because the stairs off the bedroom effectively ran up the middle of the house - it meant that the attic conversion was two rooms. By moving the staircase to the landing and running them above the main staircase, we now have a large attic master bedroom and en-suite. It’s a much more usable space.
...See More
Fire doors regs when living through a loft conversion
Q
Comments (2)
Lol. Never heard that before. Ignore your builder. He's talking nonsense. Who would stop you from living in your own house? The police? Lots of people choose to live in their own houses during renovations. Loft or otherwise. It is up to you to decide what is safe for you and your family.
...See More
French doors and Balustrade Loft conversion advice needed urgently
Q
Comments (4)
I think that is called a Juilet balcony. I would assume the doors have to be fitted first to allow full access to them but I am not an expert.
...See More
Martin
3 years ago
Just doing ours now, despite being told that by going through a private building control company we could keep our doors and get away with interlinked alarms upon the inspector visiting last week they said we had to upgrade to fire doors to all habitable rooms and under the stairs which houses the electrics. Given what we were told I suspect some inspectors may overlook it, I've read others have used sprinkler/mist systems but you'd need to speak to your inspector to see what they would accept

Fire doors and loft conversions

Comments (3)

Sarah L

K V

Related Discussions

Martin

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US