New building and fire regulations
Under existing building & fire regulations, loft conversion companies are responsible for the following work around the house to satisfy the authority.
This list relates to work not in the loft area itself.
1. All doors to habitable rooms that lead off the stairwell, must have self closing mechanisms (usually the Purco closer) these are very discreet and hidden within the hinge side of the door.
2. Supply and install mains operated interlinked smoke detectors, one on every level of the house. In a standard two storey house where the loft conversion will create a third floor, one detector is needed at ground floor (usually near to entrance door), one at the existing first floor (usually at exit of existing first stair flight) and one at new second floor, again usually at exit of new second flight loft stair.
3. If any door leading off the stairwell is glass panelled, this door must be replaced with a fire door. If any door on existing floor levels is to be repositioned in any way, however slight the alteration, this must be replaced with a fire door. Remaining doors untouched or unglazed can stay intact.
4. Some authorities insist on carbon monoxide detectors within the kitchen (at present is at the discretion of each building control).
At Luxus Lofts we include all of the above within our quotations.
As from April 7th 2007 the following changes will be necessary.
1. All doors to habitable rooms & door frames will be changed to fire doors housed within fire door frames. It is sometimes possible to upgrade an existing door frame to accept a fire door, however this can not be guaranteed, if a new fire door frame is required then please be aware of disruption to decor around.
2. The existing floor / ceiling structure dividing the ground floor from the first floor may have to be upgraded to 30min fire protection. This basically means following inspection of this structure it may become apparent that there is insufficient or no fire protection between, we may need to install a fire barrier in the way of glass fibre in between. This part of the new legislation will be extremely difficult to inspect due to the necessity to remove carpets and floor boards, or ceiling plaster boards from below. However we believe this can be achieved by over boarding ceilings with fire rated plaster board then re-skimming. Please be aware of disruption to décor here.
3. The supply and installation of smoke detectors remains.
4. Obviously the removal of glazed doors will taken care of by the installation of new fire doors.
At present these works and associated costs are excluded from quotations
Download full regulations in PDF format
(1.87Mb file. Free Adobe Reader required)
If you would like a free, no-obligation survey and quotation, please feel free to contact us. For a free site survey and quotation telephone free on 0844 800 4165.
© 2007 Luxus Loft Conversions. All rights reserved.