Tom Sutton

A fully certificated fire door is tested as a door set, which is the door and frame. Any other arrangements are known as a nominal fire doors which can be a so called fire door fitted into an existing frame, an upgraded door using fire proofing material or intumescent paint or paper, which can be acceptable in certain situations. It all depends on what the enforcing authority will accept, all will accept a certificated fire door set, and most will accept nominal fire doors, providing they are well fitting and acceptable in the particular situation and carrying documentation proving its fire resistance.

All the freeholders/owners are the Responsible Person as defined by The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and have a duty to conduct a fire risk assessment but assuming you do not employ five or more persons then the FRA does not have to be recorded unless you decide to. If you decide not to record the FRA I am not sure what you can give to the solicitors. You can do the FRA yourselves or employ a fire risk assessor if so check out A Guide to Choosing a Competent Fire Risk Assessor the guidance for your premises is FIRE SAFETY Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of existing housing also https://www.firesafe.org.uk could be useful. I know nothing about asbestos surveys I would suggest you surf the web for information on this subject.

Further to what AB has said intumescent paints and papers are very susceptible to damage, especially in the domestic situation, consequently they would need checking more frequently than full FD30s doors, access to flats would not be easy and an addition cost.

Why do they need a wheelchair walker, can't they use their wheelchairs assisted by a member of staff and refuges?

It all depends on the level of light, when you switch off all the normal lighting, preferably during the hours when natural light is the lowest in your premises, and if the level of light enables you to find the door safely and able to travel along escape routes, then you do not need it, if you find any difficulties, you need emergency exit lighting. Push pad/push bars are only required when large numbers, in excess of about 60 persons, which is generally is considered there may be a problem opening the door in an emergency. Most shops I go in, the latch on the main entrance doors are held open and all you have to do is push or pull it to open, in that situation there is no problems, again if it is inward opening then the exit is limited to 60 persons..

Final exit doors. in most cases, do not need to be fire resisting only if an external means of escape passes the door and you could not move away from it, if fire was emerging, for example external doors opening onto a external fire staircase. You do not say what your property is, if it is flats, then the final exit doors from any flats into the common areas do need to be FD30s doors, but what you have said it most probably would not be necessary.

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There are no legal barriers to reentering building on fire IMO but not a wise one, there should be a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) for each wheelchair user and the member of staff and the wheelchair user leave together. If there are more wheelchairs than staff then move all the wheelchairs to a protected refuge near a final exit then move them outside when all have been accounted for.

Not being a business you are not subject to the regulations but i believe you have a moral duty to inform the recipient that the items of upholstered furniture does not carry a permanent label and allow him/her to decide but if it was me I would send it to the tip. Check out Fire safety of furniture and furnishings in the home - A Guide to the UK Regulations.

The 1992 approved document B (fire safety) was clear and front doors should be FD30S providing it did not exceed 7.5 m to the staircase, in this case the front door will open into the staircase, so the conversion should have met those conditions in 2001. It would have come to light when the premises where audited after 2006, however there were limited audits and high risk premises was audited first, unless it came to the attention of the fire service as the result of a fire. If the fire service found serious problems then prosecutions were initiated but in most situations the responsible person was given sufficient time to put things right. Now the guide used for this type of premises is FIRE SAFETY Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of existing housing and require fire resisting front doors.

There is no frequency laid down for reviewing the fire risk assessment and The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 article 9 states, any such assessment must be reviewed by the responsible person regularly so as to keep it up to date and particularly if, there is reason to suspect that it is no longer valid or there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates including when the premises, special, technical and organisational measures, or organisation of the work undergo significant changes, extensions, or conversions, and where changes to an assessment are required as a result of any such review, the responsible person must make them. Consequently everybody has their own idea on the frequency but twelve months is a common period. Under the same article it says, as soon as practicable after the assessment is made or reviewed, the responsible person must record the information prescribed by paragraph (7) where he employs five or more employees, and I suspect you do not employ anybody therefore you do not need to record the FRA however sometimes it is useful to have a written document to hand to those who may pester you for one but there is no legal requirement. In your premises the appropriate guidance is FIRE SAFETY Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of existing housing and if you check out page 46 you will get a summary of what you need to do which can be clarified by studying the rest of the guide.

Kings Cross was an entirely different situation and the same risks would not apply to this situation, but what is being proposed is not acceptable. The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 article 8 lays a duty on the Responsible Person to take such "general fire precautions" as will ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of any of his employees or relevant persons. The "general fire precautions" are explained in article 4 which says (a) measures to reduce the risk of fire on the premises and the risk of the spread of fire on the premises. Adding combustibles in an area where there is is a likely source of ignition would be contrary to those articles and a cupboard holding electric equipment should not be used for storage of combustible items, as you have already explained above.

Windows opening onto common escape route need to be fire resistance and would be fitted with FR glazing and all windows fixed shut. If it is not FR glazing, then fitting a cat flap is not going to jeopardize fire safety but it could be against the tenants agreement.

Further to the above in my opinion the hinges you speak of, seems to have met the standards at the time they were installed and do not require changing unless a new fire door set is fitted.

Single Axis Hinges Hinges and latches have an important role in ensuring the integrity of the door. The fire door hinges must remain adequately attached, in spite of the charring of wood in the vicinity. It is common to use three hinges although tests have shown that with some doors two hinges may be adequate for a 30 minute fire door (FD30). Steel and brass hinges are effective for a half-hour door, but only steel hinges will be satisfactory for a 60 minute fire door (FD60). For the latter, it may be necessary to use hinges with extended flaps (broad butts) so that fixing is maintained even when severe charring has taken place. BS EN 1935: 2002: Building Hardware Single Axis Hinges is the current European standard for single axis hinges and being able to understand the CE markings, provided when purchasing hinges, is of some importance. Guide to Interpreting Markings for Single Axis Hinges. CE and BS marking simple tells you the the hinge has passed BS EN 1935 and may be suitable for fire doors, you need the documentation to decide if the they are suitable for fire doors by checking the coding system.

I assume we are talking about steel hinges and in the 1980,s they did not need to be BS or CE marked but if new hinges need to be fitted, then they should meet the modern day standards.

I am assuming you are using the DCLG guide for offices and shops. The travel distances are based on an arbitrary time, accepted by most as 2.5 minutes and in that time 200 will have reached safety, allowing others to fill the staircase which provides 30 minutes of comparative safety. So it all depends on the capacity of the staircase, which if it is two hundred persons then as first stair full reaches safety the remainder will be filling the staircase, so they will all be in the staircase, a place of comparative safety within approx 2.5 minutes. So you need to consider the capacity of the staircase and if it falls short then you may have to consider a two stage alarm.

Depends how he sectioned off the garage from the house, if the partition and ceiling meets a 30 minutes fire resistance between the garage from the house then my interpretation would be the door could be changed, if not then the door should remain. If you cannot achieve this you could use fire resistant glazing in the fire door. You should speak to building control as they are the enforcing authority and you may require approval.

I cannot advise if the means of escape is satisfactory without a full survey but only escape routes/stairs that lead to a place of safety should be signed with fire exit signs because when you enter the staircase you should remain in a protected route until you reach ultimate safety.

I would suggest you contact Envirograf who are the top men in this field also I know they have a primer that can be used on wax finished wood but no mention of hard wax oil.

The guidance for this type of premises is FIRE SAFETY Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of existing housing and you have not given sufficient information to establish where your premises falls within the guide. What I can say a roof ladder would not be acceptable and there should be protected route from each floor level to the final exit. (front door)

If you have a category A,B, or C fire alarm the door lock will be linked to a fire alarm system but you still need a manual override and also you will need the means of opening the door during normal time. You could have a "push to exit" button fitted with a plastic cover which you need to lift up before you can press the button which could be sufficient to prevent your aunt from operating the button? The plastic cover is designed for manual call points but if you can get a "push to exit" button the same size then it could work.

Check out The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 all the information is in those regulations. Does the premise conform to FIRE SAFETY Guidance on fire safety provisions for certain types of existing housing which is the guidance for this type of premises.

Was he an operational bod or a fire safety officer either way that's his assessment but I would get in writing before you consider acting on it.

You need to seek British Gypsum guidance (White Book) check out http://www.british-gypsum.com/products/gyproc-fireline?tab0=2. What yo are trying to do, is make do and mend, the only way to get a definitive answer, is to rip off the old and replace it with a new, BG will provide the guidance. Have you spoken to Building Control?