Tom Sutton

It depend on the results of the Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) If a FD30s door was required, and as it is in excess of 3/4 mm then cold smoke seal should be fitted but assuming they are purpose built flats then substantial well fitting fire door could have been accepted. The stay put policy you spoke of is 60 mins, 30 mins to burn out of the room of origin, then 30 mins to burn through into your flat, total of 60 mins, even more if it has to come via the staircase enclosure which is considered sufficient time for the FRS to attend and extinguisher the fire. If you feel concerned you could fit a draught excluder which should do the same job by holding back any cold smoke.

I know nothing about the asbestos regulations you will need to talk to Environmental Health. As far as the The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is concerned, as freeholders you are all designated Responsible Persons (RP) and do you have a committee to run the common areas. This committee or management company if you have one is required to conduct a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) in the common areas to decide what is required. The flats are the responsibility of the occupiers and not subject to the RR(FS)O, unless items in the flat are required to protect the common areas, like a FD30s front door and/or a heat detector linked into the common area fire alarm. The recommendations for a fire alarm in domestic premises is a grade D which is a smoke alarm wired into the domestic electric supply with battery backup and interlinked if more than one is required.

The windows would not have to be FR providing the cill does not come below 1.1 m from the floor, so persons can duck under the window and most windows meet this criteria.

Only a grade F smoke alarm will not have a LED all mains fed smoke alarms will, as indicated by green-foam above, also the Grade D, mains fed smoke alarms are the recommended ones.

What is 30 mm thick the door or the frame and what is the 4mm allowed in the specs. You can buy bespoke doors sets, you can upgrade the existing doors and buy fire door blanks to make fire doors sets to a global assessment. You need to discuss your problem with the building control officer or the authorised inspector and get their views. Check out http://www.buildingcontrolalliance.org/download/4-bca-loft-conv-tech-note-4-rev-1-pdf/ although for loft conversions it may apply to you.

No is does not require to be fire retardant and speak to the person requiring the repaint to see if they would accept any light coloured paint, then you could use the green or yellow fluorescent paint.

If the emergency escape lighting is a self contained unit, then the LED is to indicate that the electric supply is available to the luminaire to charge the the battery. It is the maintenance and testing that will ensure that the EL will work in an event of a power cut/fire.

You need to give more information, you are the owner occupier is it freehold, because this would make you a Responsible Person under The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 . They could be talking about The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 and they are quoting L3 fire alarms which are for commercial premises not domestic. You need to be more precise what they have said to enable me to give you a reasonable response.

I fire alarm will not prevent a fire occurring but will warn you a fire has occurred and you can take the necessary action, including getting out the house to a place of safety. It is fire prevention that stop fires and if you had cleaned up the drops of oil a fire would not occurred, there are many other fire preventions steps you can take to make your house safe from fire. However you do need a fire alarm for the reason stated above and it depends on the layout of your premises how sophisticated it needs to be, check it out with safelincs. http://www.safelincs.co.uk/smoke-alarms/

Ron read AB last sentence it is all about risk assessment it is the risk assessor who decides what should and should not be used, the guides and BS's are for guidance.

Are you talking about lead lights (stained glass window) because the lead would not last 10 minutes in a test. If you are talking about creating designs on the FRG with glued strips of lead then I cannot see it being detrimental to the fire resistance of the FRG.

Those standards indicate it meets a fire resistance standard but not controlling cold smoke which may be required for the front door of flats ,leading to the common areas.

The rule of thumb says were the numbers escaping is less than sixty then inward opening doors are acceptable and removing the inner porch is not going the affect the fire safety of the premises. What may apply is Building Regulations so you need to contact the local building control.

It is not illegal to use the emergency exit door as normal service door they are like any other exit doors but because they usually are not used regularly they have signs to indicate a way to safety. All doors used for means of escape should be easy to open without a key and if there was a chance of a panic situation those doors should be fitted with panic bars or latches.

No prob.

I can give you the official cad symbols at http://www.firesafe.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/docs/fra_temp.doc but what you are looking for is non standard icons. I do not have Acad anymore but you obviously do, check out Fire-Evac.dwg ‏711 KB may help?

Surf the web there are lots of FRA formats out there or try http://www.firesafe.org.uk/fire-risk-assessment/ which includes an FRA template you could ammend. http://www.firesafe.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/docs/fra_temp.doc

Further to what AB has said the purpose of the fire resistance between the garage and the house is to prevent a fire in the garage spreading to your house and affecting your means of escape. I would ask the seller to bring the fire door (FD30s S/C) and the breech of the fire resisting wall up to current building standards or ask for a reduction in price so you can.

It is all about fire risk assessment, what are the chances of any equipment in the bathroom starting a fire and if a fire starts how severe is the chances of it developing. If the bathroom is occupied and a fire starts then there will be an immediate response allowing the residents to get to the adjacent zone. When the bathroom is unoccupied is there any electrical equipment without an isolation switch on the outside of the bathroom, is the electric supply protected with a RCD, the location of the bathroom in relationship to the means of escape and what is the fire loading in the bathroom. In the above situation, as there will always be a possibility of a fire, then I think a heat detector could be fitted but as to the need for a FD30s would depend on the assessment.

I would need to know a lot more information to decide if the the means of escape (MoE) is satisfactory, like is there an alternative MoE, but certainly all the doors to the hall would need to be Fire Doors.(FD) The problem with fire resisting glazing (FRG) is you must consider the radiated heat which may prevent you passing the door to escape so it must not be installed below 1.2m from the floor level or Pilkington Pyrostop is fitted, also you need to have specialist knowledge the fit FRG. Surf the web for bespoke fire door frames and check our glazed fire resistant fire doors also check out http://www.ggf.org.uk/group/fire-resistant-glazing-group. With regards to self-closers check out https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/441669/BR_PDF_AD_B2_2013.pdf page 132 item 2.

I doubt if there is any guidelines but I am not sure if it is you who should arrange the access I think it should be up to the the person who commission the service (owner/landlord/managing agent) who should make the necessary arrangements. They could make it a conditions of the tenants agreement and it could be argued that the tenant is in breach of article 5.3 and article 17 of The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. What I would do is make sure the log book or any report fully documented that access could not be gained and the equipment not tested.

Not having the full information it is difficult to give a detailed response but the following may help a little. 1. How do fire suppression systems work? It is a series of fixed pipes in the room to be protected and if a fire starts it actuates the system releasing the fire extinguishing medium automatically extinguishing the fire. 2. Is it a legal requirement that you have to have a fire suppression system? Depends on the purpose of the system if it is designed to protect life by securing the means of escape then it is likely to be a legal requirement. If it is for property protection then that is a decision of the management. 3. What effect can a fire suppression system have on a building (especially those of a prefabricated structure than a brick and block structure)? Depends on the type of extinguishing medium but whichever one is used it is going to be less detrimental than that caused by a fire. 4. Can it be more dangerous to have a suppression system in this type of structures? Without having a lot more information on the structure and the system, it’s impossible to give an informed reply. 5. I see you can get fire suppression systems incorporated into racking, does anyone have any experience of these and are these recommended? These are usually sprinkler systems and are designed for high bay racking warehouses and most probably would not be suitable for your premises but there may be other fire suppression systems that use a similar idea. 6. Is it recommended that server rooms have direct access out to an external area? I cannot see any reason why to would need direct access out to an external area other than moving large equipment in or out of the room but this would depend on the findings of the Fire Risk Assessment and the consideration of the mamagement.

I cannot give a definitive answer without a physical survey. Loaves of bread on plastic trays is not going to be a serious fire hazard it is more likely to be an obstruction problem. Providing it is well managed and the fire alarm call point is not obstructed then it should be acceptable. I would need to considered the floor hatching as it purpose is to indicate this area should be kept clear and it appears that is not the case.

Depends if an alternate means of escape is required, and the premises needs a fire risk assessment, to establish what is required and what is not.

Further consideration the cold smoke seal (brush) should come in contact with the door frame rebate but the intumescent seal should not and should be level with the door edge giving a 3mm gap +/- 1 mm gap. Looking at the images if the intumescent seal is touching the door frame, then it is likely to chip as the adhesion of the paint to the seal may not be as good as to the wood.