Eric90

Hi, visited a small industrial unit office accommodation and mezzanine to the front of the building, warehouse / workshop to the rest of the unit L3 detection. There is a caravan sited in the workshop and when questioned a member of staff (as there was a mat and shoes by the door and obviously not just stored for the winter!) they replied "it is used for engineers to sleep in if they get home late after call-outs but not often". Just need to know where / what I can look to quote regarding the issues that this poses as other vehicles are stored in there along with fuel etc! 😮

Hi, visited a site, doctors surgery yesterday and it was identified on the last risk assessment that the fire doors has single chain perco and that they should be replaced with overhead door closers. They have installed the overhead door closer this but just unscrewed the retaining bracket on the old perco, leaving the door frame requiring remedial works. Would it be acceptable to reinstall the perco or would the two closing devices conflict in any way?

Hi I have a two storey office block with an electrical cupboard on the ground floor housing the mains intake and distribution board, the cupboard is not fire rated and the cables go up through the suspended ceiling and into the void above with some penetrating the concrete first floor, obviously these will require fire stopping. Can the "ceiling" to the cupboard be constructed with fire rated plasterboard and mastic the sides etc along with upgrading the existing cupboard construction?

Thanks Anthony.

Two fire doors within a two storey building were fitted a number of years ago, a recent fra found these doors had the top edge taken off exposing the core. Am I right in saying that these need replacing as works to add a hardwood strip are not permissable which is what the clients deems is an acceptable solution!

Independent living accommodation , residents bedroom doors have yale locks fitted so therefore can be locked from the inside, when queried the care provider their response was "well they haven't locked themselves in yet" (the client group are physically/mentally impaired) surely if they are required to be locked when the resident is out or on holiday then that's fine but they should be able to be opened in the event of an emergency without the fear of it being locked by a confused resident? Thanks

Thanks Mike, 👍

Thanks Anthony, wow think that would be too costly! Will recommend replacing door 🙂

I know this was posted a little while ago, wouldn't the cable penetrations into the flat require fire stopping too?

Hi Rahel, Yes thanks for that I have used your products in the past for this and was looking for something that specifically controls cold smoke? Many thanks

Hi I have a server room on the ground floor at the bottom of the stairs (two storey office) means of escape. Currently the door has a two metal grilles with nothing in between (just the hole 150mm x 150mm) no intumescent etc. Is there a cold smoke type of grille on the market? Many thanks in advance.

Hi a small industrial unit newly built 150 sq mtr no mezzanine. Main entrance door leads into a small office with a fire door leading off into the warehouse area and roller shutter door to front. Number of staff at any one time would be 2 in the office and installers collecting stock from the warehouse throughout the day (lpg FLT). EML fitted throughout but no fire alarm, if a fire occurred in the office no one in the warehouse would know and could potentially block off that escape route leaving the only exit once aware of any fire would be via the roller shutter which is not defined as a suitable means of escape. Without installing a full fire alarm system is there anything else that would be acceptable? Thanks in advance.

Hi Anthony, thanks for the reply. Yes I agree with the current set up it should be simultaneous evacuation, I am guessing that when it was built by the local authority it was a belt and braces decision to cover the whole site with a linked fire alarm system. I can only assume that when the flats where sold leasehold a number of years ago they decided to split the system in two without thinking about the ramifications further down the line. I am waiting for the managing agents FRA on the communal area and will also see if I can get a copy of the libraries FRA to see if there are any underlying issues as to why the alarm was installed in the way it has been. With the low risk in my opinion I would certainly look to remove the interlinked system between the flats as like you have said it doesn't add any additional benefits.

I was called out by an owner of a maisonette who rents his property out to have a look at the fire detection within the property and make recommendations. Firstly I am not 100% conversant with fire alarms to be honest. There are a row of 5 maisonettes above a single storey library, access is via a rea staircase onto an open deck. The property was purpose built no roof voids and full compartmentation between library and flats and between flats exists. All internal doors are original fire doors with intumescent strips and seals to frames and perko closers which work! When the property was built back in 1992 a full fire alarm system was installed linking both the library and the flats as a whole. Sometime back in 2010 the fire alarm was split into two panels one serving the library and one serving the flats with no communication of such to the leaseholders at the time. The flats still have the original manual call points by the front doors (can't understand why these were installed) smoke detection in each hall and heat in kitchen with bells which are linked to each flat so if one flat at the end of the row sets there alarm off all of the flats bells start ringing, no signal is sent to the library. Whilst if the alarm goes off in the library all the flats are alerted via their system. If the alarms go off in the flats at the moment one of the residents has access to the panel and can silence and reset which is a ludicrous position to be in as the useless managing agents of the flats are not clued up on what is required. Both systems are managed and serviced by two different providers which makes it difficult as no one talks to each other regarding the installations. From the information I have managed to gather so far the library system is managed by the council whilst the flats system is managed by the managing agent. The owner has been pursuing this for a number of years and getting nowhere, he has had some involvement with the local FRS but they don't appear to have offered any assistance or advice. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.