Regulation re fire safe glass in fire doors

[Guest EmmaBou]

Hi i'm trying to find out exactly when the regulations came in that fire safety glass has to be used on glass doors onto fire exit staircases and also if there is a wooden set of doors with glass above does it have to be fire safe glass? Can you help? Many thanks

[Tom Sutton]

It sound like these doors onto fire exit staircases are fire resisting fire doors and any glass used need to be fire resisting glass. Safety glass is something different and glass can be a fragile and potentially dangerous material, with the possibility of serious damage or injury if broken. Legislation dictates that glass in certain locations must be of a minimum safety standard, Safety glass works by ensuring that if glass breaks, it does so in a safe manner. If untreated or standard glazing breaks, the shards fall away from the frame creating an immediate and dangerous hazard. It’s a legal requirement that glass of a certain size and in certain locations needs to meet safety standards. The exact standard is set out in Building Regulations Approved Document K, (check out below).

It has all ways been that any glazing in fire doors must be fire resisting glazing to the same standard as the fire door. Consequently any doors that need to be fire doors require to be fitted with fire resisting glazing.

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/approveddocuments/partk/