New office walls

[cmd]

Hi,

we are proposing changes to our warehouse and have had a few companies that have been in and all have different opinions on the fire design aspect and cost and we are conscious of naturally the price but also the risk of being non compliant.

Ive not been able to find anything specific on the forum and I've spent a good day scrolling through the building regs and I can't say Im 100% clear on what is required for fire door ratings and wall construction

Ive attached a diagram to aide my request.

-Building is a Distribution warehouse of automotive parts

- Approx area 5000sq m  50m x 100m mostly a single ground floor with and an existing upstairs office space above the area with is proposed to be new office space. 

- The existing offices are protected by a block wall with the floor being precast tensioned concrete slabs. 

- The building has a fire alarm NO Sprinkler system.

- There are 10 fire exits in the warehouse directly.

- The upstairs office have the main stairway and a protected stairway for mean of escape

- There is a maximum of 40 people in the warehouse at any one time

- The plan is to create 5 partitioned spaces 3 of which are to be office 1 changing room 1 break area.

- There  is to be a corridor so that none of these internal spaces open up directly to the warehouse area. the length of the corridor is 28.6m with a fire door at either end to prevent a dead end with the door at the end opening into the warehouse which will provide escape to the nearest exit 10 meters away.

 

What fire rating does the wall separating the warehouse from the new area have to be 30mins 60 mins ? and also what rating of fire door 

Does the wall between the offices and the corridor need to be fire rated?

Do the wall between the compartments need to be fire rated? 

Do the doors in to the compartments need to be of a 30 or 60 min rating?

There is to be a suspended ceiling for this whole area does this need to be fire rated?

 

My gut feeling from what I have read is that the wall separating the warehouse directly needs to be 60min along with the 60min glazed fire doors .

and the partition walls to the corridor and separating each compartment don't need to be fire rated nor does the ceiling

 

Thank you for any help you can provide

[cmd]

Additional diagram.

Also will the steel supports need to be enclosed with fire plaster board?  or would the wall simple be able to sit in between the steel columns?

[Mike North]

Have a look at inner rooms BR 2019 para 2.11, it may bring the cost down.

 

[AnthonyB]

What has Building Control said - have you submitted your plans yet for approval?

 

[cmd]

contacted the local building control

 said not required as not load bearing structures building control not required

[AnthonyB]

That's ticked one box then, your fire risk assessor should be your next port of call.

As the corridor is over 12m you would be looking at breaking it up with cross corridor fire doors although depending on travel distances to the protected stairs the whole corridor may not need protection.

[cmd]

Thanks for your guidance so far. 

We've already been on to our fire assessors but with the same old story of covid with people having to isolate act and being panic holiday season they are having to manage their work load and this sort of stuff gets pushed down the line.

Also trying to get information out of the landlord about the construction of the building is like trying to get blood out of a stone.

I've spend ages so far going through B regs and with you help I believe the wall between the storage and office area will be constructed as a Compartment wall the idea for simplicity was to build the compartmentation between and under the steel supports.

As I've been going through the regs is says a single story building is exempt from fire protection of structural columns unless its supporting a compartmented area which this does with the office area above, so is there any way I can tell if the structural steel in the photo provided is suitably fire protected with fire protetive paints? This is what I've asked the landlord for, or is I a matter of getting it tested?

Alternatively the option would be to extend the fire rated plaster board wall in front of the steel columns but this only complicates the installation and design as It would need to protect the horizontal as well as the vertical columns

any further guidance would be appreciated 

Thanks

Chris

[Tom Sutton]

You need the advice of a construction steel expert check out the ASFP https://asfp.org.uk/faqs/#built.

[cmd]

Thanks,

 

Been to a firm to get guidance on fire protection of the steel and seems like every question I had the issues me back with 2 of their own. most of which related to the landlord providing details.

[Tom Sutton]

Get a set of plans drawn up with your proposals then submit then to build control and sort it out with them.