certain type of special fire door needed

[TomU]

Where our electrical cupboard for the consumer unit and meter,etc is situated is directly under the stairs, but the door to it is only some rubbish chipboard painted white which wouldn't probably last a second in a fire.

And would block our only escape route(except for jumping out of the 1st floor windows) if a fire broke out in there.

Also I'm not sure if under the stairs themselves would need to be sprayed/coated with something fire retardant as well.

As I don't know how quickly they would burn in a fire;at least would take longer than the thin chipboard cupboard door.

And would the conducts of where the cables from the consumer unit go through the plasterboard up to the above floors need to be sealed with expanding fire-retardant foam or similar?

So what material or fire door would you suggest to suit a small cupboard?

15 mins at least delay time we would need, incase a fire broke out in the night whilst we were sleeping.

And could the door have something to stop the smoke escaping or getting too thick, so we couldn't see to get out.

Thanks

[Tom Sutton]

You can purchase laminated fire resisting panels with instructions how to construct a fire door, check out http://www.buildingd...News-171110.asp I have no experience of this product but it may be worth a punt. You also may be able to fix smoke and intumescent seals to the fire door to increase its fire resistance and reduce the amount of smoke escaping.

If the underside of the stairs is covered in plaster board and skimmed also with brick or studding walls, then it should achieve at least 15 minute if not more depending on the fire loading in the cupboard. Reduce the junk under the stairs to as small as possible.

Any holes through the plaster board should be sealed and what to use, would depend on the size of the hole.