Double living room doors in a 2 storey house

[Guest Chris]

Hi. I have a 2 storey house which has double doors between the living room and the stairwell, which leads to the final exit. One door has a plain edge, the other has an intumescent strip with a smoke seal. This seal makes it quite difficult to close the door and it invariably makes a loud noise when closing.

If I remove the smoke seal, the gap between the doors is 4mm. Is this safe or should I leave the seal in place?

[Neil ashdown]

Are the doors meant to be fire resisting doors?  Is the final exit a dedicated escape door? These are unusual for a house, is it an HMO?

[Guest Chris]

Hi Neil

Thanks for your reply. It's just a normal 2 storey house (3 years old) occupied by one family. The builder told me it has to have fire doors to the lounge and kitchen because the upstairs windows don't meet the requirements for escape windows (the bottom of the opening is more than 1m above floor level).

Chris

[Neil ashdown]

Here are the building regulations for fire doors in housing  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/937931/ADB_Vol1_Dwellings_2019_edition_inc_2020_amendments.pdf

Appendix C Fire Doors:

From what you say 11b would apply, FD20 fire door without restricted smoke spread protection to the stairway.  In which case if you do remove the smoke seal, the doors will fail to provide 'restricted spread of cold smoke' to the protected escape route but still comply with regs.

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Neil ashdown
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