Internal Fire Doors

Django x2

Django x2

Django x2

Soldato
Joined
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Britain
Hi all,

Can anyone confirm my thoughts.

Mid terrace 3 storey town house built in 1998. Regs at the time suggest that any property over two floors would require self closing fire doors.

It appears that this has been relaxed now to just "fire doors", ie, they don't have to be self closing.

We are replacing all the doors inside the house already to the tune of £1k not including waxing and fitting (or hardware) but if we need firedoors, this will be much closer to £2k.

What are the specifics. The door we like comes in both flavours (non fire door and fire door) but the burn rating seems to be absent. Being Oak, I would think a normal door would suffice.

Obviously, fire doors are thicker so the door jambs and shuts that are there might be misaligned if we go for non fire doors.

Thoughts?
 
You can fit any doors you like to the inside of your house, the regulations only come into effect if you are selling the house or letting it out. if you put your original doors into storage and decide to sell later on you can circumvent the regs by putting the original doors back on but for you living in your own home the regs do not apply for day to day living, fit what you like :)
 
They don't need to be fitted with self closers any more, this was relaxed a while ago (we've just had our loft conversion signed off by building control).
 
Django x2 said:
I would have assumed that my home insurance would have something to say if they were found not to be fire doors....
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not really ... the thing to remember is that a fire door does NOT prevent the spread of a fire ... the doors actually have a fire rating and that rating is the number of minutes it takes for a fire to get through the door... the norm is a fire rating of 30 which is to provide you with a 30 minute fire free escape route. When you add things like intumescent strips and smoke brushes etc these are designed to swell up on contact with heat and seal the door shut preventing smoke until the fire breaks through it, IMO kind of stupid putting something that swells and seals a fire door shut when its your escape route lol.
 
Toadem said:
IMO kind of stupid putting something that swells and seals a fire door shut when its your escape route lol.
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If the seal has swelled then trying to go through that door is not going to be a good idea :D

Fire doors to be used in conjunction with a rope ladder I think
 
I'd not risk not putting them in, it's a reg that's there for a reason.

Apart from insurance implications you never know what's round the corner eg selling if you need to quick, renting it out, selling it to someone who wants to let it out.

Storing the original doors is a silly suggestion.
 
Toadem said:
kind of stupid putting something that swells and seals a fire door shut when its your escape route lol.
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The smoke seals and intumescent strips only provide a smoke and fire seal. They won't hold the door closed.

If you open a door where they've activated, they'll break away and probably won't seal again.
 
It appears you need fire doors (inc strips) only on the escape route in your instance. As for self closers, i wasn't aware they were in the regs for houses, only flats surely?
I would appreciate it if someone could confirm that because i have a fire door and going to mount it as the internal garage door when i convert it make from a room to a garage.
 
Well, thats the odd thing. We had a flat prior to this. They weren't self closing or fire doors and this was a 3 storey timber framed building. The only substantial door was the front door (to the flat).

All I know (from what I've read) is that up to or around 2004, buildings with 3 or more storeys must have self closing fire doors. This was then relaxed to just fire doors (ie, not self closing).
 
Django x2 said:
Well, thats the odd thing. We had a flat prior to this. They weren't self closing or fire doors and this was a 3 storey timber framed building. The only substantial door was the front door (to the flat).

All I know (from what I've read) is that up to or around 2004, buildings with 3 or more storeys must have self closing fire doors. This was then relaxed to just fire doors (ie, not self closing).
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Your flat front door would have been an 1 hrs fire resistance as its the main entrance to the means of escape (protected zone).
 
pitchfork said:
Wouldn't worry about regs, I've rented Victorian properties with the original doors.

I don't think it's really that strict.
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May be different in England but my parents flat in Edinburgh has basically been gutted multiple times to meet fire inspection code. First tasks was covering doors with fireproof materials which look hideous, then a few years later they had to be replaced with proper fire doors, then the kitchen door had to be replaced with a non wooden self-closing fire door. Then windows had to be replaced to allow quick emergency exits.

It's getting to th stage where they will probably next want to rip up the wooden floor and put a slab of concrete down. It's ridiculous. Every year they change the rules which requires thousands of pounds of changes just together some stupid forms signed off.
 
D.P. said:
May be different in England but my parents flat in Edinburgh has basically been gutted multiple times to meet fire inspection code. First tasks was covering doors with fireproof materials which look hideous, then a few years later they had to be replaced with proper fire doors, then the kitchen door had to be replaced with a non wooden self-closing fire door. Then windows had to be replaced to allow quick emergency exits.

It's getting to th stage where they will probably next want to rip up the wooden floor and put a slab of concrete down. It's ridiculous. Every year they change the rules which requires thousands of pounds of changes just together some stupid forms signed off.
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Might as well ignore the rules, I've never lived in a house that was up to modern building codes and I've never felt the need to.
 
pitchfork said:
Might as well ignore the rules, I've never lived in a house that was up to modern building codes and I've never felt the need to.
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Except every year you have inspectors come around and if you don't pass their arbitrary rules thn you can't rent out the property. If you aren't up to standard then they will come around in 2-3months time and inspect again to see if you have done the changes, if not you get large fines and the tenants can be rehoused at your cost .
 
D.P. said:
Except every year you have inspectors come around and if you don't pass their arbitrary rules thn you can't rent out the property. If you aren't up to standard then they will come around in 2-3months time and inspect again to see if you have done the changes, if not you get large fines and the tenants can be rehoused at your cost .
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The regs only apply to tenanted properties, houses for sale and any new builds after a certain year. new builds have to be fitted with self closing fire doors to provide a safe 30 minute fire evacuation route, every other house can be resold with the original doors because properties built prior to 2004 (I cant remember the exact date) are exempt from this reg as long as the house is not classed as a multiple occupancy house so it cannot be let out to tenants unless it conforms to the regs, as for your own home- do whatever you like while you are living there because you do not have to conform to these regs.
The same reg also applies to existing glass doors, the property cannot be sold or let out with glass doors or panels unless they carry the BS kite mark, any doors or panels without this have to be replaced or removed before the property will conform to building regs for being sold or tenanted.
This is ofc in Scotland but to my knowledge the regs do not change significantly for England. You will get local councils and authorities who insist on other items but they do not apply to private dwellings.
 
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