Staircase Enclosure (Fire Regs)
Staircase Enclosure
A full staircase enclosure is needed from the new loft room/s, down to the front door to provide the first means of escape should a fire start in your house.
The stair enclosure is a major part of the fire regs, and to get all your building regulation certificates at the end of the build you will need the fire escape signed off by your inspector.
This enclosure is designed so if a fire happened there will be an escape from the new bedroom in the loft right down to the ground floor without going through any other living room that could be on fire.
If you have an open plan ground floor this will need enclosing to meet with all fire regulations.
There are 3 ways of doing this:
1. One way is to put a wall from the bottom of the stairs to the front door. As this is classed as part of the new building works being done to the house, the door into the lounge or kitchen (or where ever the wall has divided) this door will have to be a fire door normally called an FD20.
2. The second way is to put a temporary wall in to meet fire regulations and make it look like it’s permanent and then take it down once it’s been signed off by the inspector. I don’t agree with this solution as the reg’s are there for a reason but lot’s of people do take it down.
Please note that this could effect your home insurance and invalidate your policy so please do be careful.
Also when you sell your house and the survey is being done on your property it will come up as a major issue on your buyers report. This could affect the sale of the property as well.
3. The third way is to install a fire sprinkler system. It is a fantastic option but is the most expensive. If the stairs go up to the 1st floor in an area where you can’t really put a wall this may be the only option the Building control will allow you to do.
Please note that you cannot knock a wall down around the stairs making it open plan after applying for building regs approval. The Building control will only make you rebuild it which will just be a pain and a waste of money. I suggest that if you want to remove a wall between the stairs and a lounge or kitchen, you have your builders do this before involving the building control. You will have to make it look like its been like this for a while (a year or two) and then you should get away with this. You will still need to have fire sprinklers to pass the loft. If you try to ask for sprinklers when you have a perfectly good wall there already, it will ruin any chance you haveof having it removed in the future as your building control officer will now be aware.