What makes a door external grade?

Apologies, I did not notice the doors section when I originally posted this

I have just had a conservatory built, and need to put an external door between it and the house to be exempt from Building Regulations.

I would like the door to match the internal doors as far as possible, and someone has suggested using an FD30 fire door fitted with safety glass.

These doors actually show as being for internal use, but the fitter's view is that the 44mm thickness, combined with the safety glass is enough for them to qualify as external grade.

Is this correct?

Also, I assume that I will need BC sign off as these are effectively external doors?

I don't know the answer to your question regarding grade, but from another point of view...If you were to suffer a break-in from the conservatory via the 'internal' doors, it would give the Insurance company a simple get out clause, and you know they don't need much.

Therefore, with that in mind, I would make sure the manufacturer classes them as external grade rather than the fitter.

I belive you will need BCO sign-off as you are replacing external doors, in which case they might not even pass his scrutiny let alone the Insurance Co.

BC want "external grade" so that the house will be no worse off than it was before the conservatory was built - ie no more heat going out as it would if you just fitted a hardboard internal door as a token gesture.

A fire door will be sufficient in this situation

It does not have to take any weather, so it does not need to be true external grade, but merely as thick as an external door

Good point about the security though

The thing is, you could fit the most insulated doors in the world, but its irrelevant if you just leave them open all year - or perish the thought take them off when the BCO has signed the work off