Building Regulations Part B - Open plan and a Loft Extension

platforminc · 10 Apr 2019

Hi All.

I recently had the building regulations approval come through for my extension, albeit with a lot of conditions which I do not understand why, however the one that worries me is the open plan and loft extension.

Several ground floor plans have been provided, please sconfirm which is correct. Note: the
open plan layout will not be acceptable where a loft conversion is proposed unless
additional measures are provided to show compliance with Part B.

What happened here is that, I had to submit 3 planning applications.

6m single storey rear extension
Hip to gable loft extension
3.5m rear extension incorporating a porch and converting the garage to a habitable room

All the 3 planning applications were submitted at different times, and as such the building regulations work was split into 3 document but submitted under a single application.

Please ignore the conservatory part in the drawing below. The below is the first floor and also the proposed loft.

tony1851 · 10 Apr 2019

The plans you have shown are not open-plan type.
As such, all you need to do is to fit interlinked smoke alarms/detectors on each landing and the ground floor hall, plus fit fire doors to all habitable rooms opening on to the staircase enclosure;
OR, forget the fire doors and fit interlinked alarms in each room and landing.

^woody^ · 11 Apr 2019

How about just confirming to them which one "of the several" ground floor plans are correct?

Leofric · 11 Apr 2019

On the ground floor plan shown add an interlinked smoke detector to the entrance hall and a fire door to the dining room. What do building control say about egress (fire escape) windows

platforminc · 11 Apr 2019

tony1851 said:
The plans you have shown are not open-plan type.
As such, all you need to do is to fit interlinked smoke alarms/detectors on each landing and the ground floor hall, plus fit fire doors to all habitable rooms opening on to the staircase enclosure;
OR, forget the fire doors and fit interlinked alarms in each room and landing.

Thanks for this.
to be clear, it will be the 3 rooms on the first floor and also the door to the loft area that needs to be a fire door i.e FD 30. The plan is to then have 4 smoke alarms, as per what the architect has now put together. He has also put a fire door from the hallway leading into the extension. Please ignore the fact that this drawing shows an extension of 3.5m, its actually 6m as shown in the first drawing i put up.

platforminc · 11 Apr 2019

Leofric said:
On the ground floor plan shown add an interlinked smoke detector to the entrance hall and a fire door to the dining room. What do building control say about egress (fire escape) windows

Please look at the latest plan posted above this message, will that suffice, see the new fire door by the hallway.

Secondly, I was speaking to the window man, and i asked him to ensure that the windows on the ground floor open at a 90 deg angle to allow for fire escape, he said to me that this only applies on the first floor and doesnt apply to ground floor, does anyone know the requirement for windows in this particular case ?

Thanks in advance.

^woody^ · 11 Apr 2019

platforminc said:
the window man .... said to me that this only applies on the first floor and doesnt apply to ground floor

Hope that his work is better than his knowledge of his own job. Escape regulations apply to all habitable rooms.

platforminc · 11 Apr 2019

Are you saying that the ground floor needs to be openable to 90 deg as well ?

^woody^ · 11 Apr 2019

platforminc said:
Are you saying that the ground floor needs to be openable to 90 deg as well ?

No I'm saying that the same escape rules apply to all habitable rooms. That does not mean to say that all rooms require escape windows.

Leofric · 11 Apr 2019

You require your architect to provide ground , first and second floor plans exactly as proposed ( no please ignore this or that

) showing fire doors, smoke detectors , heat detectors and egress windows and get these approved by Building Control. The architect should specify the requirements for the egress windows to ensure the window types , cill heights and clear opening sizes comply with Approved Document B.

^woody^ · 11 Apr 2019

I'm at a loss really. The council have approved the drawings, and yet the OP is none the wiser because the drawings lack the detail required to actually quote off, order and start building. WTF?

platforminc · 11 Apr 2019

I think i should rephrase my question, what kind of windows are required for the ground floor and first floor ?

Leofric · 11 Apr 2019

platforminc said:
I think i should rephrase my question, what kind of windows are required for the ground floor and first floor ?

You should ask your architect who is drawing the plans. What sort of windows has the architect drawn on the elevations ? Presume you have existing and proposed elevations as well as floor plans.

^woody^ · 11 Apr 2019

platforminc said:
I think i should rephrase my question, what kind of windows are required for the ground floor and first floor ?

Square ones

Dereekoo · 16 Apr 2019

^woody^ said:
Square ones

Not necessarily, could have circular or triangular if he wanted

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Building Regulations Part B - Open plan and a Loft Extension

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