Fire safety requirements on ground floor with open living room upon loft being converted

[kirunsg]

Hi all,

I have recently had 2 rooms added to the loft and the kitchen on the ground floor is being extended by 3 metres.

The living room i have on the ground floor is open and there is open staircase in the living room that leads to the first floor and one that goes a few steps down to the kitchen (see attached pics - please note that the current partitioning you see on the left hand side on the stairs is temporary and will be removed after works are finished).

I have been told that the corridor and the stairs leading to the first floor and the one that leads down to the kitchen need to be closed off so that in case of fire in the living room the residents have a safe exit to outside to the front of the property and to the garden.

All the rooms upstairs and the living room have a wired interlinked fire alarm system.

Closing off the living room will make the it smaller and i was hoping to use the corridor space as part of the open living room.

Could anybody advise whether this is a legal requirement to have that corridor partitioned and whether there is a way i can get away by for instance installing a water sprinkler just on the ground level?

Your help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yes it's a legal requirement, it's plain to see in Part B, your BCO may accept sprinklers, whoever did the plans should have known this, it's basic loft conversion stuff.

 

[stevie888]

Have a conversation with BC: they are generally fairly flexible.

 

[accelerator]

Just a suggestion but maybe you can close it off with some sort of fireproof glass (if that exists) so it still feels spacious.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Would need to be 30mins FR which is ££££'s.

 

[wessex101]

Bit of a long shot but it looks like the house is split level? What is the height of the loft floor above the highest external ground level? Is it less than 4.5m by any chance?