Inner Room for home cinema - Building Regs?

[saltyone]

Hi, I’m looking for a bit of advice regarding a project i’m hoping to get completed, I have contacted our local building control guys to see if this is OK to do but i'm still awaiting their reply. It is a fairly straight forward job with no structural work involved and no change in usage, above our double garage we have a large 7.75 x 5.93m room that is used as a cinema room and a study. I have had a builder in to quote to partition the current cinema area of the room, this would involve building stud walls to create a 5 x 3.6m area so I can install in-wall speakers and a projector. The builder is pretty certain that I wouldn’t need building reg approval but I thought it would be worth checking as it would be an inner room. I have attached a plan I created which may explain the layout better. In the existing room there are 6 opening windows which I can easily get through and the existing door goes onto a landing and then downstairs to the main front door. Does anybody know if this would be acceptable and if so would it need any regs approval? Thanks Karl

 

[tony1851]

Except for utility rooms, bathrooms etc, inner rooms are not generally allowed.
If something electrical started smouldering in the access room, it could fill with smoke before you became aware of the danger, and could cut off your access to the stairs.
The situation is worse with a cinema room because when you're in the dark and engrossed in watching your collection of porn movies, you won't be aware of fire or smoke in the access room.
If you could build a lobby at the top of the stairs, with a separate door into what's now the access room (ie so that your inner room door could open straight on to the landing) that would be acceptable.

 

[^woody^]

It won't require approval, but you should adhere to relevant building regulations particularly for fire safety and means of escape - your home insurance may be impacted otherwise.

 

[tony1851]

Beg to differ: I think that would require a Building Regs application as an inner room is being formed;
OP suggests the garage is attached to the house, in which case it's no diferent than - say - forming a windowless inner room within a large bedroom.