Means of Escape - permanently removing a stairwell

[WARNOCEROS]

Hi all,

We plan to remove a stair well and reinstate a floor in place of the void it would produce. This will leave us with all 1st floor rooms opening directly onto a landing which leads to another set of stairs and to the front door.

Will this trigger a requirement for all 1st floor windows to be replaced with one corresponding with 450mm x 450mm in the regs documents? Or will we simply need to be able to demonstrate that sufficient means of escape has been provided?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Warnoceros

 

[tony1851]

If the upper storey has a floor level no more than 4.5m above outside ground level (ie two-storey) and all windows to habitable rooms are escape windows (450x750) you can have more or less what you want in terms of means of escape. Alternatively, if you don't want to replace the windows, you would need to provide fire doors.
If three-storey, it's a different matter.