Mezzanine Extension – Second staircase required?

[Ducky]

Hi All,

Hope everyone is doing well.

I live in a 7th floor duplex apartment, and want to extend the floor of my study, which overlooks the master bedroom, all the way to the window which overlooks the balcony (see floorplan below).

Currently, there is one staircase for the mezzanine area, going from the reception room to the dining room / kitchen. I employed an architect to do an initial assessment before I submit plans to the freeholder, and he thinks I may need a second staircase in order to comply with new fire safety regulations applying to our building as it’s higher than 18 meters, but did say that I would need to consult with a fire safety consultant for the final word before submitting an application as he wasn’t too sure.

I don’t want to install a second staircase, and was wondering if there were ways to avoid it, such as proposing the new room as an extension of the dining room / kitchen without a door, instead of as an independent room, or having a concealed stepladder instead of a staircase. These are just ideas I came up with off the bat, so I was wondering if you had any thoughts on ways I could avoid the second staircase in the proposal which I submit to the fire safety consultant and the freeholder.

Any advice or ideas would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I'm surprised you have that set-up anyway, at the moment the office has no safe means of escape, not only if there was a kitchen fire but if there was a fire in the living room instead so I can see why the architect's getting twitchy, I guess the building is oldish?

And whilst it can be wise to employ a fire consultant for more complex jobs and they can fight your corner it will be the Fire Brigade who get the final l say.

 

[Ducky]

Thanks. I was told that there used to be a staircase from the master bedroom to the study, but the previous owner removed it many years ago. This was before the new fire safety regulations were implemented. The building was built around 1999, and the previous owner removed the staircase soon after that.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Oof, that makes sense, I think you're screwed then.

 

[Ducky]

Oof, that makes sense, I think you're screwed then.

Care to elaborate?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Well the first thing anyone will ask is how does anyone escape form the office in the event of a fire in the kitchen (like what happened in this thread ) then you'll have to come clean and admit the safe means of escape was removed so the leaseholders and Building Control probably won't be too happy about that don't you think? And you want to make the situation worse. You can say it's an extension of the kitchen by removing the door but I suspect they will see your dastardly plan for what it is and what's to stop you or the next owner just reinstating the door. And once you extend the study to the window you can call it/use it as a bedroom.

 

[Ducky]

Ok, so it wouldn't be possible to propose the project as an extension of the dining room on the basis that they won't believe it, even though it would be true, as they will think that a new door can be installed at a later date? If yes then are there any suggestions that would minimise the space taken by a staircase, such as a concealed stepladder?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Well BCO's and the fire brigade and the like are a fairly cynical bunch and have seen it all before, a bit like the previous owners removing a stair when they shouldn't have. A stepladder's no good it has to be a safe means of escape, might get away with a spacesaver stair but that will be at the discretion of Building Control. You could see what your fire consultant comes up with, they should be familiar with the British Standards which are far more extensive and can sometimes have more flexibility and offer different alternatives than the approved documents, which are derived from the British Standards anyway.

 

[Wolfhere]

As the building is 7 storeys you Building Regs application will have to go to the Building Safety Regulator.
They will expect you to have a competent Principal Designer who can submit a code compliant proposal.
From what I hear they are pretty brutal in how they go about it - there is no negotiation or 'taking a view' on any fire safety issue. They expect a compliant proposal to be presented from the start.
You are not allowed to start work until you get BSR approval.