Attic Conversion

Williams12

Hello guys

I'm looking into converting my attic into a habitable space. Now I understand there's a few regulations I have to stick to but there's one I just can't get my head around.

Now I understand there must be a fire door to stop the spread of fire to the attic, but does that mean the main stair case in the house I have to put up walls and fire door. Or put walls and fire door on the stair case leading to the attic room.

I would appreciate any and all help.

Thanks guys

Doozergirl

It's to protect the stairwell so you can escape straight to the front door, not exactly to stop spread to the attic, although that would be a result.

All doors throughout the house leading from the hall and stairs need to be fire doors.

You either have a fire door into the room at the top of the stairs or, if you choose to have a door at the bottom, the stairs up to the loft need be enclosed within walls.

Williams12

On which stairs do I need the fire door, the stairs from ground floor to first floor or from first floor to attic?

Doozergirl

Williams12 wrote: »

On which stairs do I need the fire door, the stairs from ground floor to first floor or from first floor to attic?

You don't need them on stairs. You need them on every room.

The door to the loft can either be on the first floor or the second floor depending on how the loft room is designed.

glasgowdan

Doozergirl wrote: »

You don't need them on stairs. You need them on every room.

The door to the loft can either be on the first floor or the second floor depending on how the loft room is designed.

If you do a loft conversion you need to replace ALL the other internal doors?

krey

in short- yes
Or you can get a sprinkler system installed.

Lofts are a total mess to make it by the book- and VERY VERY VERY costly to make it correctly by all the building regulations, we had the idea to convert ours as well however we only converted it to ''luxury storage room'' as it was 4x cheaper to do that, of course I can't sleep there or count it as extra bedroom , but I was not ready to rip-out half of the house and spend so much.

glasgowdan

krey wrote: »

in short- yes
, of course I can't sleep there or count it as extra bedroom ,

Of course not 😄

Doozergirl

glasgowdan wrote: »

If you do a loft conversion you need to replace ALL the other internal doors?

As above, yes.

Fire escape regulations tighten up on three storeys. You must be able to escape safely.

martinsurrey

glasgowdan wrote: »

If you do a loft conversion you need to replace ALL the other internal doors?

You have to have a protected means of escape from the loft to outside on the ground floor.

This GENERALLY means that every door that leads onto the hallway that leads up to the loft conversion MUST be a fire door (they used to require self close doors).

You also need mains interlinked fire alarms on every level.

iIt can make conversions of quirky layouts VERY difficult.

qsk

Doozergirl wrote: »

As above, yes.

Fire escape regulations tighten up on three storeys. You must be able to escape safely.

Unless it's changed in recent years: you do not need fire door for bathrooms/utility rooms.

beaker141

I didnt fine the criteria too difficult or costly to adhere to.

I found some 35mm doors that were fire rated so they were a straight retro fit for the old doors (which were old and needed modernising anyway) and had the benefit of being very solid and hence keeps sound isolated in rooms too. I can see extra work involved if you're going for 44mm doors.

If you're doing a "proper" loft conversion you'll need an electrician to put in lights, sockets etc, while doing that its only another wire for the mains interlinked smoke alarms - or you could look at some of the wireless linked ones?

From memory the toughest regulation was the insulation required - I recall spending a fortune on all sorts of Celotex and plasterboard faced celotex!