Loft AND basement conversion

thetoothfairy

Has anyone had both their loft and basement converted please?

What are the fire requirements regarding staircases, doors and partitions? The house has otherwise a ground floor and first floor

Doozergirl

This is a big subject for a small post!

Fire doors throughout the house, an escape route that is entirely protected by said fire doors from each room to the exit door. A sprinkler system could be acceptable if the protected escape can't be maintained.

Mains wired smoke alarms where required and windows/doors of a suitable height and opening for escape in your new rooms.

You need 2 metres of headheight at the top of the loft stairs, 190cm in the middle if there's a slope.

There's more, but you asked about fire.

thetoothfairy

Thank you! Yes it is a big topic isn’t it!

We have already got a basement conversion and stairs leading up therefore to the ground floor.

These are not fully enclosed - ie the fire door is at the bottom and the stairs then go up and there is a rail about half way that owns out in the corridor upstairs. Before we did this work, the door was at the top of the cellar stairs and the whole thing was more enclosed.

If we do a loft conversion, will we be expected to re-enclose the cellar stairs? It’s really unclear in the building regs - looking at the bit for a effectively three storey. House (with our cellar) turning into a four storey (with the loft).

I’m just wondering if anyone has done both conversions as online most pages talk about either doing one or the other, and how your stairs are arranged!

Bit of a niche question I know but hopefully someone can help!!

Browntoa

Will the loft have dormers or roof velux ?

I'm sure there's different regs for either of those

Doozergirl

If my experience is anything to go by, they look at the whole house and are more stringent with four storeys than three.

Doozergirl

Browntoa wrote: »

Will the loft have dormers or roof velux ?

I'm sure there's different regs for either of those

Regs are the same; height of cill and area of opening for egress.

Only one window in each room needs to comply exactly.

thetoothfairy

No dormers just a Velux window.

My main query is about what has to be done to the staircases in the house to make them fire safe and whether at least one tends to be fully enclosed as opposed to open plan

Doozergirl

thetoothfairy wrote: »

No dormers just a Velux window.

My main query is about what has to be done to the staircases in the house to make them fire safe and whether at least one tends to be fully enclosed as opposed to open plan

If you want it open plan, they will want a fire engineer's report and a sprinkler system designed.

thetoothfairy

Ok thank you

kathylou92

Hello,

I have just had my basement converted by basement contractors PRS and they were fab!

I'm not 100% sure about the fire requirements but there's some information on their website which may be helpful I can't post a link to their website but they're called Professional Remedial Services Ltd.

Doozergirl

Did you read the forum rules before posting, kathylou92?

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