People who have had loft conversions

Domestic stuff isn't my field, but I think it's certainly possible that the regs say that. They get quite strict for 2nd floors (and basements IIRC). It's not so much stopping the fire reaching the loft room, but protecting your only means of escape. I wonder if a fire door on the kitchen would be enough though...

You do need to check with your local building regs department, but it is probable that you do need to have fire doors on each room. They are there to protect your escape route, not your loft room. Say, for example, there is a fire in the kitchen on the ground floor, and you are in the loft. If the kitchen has no fire door then the fire could easily spread from the ground floor, into the hallway and to the stairs to your loft, thereby blocking your escape route. Having fire doors will stop this happening. Your building regs department may be flexible though, so talk to them.

Ok thanks. I was confusing me because everyone I know with a loft has just normal doors throughout. I'll look into it a bit more.

Ok its 2 and a half years since I was at work so regulations may have changed but as far as I was aware, if you converted a loft you need fire doors on the conversion in the loft and a fire proof staircase but didn't need to have firedoors throughout the house.

The regulations regarding all doors being fire doors only applied to new builds

Ours was done before we moved in (so ?8 years ago) but we only have a fire door into the loft room itself. We do, however, have a Velux escape window in the en suite (though I still haven't fixed the escape ladder in place, stupidly). You're welcome to come and nosy around if it helps?

Ours was done before we moved in (so ?8 years ago) but we only have a fire door into the loft room itself. We do, however, have a Velux escape window in the en suite (though I still haven't fixed the escape ladder in place, stupidly). You're welcome to come and nosy around if it helps?

Do you want me to ask MrKJX when he gets in from work? (He's a Building Control bod) - I think, from potentially very inaccurate memory, that the layout of the previous floors may impact on what you need - but stand fully prepared to be corrected! He'll probably ask if you are open plan anywhere etc.!

Ours was done in 2005 and all doors had to be fire doors upstairs but downstairs they have fitted the snap returns, bit like ratchets near the hinges which I hate as all doors have to be propped open.

When we had our loft converted 2 years ago we had glass doors on the ground floor which had to be replaced with wood, but they didn't need to be 'special' fire proof doors or anything. All doors that led onto the stair way also had to be fitted with self closing devices to satisfy building regs, although in practice we keep most of them wedged open so I'm not sure how much good it does really - toddlers and self closing doors don't mix well. Our builder said that a lot of people remove the self closing devisces as soon as the building inspectors have left.

The regs changed in April 07 so that any house that had a loft conversion after that time had to have fire doors fitted on all rooms leading on to a stairwell.

Bingy is correct - a lot of people do keep the doors open and remove the closing devides after the inspectors have left. I can undserstand why with a toddler in the house, but aside from this, you just wouldn't beleive how quickly a fire spreads if the doors are not closed.

I don't want to come across as preachy (and I'm aware that this probably does!) but my H is a builder and a fireman. We have Christmas tree lights, 10 plugs stuffed into 4-gang sockets, tea lights and all kinds of other fire hazards, but the one thing he really does insist on is closing all the internal doors before we go to bed. Honestly, a fire in a room with a closed door will often burn itself out because of the lack of oxygen. As soon as you leave the door open, a fire will just spread to wherever there is oxygen ie right through the hall, up the stairs, into other rooms.

My H has to go into burning houses and search for people who could have prevented being trapped if they had closed their internal doors before they went to bed.

Okay. Thanks everyone. Builders is going to double check with building regs man. If the regs changed in 2007, that maybe why none of my friends have firedoors everywhere in the house. I have two toddlers as well so heavy self closing doors aren't a good idea. Funnily enough the building regs man said our doors don't have to be self closing, which is a good thing.

H says he can get countrystyle wooden firedoors anyway - it will just be waaaaaaaay more expensive. We shall wait and see. Maybe it does depend on the layout of different houses. Our house is most definitely not a new build!

I just googled, the first result came back with this:

Loft conversions have now come under the scrutiny of the government through its revisions to the part of the Building Regulations which governs fire safety in buildings. The newly revised Part B of the Building Regulations requires fire doors to be fitted on all doors opening onto the staircase of two-storey homes with loft conversions. The idea behind this approach is to protect the main route of escape from the house in the case of fire. This is not retrospective legislation - planning consents for loft conversions after 6 April 2007 will be subject to the change.

We have just had our attic changed from one huge room into two smaller bedrooms and our basement converted. To comply with the Building Regs we have had to fit fire doors at attic level, on the bedrooms of the floor below (but not the bathroom door) and the door to the kitchen and sitting room. I was a bit concerned at first because it is a Victorian house and I thought the fire doors might look rubbish. However, they come in all different "looks" and we have four panel ones in keeping with the house. We didn't have to have self-closing mechanisms on them, but if you do, then it is possible to have ones inside the door rather than external "office" looking ones IYKWIM, although my builder grumbled about doing them because they are quite fiddly to fit apparently. However, as I say, we didn't need them. In some doorways it was a bit messy fitting the fire doors though because they had to alter the original door frame to get a close enough fit.