stud wall around kitchen - fire regs?

[RobertL]

I wonder if someone can advise please: stud wall around kitchen - fire regs?

In a friend's 1960s house the kitchen is separated from the living room by a stud wall. There is a doorway between the two but the door has been removed. Both rooms have doors to the outside.

The stud wall is wood on both sides (plywood in kitchen, wood panelling in living room) so it is not fire proof. I imagine it ought to be firepoof and the door should be put back.

Would it be OK to replace the wood panelling on the living room side with plasterboard? That would be much simpler than adding plasterboard on the kitchen side.

I'd like to get an informal opinion from the group before approaching BC.

Robert

[dom]

There's no obligation to bring up old work to current BR standards. However if the wall was being upgraded to current regs, that would be plasterboard both sides plus sound insulation internally.

Are you sure there isn't plasterboard behind the wooden paneling?

How are these 2 rooms divided from the rest of the house?

If they're adequately separated from the rest of the house, this partition might be regarded as decorative rather than functional - i.e. it's a kitchen-diner.

If the wall was upgraded/replaced, possibly rules on adequate ventilation might also kick in.

[RobertL]

No there's nothing in there, except pipes and cabling.

Hall (and stairs) are separated from living room by glazed door and brick wall. Living room has door to back garden, door to kitchen and door from hall. Kitchen has door to garden and door (missing) from living room.

Hmm, I see, thanks.

It's quite odd the way this BC stuff works. You'd like to do a small improvement but you have to choose between complete complicance and leaving it alone.

Robert

[RobertL]

Sorry, I was not very clear : the "kitchen diner" occupies the whole of the ground floor apart from stairs/hall. It is separateed from them by a glazed door and brick wall. The understairs is lined with PB.

[dom]

It doesn't sound like upgrading this wall will really improve fire protection. Most likely source of the fire is the kitchen, and with no door to the dining area it's hardly likely to go unnoticed if the ding area is occupied.

It might be more worthwhile to upgrade the glazed door between the dining area and the rest of the house - for the possibility of a nighttime fire originating in this area. And mains-operated smoke and heat detectors.

[RobertL]

now i think of it, several houses in the same area with idential design, have had this wall removed making the whole place open plan. Maybe I fret too much :-)

thank you for your helpful comments.

Robert

[Big Les Wade]

RobertL posted

So don't notify them. For a trivial job like this it isn't necessary.

[PeterC]

My kitchen to dining room is an open arch; I have put in a wall to reduce the opening but used timber and plywood. I don't see this as contravening any regs. as there was never a door there in the first place: the opening was about 5' wide and it's now 3' 6", allowing space for another unit. If it's not OK, I'll just take out the added bit and have the unit sticking out!

There's no point in worrying about fire resistance of a partial division within an open area.

[dom]

The downside is potentially invalidating fire insurance.

[Big Les Wade]

" [e-mail]" posted

I dunno how that would happen, when the insurance company wouldn't know what the structure was like before, wouldn't know what it was like after, and wouldn't ever be aware that any work had even been done. Insurance companies only have the vaguest idea what houses are made of.

[dom]

You're right that insurance companies aren't experts in building construction, and for a small claim they're likely to pay up. But for large claims they engage the services of companies that specialise in this area.

[Hugo Nebula]

On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:42:41 -0800 (PST), a certain chimpanzee, RobertL randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

As long as you're not changing a building's use, the work you do must comply with the current requirements, and any work you do mustn't make the building less compliant than before the work starts.

[Hugo Nebula]

On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 03:31:14 -0800 (PST), a certain chimpanzee, RobertL randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

Generally speaking, a two storey dwellinghouse doesn't require a lot in the way of fire resistance to partitions. Provided that the ground floor rooms have access to the hall or an external door, and the first floor rooms have windows big enough to get out of, then there's no requirement for fire resistance around the stairs, much less between rooms.

A wall lined with plywood suggests to me that there is an outside chance that it may be structural. Does it butt up to a long masonry wall, or do the floor joists rest on this stud wall? If so check with an engineer before removing.

[RobertL]

It's built just standing on the floor joists with no support underneath.

it is two story with doors/windows as you describe so it sounds all OK.

many thanks,

Robert

[Hugo Nebula]

On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:39:46 -0800 (PST), a certain chimpanzee, RobertL randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

I meant the floor joists above (the first floor).