Hi
We've just moved into a newly converted flat and every single door (even the broom cupboard) has one of those concealed chain door closers fitted.
Propping doors open is a right pain, so I'm tempted to remove some of them (hopefully without trapping my fingers in the chain...). Before I do though, I thought I'd check whether any of this is likely to be required by building or fire regulations - can anyone enlighten me?
Thanks in advance
Mark
They often are; considering the extra expense it's unlikely they would have been fitted without good reason. These will be fire doors, too, it's not just the door closers. It's impossible to say for sure without more details about the flat and building, but the phrase "newly converted flat" is a strong clue that these would have been a building regs requrement.
Broom cupboard sounds a bit OTT though!
David
What's the layout of the whole building? ISTR some regs on all doors having to be 'fire doors' when you got to three floors or more.
AIUI, according to the local BCO that I had a chat with ... self-closing doors are required on all 'habitable rooms'. Their intention is to prevent the ingress of fire into a habited room allowing the occupant to get out via the fire exit. {that's another can of worms) of that room. They are not required for EC, bathrooms (nor broom-cupboards) that are not habited in the definition. IT could have been that the purchaser had a price break for ten/dozen and decided to use it anyway. If they been fitted for Fire purposes then the door-stops (wooden bits around the frame that the door closes against) should be 'wide' in the plane of the door.
Isn't that what fire extinguishers are for...? ;-)
Do the doors have intumescent strips around the periphery? If so they are fire doors.
sponix
It the building is more than 3 stories, you need fire doors, for every door, including the medicne cabinet. My buiding inspetor let me off and I just have them for main rooms.
And once he goes away, all the door closers come off.
Rick
Its the other way round - the intention is to prevent fire within a room spreading to the escape route to the outside. If you are in the room with a fire then you know about it and escape, but if the fire is in another room you want to be able to leave your room when the alarm goes off, to a safe escape route not in flames. We have to do the same with our chapel conversion. They are only looking after us!
cheers
Jacob
But ... ! It's not required to have intumescent (?) strips on all doors - only 'new' doors. AIUI, existing doors need to be modified by the addition of self-closers _and_ increased width door-stop strips and if fitted with glazing by the substitution of wired-glass.
Yes, this is the usual building/fire reg nonsense. (Fine in principle but if the nuisance factor means the default is to have doors propped open then they make matters worse.) You will also suffer from the noise made by your neighbours as they go from room to room leaving the doors to slam behind them.
To remove concealed closers: open door wide, clamp chain with mole wrench, unscrew plate on door frame, The spring tension can be reduced by unscrewing the chain.
Hmm, it's a 4 storey Victorian house that's been converted into 4 flats, so maybe the builders were doing the right thing after all.
If the regulations do specify this it does seems a huge wasted effort, since 95% of people will get fed up and wedge the doors open anyway....
Thanks for all the advice everybody
Mark
I have to admit , initially I thought that too ... but the BCO pointed out several things ... Which side of the door are the door stops on? Every habitable room has to have a defined opening aperture in its window(s) - which must be a proportion of the floor area. ...Bdg Regs B1 - provision of openable windows for Fire Escape. In other words - get out of the window The Fire Doors are intended to provide one with n minutes of opportunity FD20; FD30 etc. before the fire ingress and/or the Fire-Fighters arrive (whichever is the lesser). If you hear a fire alarm - and it's not _in_ your room: the last thing you should do is open your door (What's on the other side?) and traverse into ... (what danger?).
We are, of course, discussing Domestic dwellings and not Hotels, Hospitals, Offices which will have other fire-restraining equipment (sprinklers; corridor partitioning doors; dedicated non-flammable stair wells; external fire-escape stairs; ... ). A chapel would have started its 'approved' use as a public building with different regulations applied.
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