A family member is having some major remodeling planned on an end-terraced house. The builder's plans apparently are calling for fire doors on essentially every interior doorway – bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchen, any other partition between rooms, etc.
I've seen the type of door and it feels quite solid, has a sealing strip around it, and and auto-close mechanism (spring?). They certainly seem fit for purpose but are also: expensive, somewhat difficult to operate, noisy, and sometimes seem almost hazardous because of the auto-close. Aside from annoyances a concern is how well elderly people will be able to handle them.
Are fire doors actually required for ALL interior doorways? I can see the logic for specific areas like the kitchen, but on small bathrooms (for instance) its hard to see the rationale.
I'd like to understand what are the actual legal requirements / building regulations so that we can understand what areas have some design flexibility and which do not. No one is looking to undermine safety, just understand the available options.
Thanks
Best Answer
In England, the regulation is Approved Document B of the Building Regulations 2019
In Wales, Approved Document B of the Building Regulations (Wales) and amendments
In Scotland, Part 2 Building Standards technical handbook 2017
In Northern Ireland, Technical Booklets
In general fire doors are not required inside dwellings of one or two storeys. In a three storey dwelling (including loft conversion or basement) fire doors are required on doorways to the protected stair and corridor leading to the final exit.
In some circumstances a sprinkler system may be allowed as an alternative to protect the final exit route instead of fire doors.