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Posted By Lisa Kirman
I wonder if someone could give me some guidance here.
We are a small company (9 people in 3 offices on first floor and 2 people in one office on ground floor.) The building is a converted residential building.
We have heavier than usual doors with auto shutting systems that I assume to be regulation firedoors for each office.
These have "Fire door keep locked shut" stickers on them.
The upstairs doors lead out onto a landing and downstairs into a hall area.(remember the residential history).
My question is do they have to have these stickers? By way of trying to keep communication going between offices we sometimes have the doors propped open with door stops. Obviously this goes against the stickers but the question is do we have to have the stickers on theses doors and do they have to be kept shut?
Hoping someone can help us here.
Thanks
Lisa
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Posted By jeffrey david smith
Try and contact your local fire officer (or pop into the local fire brigade building) and ask. They will be able to point you in the right direction.
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Posted By Lisa Kirman
Thank you David, I thought that might be the easiest way.
Lisa
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Posted By shaun mckeever
Your local fire officer is not necessarily the easiest way. He/she might tell you to keep the doors shut (that is assuming they are needed which by the sounds of it they may not) and to replace the door signs with signs that say 'Fire Door Keep Shut' on both sides of the door. If you have an automatic fire alarm system then there may be other solutions available e.g. fit a 'dorgard' device to the door.
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Posted By Lisa Kirman
Firstly apologies Jeffrey for getting your name wrong!
Also the stickers we have on the doors at the moment say "Fire Door Keep Shut".
Shaun you've picked up on what our issue really is - do we actually need to have these fire doors? However, we don't really want to replace them - just find out whether we have to keep them shut or not !
Lisa
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Posted By shaun mckeever
Lisa
I cannot give you a concrete yes or no without more information but generally so long as the building is just ground and first floor, the exit from the building is near to the bottom of the stairs (say 3m) and the size of the rooms are relatively small (90m2) and everyone can esape easily then as a rule of thumb you do not need fire doors. You do need to consider how people will be alerted on the upper floor if there is a fire on the ground floor office when there is nobody in the ground floor office (maybe gone to toilet/out for lunch etc). It is up to you to assess the risk from fire. Guidance is available from http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1162103
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Posted By Dave Wilson
I would suggest that if they are fire door and have been required in the past then they will be required in the future.
If you had a fire then think of the damage not just to the persons as they may escape but to your business if a fire gets hold and you l;ose the paperwork and PC etc, could you survive as a going concern without it.
Leave the doors open so you can shout up stairs, why not fit magnetic self closers which release the door if the alarm is triggered? By the sounds of it you are in an old style property probably with no detection or alarms system,
Have you carried out a Fire RA under the new regs yet (1st Oct 06) idf so give yourself a pat on the back
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Posted By Merv Newman
Let's be sensible. When you stay in an hotel there will be (not sure of the distance) fire doors in the corridors. These may stay open all of the day but have some mechanism to close them in case of fire. And usually they are closed from midnight to 6am (breakfast !)
So, in an office environment if the doors will close in the event of a fire there is no need for such a notice as "keep shut".
Apart from that, swing doors with an in-tumescent (look it up and it has nothing, well not a lot, to do with sex) seal on both vertical edges of the door, then I (non fire expert) would reckon that you are OK
Merv (let's go for the burn !)
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Posted By Geoff Parkinson
Hi Lisa
if you could e mail or post the office floor plans to me I'd be happy to assess them for you. Altohugh it no longer applies, was the building issued with a fire certificate?
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