Archive for May, 2012

The new owner wanted advice on the adequacy of fire precautions for life safety in this prestigious finely finished 4-storey house, circa 1880. The main concern was means of escape using the single staircase from upper floors. I made a survey of the building and recommended a replacement of the existing fire detection and alarm systems (which comprised a partial hard wired system and a separate stand-alone system added at a later date). The recommended solution, though more expensive than ...

A fire risk assessment was required under the Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 and was made on this four-storey house converted into separately owned flats served by a single staircase, and a report was prepared. After a survey of the common parts and the insides of the flats, recommendations were made for a fire detection and alarm system that would give early warning (while minimising false alarms) of fire in the flats thus giving sufficient time for escape down the ...

The owner of a two-storey house had made a loft conversion but the ground floor was open plan and the staircase was not enclosed and thus not in accordance with official regulatory fire safety guidance. I was asked to provide a fire safety engineer’s report and recommendations to resolve the problems. I made a survey of the building, prepared a fire safety strategy, recommended some alterations, including improvements to a life safety sprinkler system, and prepared a report for the ...

The existing 5-storey building had office accommodation over the lower 3 floors and a storey was to be added so that the upper three floors would form new flats and duplexes. There was a single full height staircase at the front and an external steel fire escape serving lower storeys at the rear. Construction of the residential units was well advanced. The problem was that building regulation guidance (para 2.51 of AD B) could be interpreted to mean that the ...

The previous use of the property was a residential hostel for the blind with ancillary office, storage and educational accommodation. The building comprises office accommodation on the ground floor and at the front part of the upper floors. The rear part of the upper floors comprised 12 studios and 24 one and two-bed flats.The owner was refurbishing the building for the purpose of using it for a hostel for people of all abilities. I was asked to prepare a fire ...

This prestigious 11 storey residential building has an open internal courtyard which contains a conventional steel fire escape stair which serves all storeys. There is also an internal stair for everyday use alongside an electric passenger lift, both serving all floors. There is a dry rising main near the external fire escape. The District Surveyor had reservations about the proposed removal of a smoke lobby and also the efficacy of escape onto a roof using a retractable loft ladder. By ...