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 ...
Read On → Share
The site was difficult, having a very narrow frontage (1.7m) and large depth with only one conventional escape route exiting at the front onto the road.The building was two storeys at the front (the lower storey was a corridor) and the rear was designed to be developed into an unusual single family, three-storey residence, mainly open plan double volume on two floors. Light tubes were to be used to bring natural light into the interior. I surveyed the building, negotiated ...
Read On → Share
The property comprised two 2-story houses which had previously been converted into flats. A new developer had constructed a further flat in the roof space of each house and this had created a means of escape problem with the extension of the two-storey escape stair. I was commissioned to find a remedy. Each roof top flat had a self contained hard wired smoke and ...
The house had been purchased without building approval for the existing open plan on the ground floor and an open staircase communicating with a loft extension accommodating two bedrooms – this contravened the guidance given under the building regulations. The problem was overcome with the provision of guidance and the installation of an automatic domestic sprinkler system according to BS DD 251 and an automatic fire detection system according to BS 5839 Part 6. This was accepted by building control.
Client: ...
Read On → Share
The Highlands, Barnet
My work involved making a survey of the 3-storey block of prestigious private flats to assess compartmentation, means of escape, the number of and type of occupants using the staircase, and the impediment caused by the new folding stair lift installation. My recommendation was that the means of escape was adequate and this was accepted.
Client: Barnet ...
Read On → Share