On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 13:59:17 +0100, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:

A now I see !!! If you already have proper fire doors at the appropriate
points
on the stair-well, then you're OK. As long as the new part of the
staircase is
not fully open all the way down to the open plan part, then you're sorted.

The way I read them (I may be wrong) is that the stairs are the primary
escape route and your escape route should be protected all the way to one of
these two points.

a) An outside door
b) A point where there are now two independent exit paths, each of which may
be unprotected, but the fact that there are two doesn't matter.

(b) is most likely to arise if the stairs lead to a downstairs hall, but the
outside doors are elsewhere, such as a back door through the kitchen and a
front door through the lounge.

This doesn't just apply to new parts of the staircase, but the entire
staircase that is required for escape during a fire.

Christian.



So what happens if you have the classical design of house with the
stairs going up from a front hall or passage, doors to all downstairs
rooms from it and the front door also opening directly from it?

Is the assumption that a fire downstairs would not start in the hall
and that all room doors would be shut, thus containing the fire for a
short while?

Do the stairs from the ground floor then have to be boxed in?

If that's the case, how would enclosing the stairs help if they are
open at the bottom anyway, or is this all about in effect creating an
enclosed area out to the front door in cases where the stairs exit
(e.g.) directly from the lounge?

I don't follow the intent here.....


..andy

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