Building Regulations For Interior Designers: Fire Safety Buildings Other Than Dwellings

Interior designers must incorporate early-warning fire detection and alarm systems. In some cases, people’s ability to detect fire and raise the alarm is enough. 

Working as a designer means that you need to ensure that your linings and structure limit the spread of fire, especially within circulation spaces, and that they have minimal heat and fire growth. You also need to check your building’s structure will remain stable in a fire. The document covers fire-resisting construction, core panels, automatic fire suppression systems, flues, fire dampeners, fire-stopping in joints and pipes, and cavity barriers. There is additional guidance for raised storage areas and car parks, as well as buildings with sleeping risks. 

Any protected lobbies you design should have the minimum amount of ventilation required, whereas protected shafts with protected stairways should not have any ventilation ducts. Protected shafts with piped flammable gas should have direct ventilation to the outside, and any storey extension should not impede this. 

However, you must know that ventilation and air-conditioning systems should not increase the spread of fire and smoke. Each protected stairway, kitchen, car park, and plant room should have their own ventilation system that only circulates air within the area. Each of these systems must work with smoke detectors that activate fire dampeners, especially where these systems recirculate air. There are additional regulations for ducts that contain flues and pass through fire-separating elements, kitchens, and escape routes, as well as rooms with sleeping risks. Both mechanical and natural ventilation should be considered when building car parks. 

Any doors you design should be easy to open in an emergency. In particular, escape route doors should not be fitted with locks (unless rooms are empty). In some cases, panic fastenings may be used. Any code-operated doors should be able to be quickly overridden. If a door has an electrical lock, this should open if a fire alarm sounds, if the electric goes out, or if it is overridden by a callpoint. The regulations are different for hotel bedrooms. 

Any door must open in the direction of escape, especially if it is going to be used by over 60 people or has a high fire risk. Doors should not impair the escape route width, should be recessed, and open by 90 degrees. They should also open without being impaired by your flooring. If these doors swing both ways or interrupt corridors, vision panels must be installed. If you are installing an automatic or revolving door, this should open outwards, especially if the mains fail, and non-automatic doors should be installed next to it. Additionally, care home bedrooms should have fire-resisting doors. 

Fire doorsets are important to designers as they can protect escape routes from smoke. The document gives further information on fire doorstes, including where they should be located and whether they need a self-closing device. The regulations depend on the type and number of fire doorsets. 

Lifts do not normally contribute to an evacuation plan. Nevertheless, it is important that you think carefully about the appropriate fire safety measures and their location. This is especially the case since some fire-fighting lifts are used to transport disabled people in an emergency. The measures you might take may include ensuring the lift has fire-resisting construction and is positioned within a protected stairway. The document covers when your lift should be within a protected lobby and if it needs to be part of a protected shaft. This advice is different for high-risk and sleeping areas, car parks, rooms with smoke reservoirs and basements. 

However, lifts are an important element of your design as they can be part of your fire-fighting facilities. You should ensure that their installation includes features like a lift car, well machinery space, and a control and communication system. Whether you need a firefighting lift depends on the height of your building above and below vehicle access. Most firefighting lifts need to be approached through a firefighting lobby. 

When you are trying to follow fire safety regulations, there are several fire-stopping materials that you may want to use, including gypsum plaster, cement mortar, and glass fibre. In some cases, these fire-stopping materials will need to be reinforced. There are other regulations on the materials used for fire doorsets, escape stairs, and car parks. 

Designers should also know the definition of thermoplastic materials and what type of thermoplastic material they using. This is because the correct regulations depend on whether your material is rigid or flexible, and what it is used for. There are exemptions and other guidance for lighting diffusers, rooflights, and window glazing. Once you have installed thermoplastic linings, you should always check that they are providing appropriate protection for your walls and ceilings.

The rolling shutters within your designs should be manually operated so that they can be used by the fire service in an emergency. If they may act as an escape, you should install a heat sensor near the door, and, in most cases, make sure that they are not connected to your fire and smoke detectors.