Ref loft conversion, are fire doors absolutely essential throughout the house?

[soberton]

Hi.

Would appreciate feedback from those who have had loft conversions done, or planning the same project please.
Mid terraced victorian (approx 1880) house on the first floor there are currently 3 bedrooms and the bathroom. On the ground floor there are two doors leading from the living room and dining room onto the hallway. The kitchen is at the back of the house with double glazed upvc french doors leading onto the garden - so from the front door you can go right along the hallway, through the kitchen and out into the garden in pretty much a straight line. I appreciate that the bedrooms on first floor would need fire doors fitted because they are habitable rooms, and not the bathroom. Possibly even the living room and dining room doors onto hallway downstairs. However the entrance from the hallway into the kitchen in this house is not a doorway as such but an archway (which we quite like because front faces east, back faces west and sunlight does flood through nicely on good days). Is this project a 'no go' because of the archway or can we get around not having to have a fire door there (there is no door frame just plaster, so it's smooth and painted). I understand the need for safety and fire regs are strict, but in the event of a fire there is adequate escape route from front door into front garden and street or through back doors into garden (albeit fully enclosed). All first floor windows open fully approx 4ft wide and 6ft tall with a 'tilt & turn' mechanism.
I've read about hard wired smoke alarms and wondered if this could be a route around the problem.
TIA

I believe it is part of the required building regs.

We had to get them for bedroom doors, livingroom & kitchen doors when we had our attic converted - building regulations.

As soon as house was inspected by the man from the council planning dept and completion cert issued, we took them off but have kept them just in case we need them again - maybe to sell house?

We didn't need then when our loft was converted jan this year. Just had mains wired smoke alarms in every room and landing and a heat detector in kitchen.

We got round it in the same way as ladycurd - mains wire alarms in every room. The planning officer took some convincing, but DH did some googling and printed off various regulations for him and he accepted it in the end.

Thanks for the feedback, I thought there might be a way around it by using mains 'hardwired' smoke/heat detectors, I'm in Hampshire on the south coast so I wondered if our local authority would be amenable to that option.
Thanks again.

It is a requirement to have fire doors on every room leading to the protected shaft.

However, hard wired interlinked smoke detectors in every room is now accepted as an alternative.

Hi soberton, it is a must when being built, alternatively you can treat your option of doors with fire retardant paint.

We have just had a loft installed. We had the option of doors or fire alarms.

We went for doors.

what don't you like about fire doors?

sorry, I see now. It's the archway.

We've just about finished our loft conversion, and have a new smoke alarm system hard-wired through the house, which has meant we can avoid a nasty fire-door on the middle landing (like a B&B!).

However we have been told we also need fire seals fitted to every internal door in the house apart from bathroom doors. Just waiting clarification on the type of seals, but your posts are giving me hope that the alarms may be sufficient?

I think it may very from one local authority to another, as my builder was saying that a certain type of insulation he wanted to use in the bathroom is permitted in Berkshire but not Oxfordshire.

Clearly we have different types of cold and fire in Oxfordshire

Friends had a sprinkler system installed instead of fire doors although I think theirs may have been required due to a complicated layout.

Another option would be to have a glass door in the archway. You can get fire rated glass - pyro glass and it is clear (unlike the wired glass of old). This is not a cheap option (but I'm not sure how much a hard wired alarm system is). It would have the advantage of being able to shut the kitchen off it you were cooking something smelly. Double doors would mean you could have them flush against the walls maybe. (Once the building inspector had been - fire doors are not meant to be propped open!) You could close them when you go to bed at night.