Fire Rated Doors for rental property

[Pradaqueen]

Hi, I am nearly about to finish a full refurb of two flats. Electrics, new boilers and central heating systems, new bathrooms, new kitchens, new window and doors. They are ground floor victorian and were in a shocking state. They each have an independent front and back door. Can anyone answer do I need to fit internally fire rated doors to a) all rooms b) no rooms or c) just the kitchen? The Bedroom to one is by the front door and to the other in the middle off a corridor leading to the kitchen. Each kitchen has it's own back door. They are one bedders each so won't be sharers (except couples) nor HMO. Grateful for any advice out there! Thanks.

We had to do this a few years ago to a ground floor flat but only needed to make the front door (onto the communal hallway) fire-rated as it was possible to escape through the windows of all the other rooms so the only danger would have been compromising the means of escape for the upstairs residents. Regulations may have changed since then, however. Are building control coming for any of the other work that you have undertaken? They could give you a definitive answer - it might be worth going along and speaking to the duty officer, it would be helpful if you took floorplans etc.

Thanks Lala - No building control required as it was straightforward and no advice seemingly available on the council website. I think I'll play it safe and put them on the most dangerous room (kitchen) although they have electric hobs so no flames. Thanks for your response though, much appreciated!

The point of fire rated doors isn't to protect the most likely source of flames. It is to provide a route of escape. So a typical application would be to put fire doors on every room that opens onto a hallway for instance so upstairs residence can safely make it down the hall as the fire would be contained inside one of the rooms, or worst case that there is a fire in the hallway they can wait in their room till the fire brigade comes.

Thanks True blue. If it helps, My properties are completely separate from the single flat upstairs in both cases and my flats have independent routes front and back which no other resident has access to.

Fire doors freak me out. I always anticipate waking up inside a burning inferno and the fucking door has sealed! may be irrational, but I don't like them