Considering no door on our kitchen. Thoughts on this or a pocket door?

[Grasping]

To save space really.

We would open it up to be wider/higher so it doesn’t look like we’ve just removed the door.

Our whole downstairs is open plan except the hall and downstairs loo and was all signed off by building regs a couple of years ago. Wasn’t aware there were fire regs re kitchen doors?

We are buying an old cottage that has no door between kitchen and dining room and the stairs are in the dining room, so no doors to upstairs either. I suspect it wouldn’t be allowed now but was allowed then. It’s not been mentioned at survey anyway and that was full structural.

@Mytholmroyd

Only if you have a very efficient and quiet extractor!

We have a very large hallway and doors on all the other rooms.

Thanks again everyone. I will speak to the kitchen people and see what they advise.
Good to get some input

@Grasping

It means the kitchen would be open onto the hallway/stairs/landing. All other rooms have doors. It’s the cooking smells that possibly are putting me off, but we rarely close the door we have at the moment anyway

We have this. It’s fine, I never closed the kitchen door anyway.

Not a pocket door, but we had a bi-fold door in our previous house. It was from the hall (and stairs) to the kitchen. We might have considered a pocket door but I didn't know they existed!

The bi-fold door was one of the best things we did when we did the renovations. As good as a normal closed door when closed, but it was open 95% of the time and took up such little space.

It was like this one (might even have been this one, actually!): www.howdens.com/joinery/doors/howdens-holdenby-oak-bifold-door-obj-sku-family-19614229

OP, we have sliding door in kitchen, it's permanently left open but means we have choice to close it if we want to and it doesn't take up any space.

We’ve got a pocket door between our kitchen and hallway!

It’s brilliant, we have it closed when cooking and also if we have people over in the evenings when DCs are sleeping

It looks like a normal door when shut so has confused a few visitors when they’ve tried to open it

I cant find the one we've got but this gives you an idea of how they work...

www.directdoors.com/products/top-mounted-sliding-track-door-belize-oak-door-silkscreen-etched-clear-glass-unfinished?currency=GBP&variant=39254399778868&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjw0a-SBhBkEiwApljU0q8J2QHXSbPWCE4BWyz1Q0XvydK5nqE8zNeA-p5lyUAuq1tkUKN_MhoCo68QAvD_BwE

We have 2 doors off the hall to our kitchen / dining / living area. One of them is a pocket door and it’s open the majority of the time. Both doors are glass. We don’t have a loft conversion. Extension done last year and building control etc.

Both doors are normal wooden with glass doors. Different handles on the pocket door (obviously).

When I was researching this (maybe 5 years back), rules said you need a fire door between the kitchen and the main exit of the house down from the bedrooms.

So if the stairs and front door are the main exit from the bedrooms (which is the usual thing) then you need to have a fire door between those and the kitchen.

The only other option was to have sprinklers in the kitchen.

The builder informed me many people put the doors in and then once building regs are passed, take the door out.

(I finally opted to just keep the door - simplest and effective in case of fire)

I’ve got a sliding door between my kitchen and living room. It’s generally open in the day but I close it at night. I have a kitchen fire at night so I’m quite anxious about it and I just feel more secure with it shut.

We have a pocket door on our kitchen and it's best of both I'd say. We actually have it as a fire door as we have our loft converted and it's nice thinking that's it's that extra bit safe!

We have no door between our kitchen and dining g room, it was like that when we moved in. We later had some work done to the dining room and were told it doesn't meet building regs due to the fire risk from the kitchen.

The dining room is in a single storey extension at the back of the house and only joins the kitchen. So it's apparently OK that many houses knock kitchen and living room into one room, but the fact that we have a wall with a small door sized gap means it doesn't meet building regs.

Amazed at the people saying this won’t meet building regs - we’ve done this to our kitchen (pocket door) and it’s been signed off fine!

Ours is a fire rated pocket door - would do it again. Building regs can vary by area, strangely, so if you will need sign off check locally.

BaileysBreakfast

Our whole downstairs is open plan except the hall and downstairs loo and was all signed off by building regs a couple of years ago. Wasn’t aware there were fire regs re kitchen doors?

Your staircase should be protected.
Smoke, then burning air, not the fire is the main killer in domestic house fires. Even if escape is made damage to the lung from smoke particles and/or heat can cause permanamt damage.

The fire reg is to prevent hot smoke filled air which rises from filling the upstairs before anyone realises there is a fire.
The stairs acts as a natural chimney.

The fire alarm alerts and the way out is filled with smoke, the doors reduce the volume of smoke.

Emmyren4
I've been told (not sure of the truth of this) that if you install doors to pass inspection and then have them removed it can void your insurance, so worth checking that before doing it.

It would not necessarily void the policy. But you cant profit from damage you helped create. So it would result in a reduced payout if the door being installed and closed would have resulted in less damage.

A quick look there are glazed pocket fire reg doors.

I was considering removing the door from my tiny kitchen as it took up too much space. My fitter suggested a bi- fold door. It's worked really well and takes up no space.

I used to live overseas so,ewhere where pocket doors are very common in new build. I had loads of them and think they are brilliant.

Thanks again.

It looks like pocket doors are popular.
This would be my first choice so I’m reassured by this.

Our whole downstairs is open plan, no doors. It works fine. But now with a baby we're thinking of putting pocket door in, partly for noise from kitchen/diner to upstairs bedrooms.

@BaileysBreakfast

Our whole downstairs is open plan except the hall and downstairs loo and was all signed off by building regs a couple of years ago. Wasn’t aware there were fire regs re kitchen doors?

Yes I lived in a house where the stairs went down past the kitchen, all open plan. It was new and very well designed by a well-respected architect, I can't imagine it was a bodge job without building regs.

We have a pocket door - the building inspector didn't say a thing when he came to sign off (maybe 5 years ago). Only really close it when using the grill - the alarm in the kitchen is a heat detector and doesn't go off but the one in the hall and lounge will.

We've had our doors change to open outward into the hall and on a French door hinge so they open right out flat to the wall. Made such a difference to space available.

Our house is a Victorian terrace with the kitchen at the back. When we were doing work on it, we removed the kitchen door and got it approved by Building Control once we'd installed a wired-in heat alarm. Layout means the kitchen is open to the hallway and stairs but we do have a first floor fire escape door and fixed external staircase as the property used to be flats.