Hi everyone,
A few parts to this query that I hope you can help with. Hopefully formatting helps encourage you to hear me out; if not, TLDR:
(1) where can I find nice, characterful doors, 1981x686mm, for a victorian terrace?
(2) how does building regs work re fire-rated doors for 3-storey buildings where the floors are LG, UG and 1st, rather than G, 1, 2?
Background: We have a 3 storey victorian terrace in london and want to replace the internal doors as we inherited horrible cheap hollow ones from the previous owners.
Replacement doors issue: As part of my plan to restore some of the original features of the house, I had initially wanted to get reclaimed original pine 4-panel doors, but the door frames in the house have been changed to fit narrow standard size doors (1981 x 686mm). After pretty much a million hours of googling, it seems that it's unlikely I'm going to find enough (or any) reclaimed doors that could fit or be reasonably altered to fit.
I know there are lots of new victorian-style 4 panel doors available online, but am struggling to find one that has the same charm as the originals would, especially as I want to keep them stripped rather than paint them.
I've found these and think they're probably my best bet here, although not the cheapest: https://periodprojects.co.uk/product/traditional-victorian-style-four-panel-doors/
Anyone have any other suggestions?
Building regs question: In the next 5 years or so we plan to do a multi-storey extension at the back of our house (not a loft conversion) and so I am aware that we'll need to meet building regs. Everything I've read about 3 storey houses says they need fire-rated doors, so I wanted to find out if that would also apply to us - if so, it would make sense to do that now, rather than have to replace in a few years time.
The issue is that although we have 3 floors these are over upper ground (steps up from street level to front door), lower ground (steps down from street level to alternative front entrance) and first floor. A bit like this (without the loft conversion... this is, unfortunately, not my house).
The regs talk about the 3rd storey being over 4.5m above ground level, but what is ground level (the lowest floor of the house? street level? ground floor level?) Our first floor is about 4m above street level, 3m above upper ground floor level, but more than 4.5m above lower ground floor level. There are entrance doors on both lower and upper ground floors. So, does anyone know if will we need fire doors to meet building regs after a future extension project?
If you got to the end of that, thank you and well done!