OT Building Regulations Garage/Kitchen Door

Mrs Kona TC viewed a couple of houses today one which caught her eye a door in the kitchen that opened directly into the garage. Given that garages have exhaust fumes in them when driving a car in/out this doesn’t seem right to me

Any advice greatly received

We had a kitchen door entering into the garage at the last house. i guess it is legal. We converted the garage into a dining room as it was too narrow to open the car door.

I’m no expert, but I know a friend who had a similar door put in, and the regs said it had to be a fire door.

the garage is a separate fire zone I think, hence need for fire door if you are building new or replacing. Same applies to the garage ceiling itf there’s a habitable room above.

Other than that I dont think there’s any major regs issues and certainly not for something that might have been built before any pertinent reg came in.

zuke is correct… door to garages must be fire rated and have a self closeing device ideally

It was a fire door we had.

When we converted it into a room we had to cut a door through the bricks to the living room. 12 inches of concrete fireproof breeze block was a real bitch to cut through.

Half hour rated door plus there must be a step down …….150mm irrc. On new build anyway.

Zuke, stone and matt correct – have a check on the panning portal for approved document b1 (dwellinghouses) 2010 ediion – there is a section on there explaining – for clarification/confirmation like

Same applies to the garage ceiling if there’s a habitable room above

There is a bed room above the garage as well, if the 2nd viewing goes ok I will get a full survey to make sure all is sound

Many thanks Guys

EDIT

hoochylala thanks for pointer

Mebbe worth adding – building regs aren’t (AFAIA) retrospective, so what they require now re a new build/renovation may well be different to when the doorway was built.

Fire door with fire door frame and intumescent strip all round, step down into garage in case of petrol leak, fire proof ceiling, Air bricks would be nice as would be an extractor fan for the fumes,also 5 lever mortice sah lock on the door wuith British standard kit mark, for insurance purposes.

and intumescent strip all round

Well if you want the fine detail, also cold smoke seals. Intumescent strips 3 sides I believe it is btw.

Cold smoke seal is now ususlly included with the intumescent seal, and also the base of the door needs doing on new build.

I would also fit a smoke alarm .

but of course all of that is only if you are substantially re=working an existing garage or building a new one.

Whilst a lot of regs is a load of bollocks, most of the fire ones are sensible and if you wanted comfort most of the stuff above (except the step down) could be done relatively easily if the garage was constructed before the regs came in and you wanted to bring it up to code of your own volition.

What Stoner said is spot on. If it was my house, I’d happily spend a couple of hundred pounds making sure there was a decent door between my garage and kitchen.

Whilst not disagreeing with Stoner… Going back the OP… Either the house has consent, in which case no problem (Building Regs are not retroactive BTW but note any alterations that may need to comply), or it doesn’t, in which case run screaming from the room.

WRT regulation, this has got a little OTT IMHO. The limitations of legislation in the real world is nicely illustrated by the standard joke from Fire Officers on the correct use of fire extinguishers being to hold open self closing fire doors. Most domestic self-closing devices are disabled as soon as the Building Inspector is out of sight.

So, a door between kitchen and garage is not inherently disastrous. Obviously any quarter sensible occupant of the house would keep closed (most of the time) any door between garage and kitchen . People that do otherwise will no doubt attract a Darwinian solution sooner or later. All the legislation, intumescent strips, door closers and alarms are not going to change that very much. However, and rather annoyingly, they do add significantly to the cost of building houses both directly and indirectly all without adding any value.

Oh, and fire resistance of doors is always related to the context of the building overall so we should avoid too many generalisations without sufficient data.

Back at the OP again… it either has consent or not. You’re either a Darwin candidate or you’re not.

I wouldnt worry about car fumes entering the kitchen so much as smells from my wifes cooking poluting my car!

OTP,

The fire resistance of doors is equally threatened by the skill of the joiner who installed them. Ive lost count of the number of £1000+ doorsets ive seen installed so poorly, they might aswell have installed a £50 B&Q special.

i was in a house recently where the bathroom was directly off the kitchen; i.e. one door only between the cooker and the WC. Seems wrong and presumably is but noone had died so far as I know.

Door from kitchen to garage – does it really matter? How down is the downside?

The fire resistance of doors is equally threatened by the skill of the joiner who installed them.

Quite impossible on a new build. Or are you saying that Building Control Officers, Clerk of Works, and the NHBC, (plus site management) aren’t doing their jobs properly ?

If a door is so badly hung that it won’t comply with the regs, then the property simply won’t be handed over on completion.

ah but how good are the regs inspections?

Mine was beautifully brief and cursory 🙂

Well it’s in a lot of people’s interest that they are done properly Stoner, including the NHBC, the mortgage lender, and the client’s clerk of works ……..as is appropriate.

how do NHBC police the build quality for their underwrite unless they themselves do the regs sign off or at least their own inspections?

The mortgage lender relies upon the NHBC warranty, but you dont see them second guessing the qulaity of any regs inspection. They have no sanction against an LA Building Control dept do they?

how do NHBC police the build quality for their underwrite unless they themselves do the regs sign off or at least their own inspections?

😕 You’ve lost me Stoner…….that’s what NHBC do – they go on site and inspect. So do Building Control Officers, Clerk of Works, and sometimes, mortgage lender surveyors.

People keep cars in their garages? News to me 🙂

The garage must be a separate compartment from the rest of the house and separated by a fire door of 30mins. This will be your only self closing door in the property. There are two options with regards to the step, 100mm min to level floor or a sloping floor away from the door towards the garage door. These are post 2006 regulations and prior to that you had to build your house with a step as the slanted floor wasn’t acceptable.

Stoner – at the end of the day you just want your certificate. A lot of leg work is done durig the design stage and there are checklists for on site checks Most of the schemes I do are inspected by LABC and NHBC. NHBC are darting to get really hot on a lot of issues as they have been caught out badly in the past. Every LABC. inspector I’ve used has been very thorough on site whether it’s a single house going up, 500 houses or a block of flats.