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Thanks all, this is super useful. It's a two storey property with stairs, and while the stairs don't go directly into the kitchen/diner, they do run parallel to it so I've assumed a door would be needed:
However I do have some familiarity with the equivalent regs for flats and I'm not sure they'd apply in this situation - because the escape route is not on the same storey as the fire risk, the route itself would still be clear unless the fire was really spilling out into the hallway.
Can anyone recommend a third party building regs company who could clarify for me?
ReekBlefs-
Two storeys being ground and first? If this is the case, and you don't intend to do a loft conversion then there is no need for a door to your kitchen/diner (see top-right example in the above building regs part B screenshot).
Saying that, it doesn't seem too onerous to add a door as the above plans and it might help stop kitchen smells spreading throughout the house? A FD20 door would best future proof you should you wish to build upwards at a future date.
You will need to appoint an approved inspector to sign the above off now. Doing it retrospectively in say 10years time will require the works to meet regs at that point rather than when the works were done.
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I have a similar setup and no door.
I would say though that I'd prefer to have a door. Sometimes you want to be able to close the kitchen off for smells/noise/stuff coming in from the garden, etc.
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Can anyone recommend a third party building regs company who could clarify for me?
This is (in the words of the architects we're using, the other day) a fast moving area after Grenfell. With all due respect to other posters, this isn't really something you want advice from the internet on. Appoint half decent building control, ask them. If you've got a builder and structural engineer involved you want that anyway.
I say this as someone with a loft extension who is changing the path of our stairs so they'll exit into our living room, not our hall, and at least in theory that's £4k on an electric skylight and a sprinkler system. Although said stairs currently go down into the living room with no separating wall, so I'm struggling to see how I wouldn't pass out from smoke inhalation before I got to the door anyway if I'm honest.
It is very common to circumvent this sort of thing by, for example, fitting a door for the building control visit them removing it afterwards (I definitely did not do this on my last project). And I'm definitely not considering something similar for this one. Definitely not. But death by fire isn't nice.
For building control, I can only really comment on my personal experience and other people might have much better, but last time we used NHBC, I did contact them for a quote recently, but they were so bad at actually giving me a quote I lost all faith at that point. Our architects have good experience with PWC, but I've not used them myself because I went with London Building Control who were recommended by @dbr and a bit cheaper. But so far I've paid them and heard nothing so can't really recommend them as such so far...
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That’s the same layout we have, the door where you have marked is what we need for building control.
EstelleGetty
aggi
Fox
Ramsaye
Are you sure? I thought the issue was escape routes, do your stairs come down into the dining room? (Although I might be a few years out of date there.)
Maybe worth a bit of a chat with a third party building regs company.