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Fire alarms, detectors and so on, a query

mapj1
I am appealing to those who do fire alarms, and have some knowledge of proper flat building technique, for a bit of insider knowledge before I may or may not decide to take issue with thre freeholders agents .

We have recently purchased a flat, and to be fair, as we dig deeper into renovation, there are a number of things about it that concern me. One relates to the fire alarm system which is the kind with a simple panel in the hallway, and sensors and sounders in each of the 20 or so flats in the building and the common area.

To set the scene the building is brick built, solid walls converted Victorian school type of thing, and it looks rather as if at no time in the last 20 years has any person working on it in any way missed any opportunity to cut corners, use the wrong coloured bricks, confuse mortar with cement, put woodscrews instead of bolts in the switch pattresses etc. so the warning signs are there.

Our flat is ground floor, and our ceiling is uneven, now very obvious after the  removal  of partition walls due to a damp problem that required removal of the floor and filling with cement. but that is not this question. In any case the ceiling is made of a frame of 2*4 timbers clad in  double plasterboard. In some cases this is below the floorboards of the flat above by about 3 feet, in other places more like a foot (the word 'uneven' does not really accurately capture the full condition, every cupboard and room seems to have been done by different teams who never met or looked in the other rooms, nor indeed possessed a working spirit level). This means there is a large irregular height void that as far as I can tell peering through some holes in  ceiling where we have removed the previous owners light fittings , has no lagging or fire detection in the void, just a clear view up to the remains of a victorian lath and plaster ceiling where most of it is missing, though the few remaining laths support T and E wiring to the flat above, whose floor boards are mostly visible.

Am I right in assuming this is not really to current fire standards ?

How should the ceiling have been constructed, I presume  fire integrity, sound proofing and thermal isolation should all come into it, and what arrangements should prevent or warn about a fire in the space between us and and the dancing elephants tenants in the flat above.

Should there be detection in the void ?

The free holders are a company that work through an agent, and the whole thing is quite tedious as they are very good at claiming that anyone else is responsible but them so I'd like my ducks in a row before going all para legal.


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    As others have identified, the line of fire protection is indeed your ceiling, the void then falling in to the compartment above thus any penetrations should meet requirements for the stipulated fire resistance of the compartmentation, which is, as burn has noted, generally height dependent. 

    It would appear that the fire strategy is simultaneous evacuation on the triggering of the common fire alarm system. You are fortunate to be on the ground floor as there is bound to be issues with false alarms, especially with what is likely to be a L2 system serving 20 flats. The system may have been stipulated to mitigate the difficulties in providing concrete assurance that in a Victorian building, the individual flats could survive burn out. 

    With respect to sound attenuation, BC focus on that is only relatively recent so you might have to try your best to mitigate the effects. Certainly if your flat has solid walls which rise through the building then both air borne and solid flanking transmission will be inevitable.

    if you are removing your ceilings then a BC application is required (and advised).
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  • 0
    As others have identified, the line of fire protection is indeed your ceiling, the void then falling in to the compartment above thus any penetrations should meet requirements for the stipulated fire resistance of the compartmentation, which is, as burn has noted, generally height dependent. 

    It would appear that the fire strategy is simultaneous evacuation on the triggering of the common fire alarm system. You are fortunate to be on the ground floor as there is bound to be issues with false alarms, especially with what is likely to be a L2 system serving 20 flats. The system may have been stipulated to mitigate the difficulties in providing concrete assurance that in a Victorian building, the individual flats could survive burn out. 

    With respect to sound attenuation, BC focus on that is only relatively recent so you might have to try your best to mitigate the effects. Certainly if your flat has solid walls which rise through the building then both air borne and solid flanking transmission will be inevitable.

    if you are removing your ceilings then a BC application is required (and advised).
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