Three-story Houses
Provided every room opens onto a hallway or corridor, a two storey house is not going to have any problems meeting fire safety regulations. But there is a critical safety level, defined as having a floor 4.5m above ground level, when it becomes necessary to beef up your escape procedures. One of the principal requirements relates to how your main staircase runs through the house. Ideally the staircase should lead directly to the front entrance door within an enclosed hallway: what is frowned upon are open-plan arrangements, particularly when the staircase exits via the kitchen (reckoned to be the highest risk area).
You also need to consider how to protect the stairwell from encroaching fire. There are two options. The first is to make the entire stairwell what is called a fully protected enclosure; this means that the walls around the landing and stairwell must be rated at 30 minutes fire resistance and the doors opening onto the landing must be rated at 20 minutes. The second option doesn't insist on fire doors but instead requires that you design at least one window in the top floor as an escape window allowing the fire brigade to get a ladder safely under it. You also need to consider the floor construction which also needs to meet the 30 minute fire rating.
If you are undertaking a new build or a major renovation, it's not difficult to meet these standards; in fact in terms of walls and floors it's quite difficult not to meet them. The only place where you are likely to come unstuck is on the doors. Not only do you need a thicker door - most fire doors are 44mm thick, the same as external doors, but you will also be required to fit them with door-closers. The least obtrusive solution here is the Perko door-closer which is fitted into the hinge side of each door and connects to a plate fixed to the door frame. They are cheap to buy (around £7 each) and a pain to fit and adjust - at least I find them painful - but they do the job. Fire doors are also much more expensive than regular doors: Premdor Crosby are a good source for fire check doors. If you are converting an existing house, there are fireproof (or intumescent) paints that you can apply to doors to upgrade them; check out Environmental Seals.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Kitchen Units
Kitchen units
The fitted kitchen is an invention of the late 20th century In the Sixties, a kitchen cabinet was thought of as something to do with Harold Wilson's unique government style. But shortly thereafter, the fitted kitchen arrived in the home in a big way. And, bit—by—bit, we have learned to spend more and more money on our kitchens. There are several procurement routes, each with its own pitfalls. Whilst the bulk of the new kitchen market now goes into replacing existing kitchens, a significant chunk gets accounted for by the 150,000-odd new homes built each year. And whilst a penny pinching spec house builder may spend as little as £2,000 on fitting a kitchen on a starter home, you only have to open a Sunday newspaper to realise that some people are happy to spend over £l 00,000 on a fitted (or perhaps an unfitted) kitchen. Bigger of course, better undoubtedly, but not fifty times bigger or better.
Just shelves with fancy doors.
When we think of fitted kitchens, we think of how the door fronts look. The kitchen dream sellers are well aware of this and, although the actual units may make up only 25 per cent of the final bill, these are how kitchens are sold to us. New fashions have come but they’ve never really gone so kitchen design continually expands to incorporate new ideas whilst simultaneously recycling the old ones. The basic manufacturing process is relatively simple and cheap so that no new idea can ever be free from imitators for more than a few months.
The kitchen business is fully metricated and works in modular units which increase in 100mm intervals. Thus any given range of floor units or wall cupboards will be available in widths of typically 300mm, 400mm, 500mm and 600mm; 600mm is the key one, this is the building block of the fitted kitchen — appliances are conventionally made to fit into 600mmgaps. The other sizes tend to get used to fill awkward gaps between the 600mm units. By twiddling the plan about a bit, you can fill any space on any wall to the nearest 100mm — and they sell blanking—off pieces to cover any little gaps left over. So give a kitchen designer a space that's 3600x2400mm and they will tend to think of it as six units long and four across.
All but the most expensive kitchen unit carcasses are made from a wood pulp board like chipboard or MDF usually covered with a melamine veneer which serves both to make them stronger and moisture resistant. The cheaper doors, which are hung over these carcasses, are made of similar materials, though here the melamine covering is usually decorated with some trim. Solid timber is a more upmarket door option and there are more adventurous designs using materials such as stainless steel and plastic.
The fitted kitchen is an invention of the late 20th century In the Sixties, a kitchen cabinet was thought of as something to do with Harold Wilson's unique government style. But shortly thereafter, the fitted kitchen arrived in the home in a big way. And, bit—by—bit, we have learned to spend more and more money on our kitchens. There are several procurement routes, each with its own pitfalls. Whilst the bulk of the new kitchen market now goes into replacing existing kitchens, a significant chunk gets accounted for by the 150,000-odd new homes built each year. And whilst a penny pinching spec house builder may spend as little as £2,000 on fitting a kitchen on a starter home, you only have to open a Sunday newspaper to realise that some people are happy to spend over £l 00,000 on a fitted (or perhaps an unfitted) kitchen. Bigger of course, better undoubtedly, but not fifty times bigger or better.
Just shelves with fancy doors.
When we think of fitted kitchens, we think of how the door fronts look. The kitchen dream sellers are well aware of this and, although the actual units may make up only 25 per cent of the final bill, these are how kitchens are sold to us. New fashions have come but they’ve never really gone so kitchen design continually expands to incorporate new ideas whilst simultaneously recycling the old ones. The basic manufacturing process is relatively simple and cheap so that no new idea can ever be free from imitators for more than a few months.
The kitchen business is fully metricated and works in modular units which increase in 100mm intervals. Thus any given range of floor units or wall cupboards will be available in widths of typically 300mm, 400mm, 500mm and 600mm; 600mm is the key one, this is the building block of the fitted kitchen — appliances are conventionally made to fit into 600mmgaps. The other sizes tend to get used to fill awkward gaps between the 600mm units. By twiddling the plan about a bit, you can fill any space on any wall to the nearest 100mm — and they sell blanking—off pieces to cover any little gaps left over. So give a kitchen designer a space that's 3600x2400mm and they will tend to think of it as six units long and four across.
All but the most expensive kitchen unit carcasses are made from a wood pulp board like chipboard or MDF usually covered with a melamine veneer which serves both to make them stronger and moisture resistant. The cheaper doors, which are hung over these carcasses, are made of similar materials, though here the melamine covering is usually decorated with some trim. Solid timber is a more upmarket door option and there are more adventurous designs using materials such as stainless steel and plastic.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Internal Doors
Internal Doors
The world of Internal doors is split between the hollow and the solid. The hollow doors are like sandwiches; the casings are layers of board and the filling consists of a material very similar to egg boxes. Where you would normally place the handle and latch, they put a solid hunk of wood called the lock block and foolish would-be chippies (like me) have been known to hang these doors in a hurry, only to find that the lock block is on the hinge side of the door. If you are observant, you will hang the door on the correct side - there is only ever one lock block in a hollow door and if you look on the bottom edge you will see which side the lock block is located.
This all sounds very cheap and tacky and, generally speaking, eggbox-style doors are, but they can also be purchased with hardwood veneers, usually from some environmentally incorrect species like sapele (pronounced sa-pee-lee), and this pushes the price up to levels at which you can buy solid softwood doors, around the £25 mark. Sapele is in fact by far and away the most popular veneer in this country: the doors have 2.5mm chipboard facing onto which the veneers are ironed or steamed.
The cheapest doors you can get are eggbox-filled doors which are encased in, wait for it, hardboard. Expect to pay around £12 for one of these but don't ever kick it. A popular variation on this theme is the embossed or moulded door; they are no stronger but they imitate the fielded panels found on timber doors and some of them imitate wood grain texture. The simpler ones cost between £30 and £40 each and they look quite acceptable when painted, which is what they are designed for. Some superior ones use a type of fibreboard for the casing and they are strong enough to take glazing, although doors with glazing panels are much more expensive - around £70. All the major joinery manufacturers have a selection of these doors and, if you want to select a door, get hold of one of their catalogues. Premdor Crosby and Magnet both have good ranges. Most designs are also available in hi-fold format for use as sliding cupboard doors.
The world of Internal doors is split between the hollow and the solid. The hollow doors are like sandwiches; the casings are layers of board and the filling consists of a material very similar to egg boxes. Where you would normally place the handle and latch, they put a solid hunk of wood called the lock block and foolish would-be chippies (like me) have been known to hang these doors in a hurry, only to find that the lock block is on the hinge side of the door. If you are observant, you will hang the door on the correct side - there is only ever one lock block in a hollow door and if you look on the bottom edge you will see which side the lock block is located.
This all sounds very cheap and tacky and, generally speaking, eggbox-style doors are, but they can also be purchased with hardwood veneers, usually from some environmentally incorrect species like sapele (pronounced sa-pee-lee), and this pushes the price up to levels at which you can buy solid softwood doors, around the £25 mark. Sapele is in fact by far and away the most popular veneer in this country: the doors have 2.5mm chipboard facing onto which the veneers are ironed or steamed.
The cheapest doors you can get are eggbox-filled doors which are encased in, wait for it, hardboard. Expect to pay around £12 for one of these but don't ever kick it. A popular variation on this theme is the embossed or moulded door; they are no stronger but they imitate the fielded panels found on timber doors and some of them imitate wood grain texture. The simpler ones cost between £30 and £40 each and they look quite acceptable when painted, which is what they are designed for. Some superior ones use a type of fibreboard for the casing and they are strong enough to take glazing, although doors with glazing panels are much more expensive - around £70. All the major joinery manufacturers have a selection of these doors and, if you want to select a door, get hold of one of their catalogues. Premdor Crosby and Magnet both have good ranges. Most designs are also available in hi-fold format for use as sliding cupboard doors.
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