Residential Applications

The requirements of the Building Regulations for England & Wales are outlined in the guidance document known as The Approved Document B.

Section B1 of this document provides guidance on the general provisions for means of escape from apartments. Escape from low-rise flats is essentially simple enough, via windows, so no special requirements beyond compartmentation are required. However, with increasing height provisions that are more complex are required, as emergency escape from the upper floors becomes increasingly hazardous.

In addition to the provision of compartmentation in section B1, there are also requirements for the ventilation of common escape routes and areas to aid both means of escape and the fire-fighting operation. Advanced Smoke Technology offer code compliant systems and special fire engineering solutions' that can be found by selecting the relevant button for the system type from the matrix below.

Smoke Control System Types

Click on bullets below to view example diagrams of the applications.

Application	AOV Door/Shaft	AOV Wall	Extract	Pressure Differential
Stairs   Natural Powered
Lobbies Natural Powered
Corridor Natural Powered

In high rise apartment buildings with a height in excess of 11m, or where travel distances exceeds 4.5m, it is a requirement of the Approved Document B Building Regulations that any corridor adjacent to a staircase requires smoke ventilation. There is a choice of either an AOV (Automatic Opening Ventilator), AOV (natural) Shaft, or a Mechanical Pressurisation System. 

Please contact us for further help and assistance.

Note: Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own individual regulations and should you require any assistance relating to these regulations please contact us for help or assistance.