Does Attic Door Needs To Be Fire Rated

Fire doors are essential for a loft conversion.
Does attic door needs to be fire rated. The image below courtesy of the fine folks at codecheck illustrates this. Pull down stairs or other hatches providing access to shared attic space should conform to modern firewall requirements and these stairs do not. Recommend replacing the existing stairs with fire rated stairs or consulting your local fire marshal for more options i also include a definition of shared attic space below the comment narrative. Door to house this is the only place where any fire rating is specified.
If there are habitable rooms above the garage 5 8 type x fire rated drywall must be used at the ceiling. If the door is not solid wood or steel honeycomb and at least 1 3 8 thick then it must have a 20 minute fire rating. This also applies to structural members and this extends to the attic in a common sense type of way. Building regulations state that you need to create a safe corridor from the loft to the outside of the building and this requires changing all the existing doors on rooms that are on the.
The hatch is equipped with a gasket that expands under extreme heat. The fakro lwf fire rated ladder gives you the ability to access the attic and even blocks a blaze if one breaks out. Likely needs a self closure device. By the way cutting a hole in the door to install a pet door flap voids the 20 minute rating.
It is for this reason that for safety and durability fire rated access door ceiling application requires an insulated product. You need to change any existing doors in the loft to fire doors and new doors added need to be fire rated. An insulated fire rated door carries a temperature rise rating that uninsulated ones don t have. The insurance adjuster can come and claim that the access ladder was not as per code as it let the fire spread into the attic and decline your claim.
Access doors and panels offers you ceiling and attic access panels fire rated upward opening fire rated downward opening with or without drywall flange. Also put rubber seals around the edges that are fire rated. You need to buy a 26 guage metal plate cut to the size of the pull down door and screw it to the hatch. Reasons why you need a fire rated attic access door 1 building codes require fire rated attic access doors.
More and more building codes are now requiring the use of fire rated. If you still want to replace the door a fire rated door is only one option to meet the fire separation requirement the garage and residence shall be equipped with solid wood doors not less than 1 3 8 inches in thickness solid or honeycomb core.