Fire safety during refurbishment work: dust, doors, exits

A building under repair does not behave like a finished one. Walls are opened up, ceilings are removed and materials pile up in corridors that normally stay clear. The layout people rely on to get out changes, sometimes overnight.

The person responsible for fire safety must treat the refurbishment as a new situation. An existing assessment written for the finished building will not cover scaffolding blocking a window or a kitchen stripped back to bare joists. A specialist firm carries out a [fire risk assessment](/checks-and-training/fire-risk-assessment-reigate) that accounts for the work in progress, the tradespeople on site and the residents or staff still using the building.

In Reigate, many older homes and shops go through partial renovations rather than full rebuilds. That means occupied rooms sit next to active work zones. Smoke from a small fire in a stripped-out hallway can reach an occupied bedroom before anyone notices, because the walls that used to slow it down are gone.

Plaster dust settles on everything. It coats smoke detectors until they cannot sense a fire, and it clogs the vents on emergency lighting. Builders sweeping at the end of the day often push debris into corners or against doors, narrowing the path out without thinking about it.

Escape routes need to remain passable at all times. That means no stacks of plasterboard in a stairwell, no cables trailing across a landing and no skip parked outside the only ground-floor exit. If the normal route has to close, a temporary one must be signed clearly and lit properly.

Where dust is heavy, a specialist firm might recommend more frequent testing of alarms. Weekly checks matter more during building work than they do when a property sits undisturbed. Guidance on [weekly fire alarm testing](/journal/weekly-fire-alarm-testing-in-reigate-checks-and-logs) explains what the log should record and who needs to see it.

Tradespeople prop fire doors open to carry tools through. It takes two seconds and ruins the protection the door was fitted to provide. A wedged-open fire door lets smoke travel from a work area into an occupied flat or office within minutes.

Compartmentation is the system of walls, floors and doors that keeps a fire inside the room where it starts. Refurbishment breaks holes in that system. Pipes run through new gaps, cables thread through old walls and temporary partitions replace solid ones. Until the work finishes and the seals go back, the building is more vulnerable than usual.

A [compartmentation survey](/checks-and-training/compartmentation-survey-reigate) identifies where the barriers have been breached. In Reigate buildings with shared hallways, such as converted houses or flats above shops, maintaining those barriers during work protects everyone who is not involved in the renovation. A specialist firm inspects the voids, checks the seals around new pipework and confirms which doors still close fully on their hinges.

Welding, soldering, grinding and torch-applied roofing all produce sparks or naked flames. On a building site surrounded by timber offcuts, packaging and solvent-soaked rags, those sparks find fuel quickly.

A hot work permit is a written agreement that the area has been cleared, a fire extinguisher is standing by and someone will watch the space for a set time after the tool is switched off. Without that process, a smouldering joist can burn unnoticed until the crew has left for the day.

More detail on how these permits work locally is available in the guide to [hot work permits in Reigate](/journal/hot-work-permits-in-reigate-welding-cutting-roofing). The responsible person must ensure every contractor follows the same rules. Separate firms working on plumbing and roofing might not talk to each other about where they plan to use heat, so the permit system forces that conversation.

People learn their escape route through repetition. When scaffolding covers the usual door or a corridor becomes a storage area, that learned route fails. Residents in a block of flats, or staff in a shop undergoing a refit, need to know exactly what has changed and what to do instead.

An updated [fire evacuation plan](/checks-and-training/fire-evacuation-plans-reigate) reflects the temporary layout. It marks which exits are closed, where the assembly point has moved and who checks each room before leaving. Paper copies pinned near the altered routes help more than a single document filed in an office.

If the building remains occupied, the responsible person should brief everyone affected before work begins. That includes tenants, neighbours sharing a hallway and any delivery drivers who enter regularly. A short session on the changes prevents confusion if an alarm sounds while contractors are on site.

The law places the duty on the responsible person, usually the building owner or employer. Hiring a builder does not transfer that duty. If a fire starts because of poor housekeeping on a refurbishment project, the responsible person answers for it. Contractors carry their own obligations for safe working practices, but the overall management of the building stays with whoever controls it. That means checking that the builders store flammable materials safely, clear waste daily and never disable alarms without permission. Understanding these duties matters before any work starts. The guide to [responsible person duties](/who-needs-what/responsible-person-duties) sets out what the role requires in practice.