Author Topic: Residential Care Home Cellar  (Read 4071 times)

Offline Alec

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Residential Care Home Cellar
« on: October 09, 2014, 05:07:52 PM »
Hi all I wonder if I could have your opinion on this please.

A care home that I provide fire safety training for is soon to be visited by the local fire service inspector.
He has touched base with them via a phone call and arranged to visit, they said he seems very amicable over the phone.
The point is though they happened to mention that they store a small quantity of paint tins in the cellar and although the inspector has not seen these tins he seems to of implied that they cannot stay.

The cellar is accessed from a corridor just off from the main entrance it has a 1hr locked fire door which opens up onto concrete stairs at the base of the stairs the cellar spits in two like a T junction about 7 mts in length, brick walls and concrete ceiling,  AFD is fitted in both sides, the right side houses the building boiler and the left side is used for storage.


My couple of question are this:

If a flame proof locker was put in the storage side of the cellar to put the paint tins in would this not be sufficient protection?
And
Is there a legislative document that says you can not store paint in a cellar?

I have already discussed moving them to another location but just wanted some opinions please.  

Thanks
Al

« Last Edit: October 09, 2014, 05:11:14 PM by Alec »

Offline kurnal

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Re: Residential Care Home Cellar
« Reply #1 on: October 09, 2014, 05:41:47 PM »
Hi all cannot stay
My couple of question are this:

If a flame proof locker was put in the storage side of the cellar to put the paint tins in would this not be sufficient protection?
And
Is there a legislative document that says you can not store paint in a cellar?

I have already discussed moving them to another location but just wanted some opinions please. 

Thanks
Al

Some paint is very low risk,  cellulose type paints and thinners are the only ones that would normally be a concern as leakage would produce a heavy, flammable vapour.  Not a great idea in a basement next to a boiler room. Most other types of paint should be fine. The manufacturers data sheet will advise on suitable precautions.



Offline Alec

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Re: Residential Care Home Cellar
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2014, 08:37:10 PM »
Thanks for your reply Kernal.