Hand on PanicThis question comes up quite often, so I hope some of you have insight to share.  In the words of my old friend Waller Elliott, “Picture this:”

You have an existing single door swinging into a stairwell, with a 90-minute fire rating.  The door has fire exit hardware with non-locking trim on the stair side, and the owner wants to add access control to prevent unauthorized people from entering the tenant space from the stairwell.  The existing hollow metal frame is filled with grout, and prepped for 3 hinges and reinforced for a roller strike.  The existing hollow metal door is prepped for rim fire exit hardware – a Von Duprin 99L-F-BE.  The code that applies to this renovation is the 2015 edition of the International Building Code.

Which access control product would you add to the door (don’t forget about stairwell reentry!)?  Is a new door required or can you reuse the existing door?  How do you get the wires where they need to go?  What other considerations do we need to address?

Just leave a comment on this blog post to share your thoughts!

UPDATE: Please check out the follow-up post for more information on this application.

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