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Every so often, I wonder what I'm going to write about on this blog after I've covered all of the code requirements for doors and hardware. I mean, it's a very specific subject area so at some point I could run out of questions. And then something comes up that I've never looked into, and I stop wondering. There will always be more questions. If hardware was easy, it would be called "easyware," right? :-)
You know me...when I go somewhere new, I never pass up the chance to share photos of the interesting doors I encounter. Unfortunately, my latest trip was a 3-night stay in the local hospital. It's always something.
Unfortunately, the media is not saying much about the closed bedroom doors in Sunday's episode of This Is Us (so I will).
Yesterday morning, a 10-alarm fire occurred at Brockton Hospital, a 216-bed health care facility in Massachusetts. The fire reportedly began in the main transformer room of the hospital, and approximately 160 patients were evacuated. More in today's post...
Sixty years ago, 16 people were killed in a fire at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. This fire, which began when someone dumped smoldering cigarette ashes down a trash chute, resulted in many code changes related to health care facilities.
Today's Quick Question: Can on-call rooms in a hospital have occupancy indicator deadbolts that are separate from the latchsets, or do these doors have to unlatch with one releasing motion?
December 8th, 2011, was the 50-year anniversary of a fire at Hartford Hospital which caused the death of 16 patients, staff, and visitors, and resulted in many important changes to code requirements for hospital construction. Connecticut Public Television has just released a video about the tragedy and the resulting code changes. Other than the statement "all patient room doors must have positively latching hinges," it's a great piece.
I'm spending time at a VA hospital, where my father is currently in hospice care. Even under these circumstances I can't help looking at the hardware, and I know my father would tell me to go ahead and share it. I haven't taken many photos but there are a couple below. In case I don't get a chance to post tomorrow, consider this an early Fixed-it Friday post...
Several people have asked me lately about the standard mounting height for two products - deadbolts and hospital latches. WWYD?
I've received lots of reader photos lately...thank you, and keep 'em coming!
When tragedy strikes, a common reaction is to examine what went wrong...what could have been done to affect a better outcome? In many cases throughout history, codes were changed because of tragic events. For the door and hardware industry, fires at the Iroquios Theater, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, Cocoanut Grove Nightclub, Our Lady of Angels School, and the Station Nightclub come to mind as catalysts for code change.
Delayed egress vs. controlled egress...can you explain the difference? Do you know when and where each type of locking hardware is allowed, and what the IBC requires in order to ensure life safety?
I'm sorry I've been incommunicado this week...sometimes life gets in the way of hardware. When I agreed to lend a hand to my sister-in-law during the birth of my niece, I had no idea it would take 4 days! The good news is that my niece has arrived, and I was able to spend 4 days wandering the hospital halls looking at the hardware.
What led to this "fix"? Any theories?
For most types of buildings, lever-handle locksets are standard equipment, but some existing buildings may be equipped with knobs. Are knobs acceptable by code in existing health care facilities?
As promised, I found quite a few interesting applications during our stay at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, which I will post here in the next few weeks. I also received some reader photos in response to my plea for help in keeping this site supplied with posts that weren't too time-consuming for me while my daughter recovered from her surgery. Thank you for the photos, as well as the emails to check on her progress. We were able to go home on Friday as planned, and she's running around like nothing happened.
I recently received this Quick Question from a locksmith at a university medical center: On patient room doors in a hospital, is it code-compliant to install traditional classroom function locksets which allow free egress from the room?
Last week I posted a photo of a deadlock on a pair with panic hardware, and I included a poll to find out what you all thought should be done about the problem. I received some photos yesterday that gave me the idea to make this a regular feature of the blog - "What Would You Do?" (WWYD). Check out the photos, the code excerpts, and scroll all the way down to vote in the poll.
This post should have been on Wordless Wednesday, because I'm not sure what to say that I haven't already said. For the 8th time in 3 years, a major fire in Kolkata, India, has resulted in multiple fatalities. At least 19 people were killed (one news report says 28) with 50 people injured, when an "illegal" market burned. This market has been in existence for over 25 years, and the building is 5 stories tall, so I don't know how the government can claim ignorance of the problems.
Do you remember back in July when I shared crazy Wordless Wednesday photos of how a flash flood affected some doors? Well, here's a WW video of a similar incident!
The 2009 edition of the International Building Code (IBC) contains an important change that's easy to miss if you're not looking for it. I stumbled across it a few months ago when someone asked me about the exception for cross-corridor doors without positive latching in I-2 occupancies.
These photos were sent in by Nolan Thrope of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies. He said they had the velcro version of wander-prevention on numerous doors. What say you?
After the post on smoke doors I know I was ready for a break and I thought you might be too. I love photographs of urban decay, and Ward9 features some amazing photos of really interesting and often beautiful architectural ruins. I asked for permission to share a couple of the photos with you...go check out WardNine.com to see the rest and read a little about the history of these amazing places.
In addition to beautiful doors and interesting locks, I love old architecture and the amazing photography that captures the decay of these crumbling structures. I look forward to new photo essays posted on the Kingston Lounge site, and the most recent was especially exciting because it's very close to my town and an important part of Worcester, Massachusetts history.
Is it just me, or does this seem questionable on several levels (encroachment, projection into the clear opening width, potential for damage)? Is this an actual product or a creative modification?
Last week someone called me with a "quick question" about a double egress pair in a hospital. The hospital wanted to install shear locks on a pair of double egress doors, to use during emergency lock-downs. Unfortunately, as some of you have figured out by now, I don't usually have a quick answer. There are actually two issues here:
My daughter Norah and I went to New Haven yesterday for what will hopefully be our last trip to Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital. Thank you to everyone who has inquired about her...she's doing great and is back to her old tricks.
About 5 years ago I was in a large hospital that had just spent thousands of dollars (probably tens of thousands) to have a "pre-Joint-Commission inspection" done...
Questions about frame labels have come up several times this week, so I guess it's time for a post. I've pulled together some information from various sources and I hope some of you will chime in with your input.
