DHI
This post was printed in the August 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware I was recently asked about battery back-up for an automatic operator, after an architect noted that it was required by the 2010 ADA guidelines. The doors in question were existing bathroom doors that did not have the maneuvering clearance required for manual [...]
This post was printed in the April 2011 issue of: I had heard the rumors about a change to the Life Safety Code that would exempt classroom doors from needing closers, but I finally had time to track it down. Here’s the scoop: According to the 2009 edition of NFPA 101, corridor walls must have [...]
This post was printed in the April 2012 issue of Doors & Hardware The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (available for download at www.ada.gov) officially went into effect on March 15, 2012. The requirement for a 10-inch-high flush bottom rail on manual doors is now included in the ADA standards. Previously, it was not [...]
This post was printed in the February 2012 issue of Doors & Hardware For a long time I’ve been trying to compile some definitive answers to questions about smoke doors. Well, the time has come. Doors & Hardware will be running an article about smoke doors, and my deadline is…well…today. I would really appreciate it [...]
This post was printed in the March 2012 issue of Doors & Hardware An electromagnetic lock is basically an electromagnet mounted in an enclosure on the frame head, with a steel armature mounted on the door. When the door is closed and the magnet is energized, the magnet bonds to the steel armature and locks [...]
My friend, Dick Barnhard, sent me a link so I could download all of the Steel Door Institute (SDI) standards at once – 308 pages! What a nice Mothers Day gift to go along with my painted macaroni necklace and pipe-cleaner bracelet! It actually turned out to be perfect timing because I was working [...]
This post was printed in the January 2012 issue of Doors & Hardware Delayed egress hardware prevents a door from being opened from the egress side, usually for a period of 15 seconds. This type of device is often used to prevent theft, while maintaining life safety. The system is most commonly comprised of an [...]
This post was printed in the January 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware A while back I wrote a post about spending time in a maternity ward, which was a completely locked unit requiring remote release from the nurses’ station to exit. Although the 2009 edition of NFPA 101 allows egress doors in certain health [...]
This post was printed in the October 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware New requirements were added to the 2009 editions of the International Building Code, the International Fire Code, and NFPA 101 – The Life Safety Code, regarding luminous egress path markings (NFPA 101 calls them “Exit Stair Path Markings”). These markings on stairs, [...]
This post was printed in the March 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware One of the gray areas the door and hardware industry has struggled with is the use of manual flush bolts on pairs of doors in a means of egress. The language in NFPA 101 – The Life Safety Code prohibiting manual flush [...]
This post was printed in the May 2011 issue of: I started studying code requirements related to hardware in the mid-90′s, and I decided to conduct a little “survey” to see if my fellow hardware consultants could benefit from having a resource for code information. The survey question was, “When is panic hardware required by [...]
This post was printed in the December 2010 issue of: Someone brought this to my attention yesterday and I thought there had to be a mistake. I was handed a slide from a recent presentation on NFPA 72 – National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, which said that all exit doors with access control had [...]
This post was printed in the June 2011 issue of: Over the years, I’ve heard many people mention the rule of thumb that the rating of the fire door assembly is “3/4 of the rating of the wall.” Although the fire door rating is typically less than the rating of the wall, the 3/4 ratio [...]
This post was printed in the November 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware I continuously receive questions regarding roof doors – specifically whether free access is required from the stairwell to the roof, and whether free egress is required from the roof to the stairwell. The codes don’t address roof doors in detail so some [...]
This post was printed in the February 2011 issue of: It’s hard to believe that this question still comes up as often as it does, so I’m hoping to definitively answer it once and for all. The question is “Do single bathrooms require locks which release with one operation?” The question is most often asked [...]
This post was printed in the September 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware Stairwell doors are often locked on the stair side to prevent unauthorized entry into tenant spaces. The term “stairwell reentry” refers to the code requirements which allow a building occupant to leave a stairwell during a fire emergency, and find another [...]
