Austin Baumann of Central Indiana Hardware sent me this photo of the emergency exit in a mirror maze. This would be considered a special amusement building - I wrote about some of the requirements for those occupancies here. I have often seen means of egress modifications...
It's been a really long time since I posted a collection of reader photos because I've been using a lot of these submissions for Wordless Wednesday and Fixed-it Friday. Here are some of the reader photos that have been patiently waiting in my inbox...
I'm in Dallas this week to teach DHI's COR140 - Using Codes and Standards and then attend the DHI Conference - CoNEXTions 2014. It's a crazy-busy week, so it may be a full week of reader photos. If you've been hoarding your awesome door photos, send them along!
Here's a big group of reader photos from the emailbox!
The photos from readers have piled up in my inbox again - thank you to everyone who has submitted them! I will post more next week and try to get the pile under control. I've also had a couple of requests for help...
It's been a while, so here are some of the many photos I've received from y'all...
Thank you to everyone who has sent me photos of doors they've seen in their travels (or while laying on the couch). Kelly Chimilar from Allmar Inc. noticed these doors with an obvious egress problem while watching Thursday Night Football. If you don't know what the problem is, I will hold a special online study session for you after work tonight. ;)
I've received lots of photos lately that illustrated problems with how products were specified, supplied, or installed. So let's play...what's wrong with this picture???
Time to clean out the inbox! Here's the first batch:
OK...who knows what's wrong with the door in this photo, sent in by Jeff Tock of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies?
I know it's not Wordless Wednesday, but this photo from Alec Walsh of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies definitely left me wordless!
I have A LOT of photos that have been sent in by readers of this blog - THANK YOU! Here is the first batch, which all feature closers in various states of problematic.
First, I need some help. I've seen photos of this application a few times (including this one from Jim Jensen of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies), but what do you use to attach the two closers together? Is it something that has to be custom made, or is there a standard part that can be repurposed for the job?
I have LOTS of reader photos that I haven't had a chance to edit and post, so here's the first batch! Thank you for sending them, and keep them coming! I'll try to work faster in 2013!
Danny Estryk of Entry Systems Ltd. sent me these photos of some very early offset pivots. The wood doors and the other portion of the pivots that were attached to them are long gone, but the stone portion remains. This opening is at the Belvoir Fortress in the Jordan Valley of Israel, built by the crusaders beginning in 1168.
My friend Nolan Thrope of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies really knows how to make a girl cry:
These ALL came from Jeff Tock, one of our national trainers who spends most weeks traveling around conducting classes and sees a lot of doors in the process. Jeff will be here in New England in a few weeks conducting the "Preparing for a Fire Door Inspection" class for facilities. If you work for a hospital, school, university, or other type of facility in the area and want to make sure that you're prepared, let me know and I'll put you on the invitation list.
How about some reader photos to ease you into the weekend? :D
I have spent this entire week at our corporate office, so I haven't had a lot of time for posting. In return for your patience, next week I will post the third and final article from Lewis C. Norton's "How I Discovered Door Checks." That seems fair, right?
I coincidentally received these two sets of photos on the same day. Who knew there was such cool hardware in Indiana??
It warms my heart when someone says, "I saw this door and I thought of you." :-) That's what Angie Sutton of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies wrote when she sent me this photo of an old vault door on a storage room at the county courthouse:
Here's the latest batch of photos sent in by blog readers. Thanks everyone!
Eyal Bedrik of Entry Systems Ltd. sent me a plethora of photos recently. I think he sent his entire "Creative Closers of Israel" file. :-)
Still cleaning out the e-mailbox...
Holy smokes! I guess I haven't posted reader photos for a while because I have SO MANY piled up in my e-mailbox. I have a really busy week and I'll be traveling to Connecticut to do a fire door inspection, so I won't have a lot of time for those wordy, informative posts you all love so much. :-) Instead, I'll get my e-mailbox cleaned out and post the photos sent in by blog readers. I really need to think of a catchy nickname for fans of this blog - like Trekkies (Star Trek fans) and Gleeks (fans of the TV show Glee). Got any ideas?
This Wordless Wednesday post can't be completely wordless (that's nothing new). These photos were sent to me by my friend and colleague, Kurt Roeper, who is traveling in China at the moment and reports that idighardware/ihatehardware is banned in China. Here's Kurt's note that came along with the photos:
I received a giant batch of photos today from a deputy fire marshal, and I could barely wait to post them. Whenever I get photos or comments from code officials I feel like the nerdy kid who got to sit with the cool kids at lunch one day. :-)
My inbox is overflowing with reader photos again. Thanks everyone!
I received lots of reader photos while I was going on and on about hotel doors. Here they are!
I'm in the mood to clean house (figuratively speaking only), so here's the latest collection of reader photos to hit my inbox. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send them. More, please. :-)
Here are some more reader photos that have recently hit my (e)mailbox...
I have received SO MANY reader photos lately - THANK YOU!
My site has been moved to a new server so hopefully all of the technical difficulties are behind us and I can get on with the important stuff - DOORS! :-)
Maybe I should have a new series called "Jeff Tock's Photos." :-) Jeff is one of the Ingersoll Rand trainers who travels the world teaching people about hardware, and he sees a lot of "special applications." Jeff sent me this group of photos recently (thanks Jeff!):
The good news is that these doors are being replaced, presumably with doors that will provide security without jeopardizing life safety. The bad news is that this is a popular restaurant and their main entrance doesn't come close to meeting the requirements for egress.
Some creative and unusual hardware applications sent in by blog readers:
Since it's one hour until Friday and I've had a very long week trying to catch up from being on vacation, here's some door-humor (yes, really). It's an automatic door on the Columbia University Physics building. The auto operator was being replaced with an LCN Senior Swing, but the installers were struggling through the installation without a wiring diagram, which can be extremely tough if there's other hardware involved. I feel a site visit coming on.
As I've said before, it makes me really happy when people send me photos of door and hardware applications they've seen in the field. I'm REALLY happy today because my inbox is full!
Unfortunately, these door photos from Ireland are not mine, since I'm currently on a stay-cation in the 95-degree heat. I received them from Bob Caron of Kelley Brothers of New England, and they were taken by his niece, Emily Hogue, on a recent trip to Ireland. Thanks Emily!
I love to receive photos from people who read my blog, and a couple of weeks ago I hit the jackpot. Within 24 hours I received a bunch!
After my request for readers to send me photos of hardware applications seen on their summer vacations, I received some photos of the entrance doors to the Notre Dame des Victoires Church in Quebec City, Canada. The church was erected in 1688, and is Quebec's oldest stone church.
I'm off to Carmel this week so it's going to be a busy one. I don't know if I'll get to the next smoke door post but I'll post some more application photos to tide you over. Here's another gravity closer with a bonus padlock on a temperature rise egress door. And before someone comments that these don't need to be temp rise doors, this opening is in Israel so I'm not sure which code was in use when they were installed.
I think I'm onto something...asking everyone to send their vacation photos of oddball hardware applications has already netted me several, including this photo of a gravity closer from Quebec City. The cable goes from the face of the door, through the pulley that the brown outfit is hanging on, then through another pulley and attaches to a weight that the green outfit is hanging on. Complicated, but pretty inexpensive as long as you don't need door control. ;-)
Every day I find a new excuse to avoid reading and writing about smoke doors. I swear I'll get back to them, but as construction gets rolling again we're getting really busy.
This is a new one. Translation: "Emergency Exit. Break and Press."
I've seen lots of creative ways of dogging fire exit hardware, but this one gets an "E" for Effort (along with an "F" for Fail). These devices are on fire doors in a hotel ballroom, and while someone went to great lengths on this modification, these doors are supposed to be self-latching to compartmentalize the building during a fire. The doors also had kick-down holders, so they're not self-closing either. :-(
My old buddy George Nimee used to tell a story about a school custodian who put black grease on the top of all the closer arms in the school. When the kids jumped up and grabbed the closer arm their hands would get all greasy, they'd wipe their hands on their shirts, and the custodian would know who'd been hanging on the closer arm. Ingenious!
It's a little scary how excited I get when I find photos in my inbox...mostly because it makes the subsequent post pretty easy and I don't have to try to make the doors I see during my own wanderings meaningful. I received these photos from one of our esteemed trainers, who travels around teaching people about hardware. Any hardware people who have attended a class in a hotel meeting room can vouch for the scary hardware applications you can find there.
It has been a while since I've received a new batch of photos from Israel but these were worth the wait. The Hurva is a reconstructed synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, with a long, storied history. Construction on the original synagogue began in the early 1700's, but the unfinished building was destroyed in 1721. It was rebuilt in 1864 and destroyed again in 1948. The most recent reconstruction began in 2005, and the reconstructed synagogue was officially opened on March 15, 2010.
I've been writing a lot about fire doors lately, and specifically about what bad condition many existing fire doors are in. The codes have always required fire doors to be kept in good working order, but with the specific requirement for the annual inspection of fire doors it will hopefully bring more of these deficiencies to light.
