I recently conducted a fire door assembly inspection and I noted that many of the existing frames had old holes that had been patched with Bondo filler putty. NFPA 80 requires that holes left by the removal of hardware must be filled with steel fasteners or with the same material as the door or frame. To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t a filler putty-type product that has been tested for this use. If anyone knows of a putty that is acceptable for use on fire-rated doors and frames, I’d love to hear about it.
Here’s the section from NFPA 80-2007 and 2010:
5.2.15.4 When holes are left in a door or frame due to changes or removal of hardware or plant-ons, the holes shall be repaired by the following methods:
(1) Install steel fasteners that completely fill the holes
(2) Fill the screw or bolt holes with the same material as the door or frame
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Hi Lori,
You’re right on. Like material shall be used when repairing fire doors and frames. It is acceptable, however, to use a filler like bondo for cosmetic reasons only after the hole has been properly filled with like material.
The site is great, very nice work!
Hal
How about ‘liquid steel’ from a tube to fill small holes from closer brackets? I don’t believe any of these types of filler have been tested, but would it be classified a ‘like material’? Any % requirement to call it “like”?
Thanks for your input.
Jerry
How about ‘liquid steel’ from a tube to fill small holes from closer brackets? I don’t believe any of these types of filler have been tested, but would it be classified a ‘like material’? Any % requirement to call it “like”?
Thanks for your input.
Jerry
Try using a magnet if the Bondo is too thick when it is being used for cosmetic reasons. You’re not going to pick up any chance to attach to the (properly filled with like material). NFPA 80 seems to be quite clear to me what can and what can not be used. Also I am sure that the bondo putty or the fire stop material folks would never approve of such product application in a non approved manner. The term I have been provided by some contractors as it being a generally accepted use is bull feathers. But again I have seen this used to switch a right swinging door to a left swinging door. They just filled in the void for the fire hardware that was on one side and used the ever tried and true field modification of cutting out a new void for the hardware on the other side. After all if you have a left over perfectly good fire door from one contract that had all ready paid for why not use it on the new contract and charge for a new door.