Fire doors are required to have an active latchbolt, so fire exit hardware (panic hardware for fire doors) is not equipped with a mechanical dogging mechanism that could be used to hold the latch retracted. When the lack of dogging creates an inconvenience, creative modifications sometimes occur. The added slidebolt on this fire exit hardware will prevent the fire door from functioning properly during a fire. I wonder what the insurance company would have to say about that.
Thank you to Dave Rogers from Bell Hardware of Portland for the photos!
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They would say “sorry, you’re not covered”
Now that the situation is caught and on record, the insurance company may say “your premiums just went up 10k per year”.
I am guessing that this is a new option from Von Duprin? F-99 x Ives C86.
not only do they need to remove the illicit device, then they need to restore the hardware to its original configuration (less holes)
Just when you think that you’ve seen it all, you realize you’ve just started to climb the tree. The human gene pool is getting shallower.
Could it be that the door is not rated and instead of buying a new device, someone modified this one? I believe modifying an fire rated device whether on a rated door still violates code though. Am I correct?
I think it’s unlikely that it’s a non-rated door, but the device shouldn’t be modified either way. The final ruling would have to play out in court.