It’s that time of year once again, where schools, offices, and apartment buildings use the blank palettes provided by their doors, to hold holiday door decorating contests. Now, before you call me Scroogette, I do love doors and holiday decorating, and I can understand the appeal. BUT, there are a few rules to keep in mind:
- Decorating the egress side of the door is NOT recommended, because the door could become concealed by the holiday decorations. Stick to the access side (the outside).
- Don’t cover the exit signs! If you follow Rule 1, Rule 2 isn’t usually a problem, but as you can see in one of the tweets below, decorations that extend onto the wall can sometimes affect adjacent exit signs.
- The hardware must remain operable – I’ve seen panic hardware disguised as a fireplace mantle, a windowsill, or just covered completely. Decorations on the access side are less problematic, but can still interfere with the operation of the hardware.
- If you’re going to attach 3-dimensional decorations to the push side of a manually-operated door, watch out for the projections into the clear opening width, and the 10-inch area at the bottom of the door where there should be nothing protruding from the face of the door. Protrusions into the corridor width can also be an issue.
- If your door is a fire door, you really shouldn’t be attaching anything to it. There are also limitations on how much paper/flammable material is allowed in a corridor (I’m talking to you – schools!). Most multi-family buildings won’t allow anything attached to the outside of the unit entry doors from the corridors.
Here are some recent tweets showing holiday doors (and this PDF has LOTS). What do you think?
My students take door decorating seriously! Winner announced tomorrow!! #merrychristmas pic.twitter.com/iU4RRNVLE5
— Heather Papp (@burkepapp) December 19, 2016
Door decorating contest at its finest! #doordecorating #holidayseason pic.twitter.com/dRKLQkD3EW
— Alexander Stirling (@ASPS_TDSB) December 20, 2016
Door Decorating is so 20th Century @allan_drive . Student Decorating is our 21st Century version! pic.twitter.com/elHux8Litg
— Felicia Hiscock (@FeliciaHiscock) December 20, 2016
Mrs. Cogswell's Advisee Group won the door decorating competition at @CurleyHS pic.twitter.com/zgFERuwr74
— Archbishop Curley HS (@CurleyHS) December 20, 2016
Our Christmas door decorating contest is getting real! #librarians #Dickens theme pic.twitter.com/b67upUqGaB
— Kelly Ann Hopkins ~ MISLED out March '21 (@khopkinswrites) December 20, 2016
The door decorating contest makes me wish I had a homeroom! Check out business! @CastlebrookeBIZ @Desmondmrs @DragonsCouncil pic.twitter.com/Yi8V0jqn1F
— S. Bachra (@MsBachra) December 20, 2016
Door Decorating completed! Desmond's homeroom class room 225 #castleproud @DragonsCouncil @QHoppie @Gilesteach @angela_adekunle pic.twitter.com/Mw3WkmjPbc
— M. Desmond (@Desmondmrs) December 20, 2016
https://twitter.com/kromanphs/status/811020652639559681
Read, read as fast as you can! We have high performing cookies in every classroom! @TechTolliver @Team_Guardiola #doordecorating pic.twitter.com/u8Kt3xi2rU
— Rachel Howe (@Howe2Teach) December 19, 2016
Those entering the door decorating contest better bring their A game! #teamperdew pic.twitter.com/zOAkZg7Tbp
— Shane Perdew (@MrPerdewELA) December 14, 2016
@SCDSB_Schools Holiday door decorating! pic.twitter.com/Yp9H4IMb0i
— Steele Street PS (@SteeleStreetPS) December 9, 2016
Holiday door decorating contest…Phase 1 pic.twitter.com/gtbaSTspOl
— William Stento (@Stento5) December 9, 2016
Parkway Door Decorating Contest! Part 4 #acspresents #whoville @PWMrsHeutsche @PWMrsG @GroveMrs @AllianceCSD pic.twitter.com/OuIstmvt25
— Mrs.D (@PWMrsD) December 9, 2016
Door decorating! Yup…that music is coming from our door! pic.twitter.com/1hwd0uBC1e
— Mrs. Penlington (@Mrs_Penlington) December 9, 2016
Images: Heather Papp, Alexander Stirling, Felicia Hiscock, Archbishop Curley HS, K Hopkins, S Bachra, M Desmond, Kelly Roman, Rachel Howe, Shane Perdew, Steele Street PS, William Stento, Mrs. D, and Mrs. Penlington via Twitter.
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We see this several times a year. Many Elementary schools have an annual door decorating contest. In addition they decorate doors for different holidays and occasions. Decorations are on the exterior of the doors so egress is still obvious from inside the rooms. We have a continual problem with them covering the door light. We ask that they leave an opening at the door light so you can see who you are opening the door to and also to be certain that no one is standing in the path of the door swing when you open the door.
Good point. Often the Board of Education standards require a vision light into the classroom.
– Lori
and I’m sure all of that paper on the corridor walls is flame-retardant
(pet peeve of a friend in The Fire Service)
Don’t let the Fire Safety Inspector see that stuff !
Hello Lori.
Happy Holidays!
The NFPA-101, 2012
15.7.4.3 Artwork and teaching materials shall be permitted to be attached directly to walls in accordance with the following:
15.7.4.3. (1) The artwork and teaching materials shall not exceed 20 percent of the wall area in a building that is not protected throughout by an automatic sprinkler system in accordance with Section 9.7
15.7.4.3 (2) The artwork and teaching materials shall not exceed 50 percent of the wall area in a building that is protected throughout by an automatic sprinkler system in accordance with Section 9.7
Thanks Chuck! Maybe I’ll do a follow-up post tomorrow.
– Lori
This is the stuff fire marshal nightmares are made of!
I can’t look.
I’m very afraid!
And I’d probably blow a gasket.
Impressive!! Good to see that children are still creative. You make good comments about the doors-bah humbug. You are correct, for safety sake you should follow the guidelines that you noted. In the school that I went to (many, many years ago) they had a rule that you could not decorate the door, but could decorate the wall next to the door. The only saving grace that I see from the photos you posted is that these are schools and that the occupants are familiar with where the doors are in their rooms. Maybe I could get some of these kids to come and decorate my house.
The Mantel shelf on the Shane Perdew door looks like it might limit the opening of the door to less than forty-five degrees!
I loved looking at these pictures that my husband (who is in the door and hardware business) forwarded to me. I have always wanted to decorate my Special Education classroom for the holidays like this. However we were given these rules in regards to decorations/ teaching materials from the Fire Department:
Nothing on the door, nothing on the walls within two feet of the door, no lights, no real tree (artificial are allowed without lights), nothing on the glass in the door, decorations in the hall cannot cover more than 50% of the wall space, nothing hanging from the ceilings.
It didn’t leave much room for decorating, but we managed a very nice bulletin board with the student’s stockings hanging from the bottom (If the fire department had seen that I probably would have gotten in trouble!)
Good job following the rules! 🙂
– Lori
I try to avoid the corridors that have the biggest offenders.
As long as its not a fire door, I’m generally blind.
The pedi dept. takes the kids trick or treating on a few of the office only corridors.
That’s where they get the most creative.
Hey Lou –
Are you responsible for ensuring that the hospital’s doors are code-compliant?
– Lori
Mark, remember Mark? He’s here now. I’m part of the Environment of Care team, so yes, I keep an eye out for door violations.
Mark and the Carpenter Shop are also responsible for finding, inspecting and correcting problems with the fire doors.
The carpenters are familiar with where fire walls/barriers etc. occur when it’s not clearly apparent.
This time of the year, I frequently go to Mark to clarify the variously rated walls and doors.
I occasionally get the moniker of “Code Police” when they see me coming and a door is blocked open.
How many of you reading this have been told, “I was right here. In a fire I’d close the door”?
“Right here” is often around the corner, out of sight of the door.
I do remember Mark! I hope he’s doing well.
– Lori