Today’s Wordless Wednesday photos were sent by Austin Bammann of Central Indiana Hardware. This is NOT the way I would provide security at the entrance to a school. 🙁
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WW: School Entrance Security
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Instead of setting the security bar on the floor,,,
When the school is open
They just stuck one side in the holder
Both doors can still open
I know, but IMO they should not be using the security bar.
– Lori
Lori’s right. I didn’t take a picture of the outside but I’m pretty sure these exit devices aren’t doggable and have non locking trim on the outside. To “lockdown” the doors after hours, they use this bar. There was another pair of doors to the left of this pair that didn’t have the orange bar.
That’s one version of the “Security Latch” (www.securitylatch.com) intended to secure exit doors when the building is unoccupied. I don’t have a problem with it, sure beats a padlock and chain. Features stated by the manufacturer are:
Fire Safety
Secures panic doors without chains or padlocks
Allows fire fighters immediate entrance or exit from a building
Eliminates the possibility of being trapped in a burning building
Time Saver
Simplicity of application, easy removal and storage saves employee time securing a building.
Low Cost
The average school or building can be equipped with Security Latch for less than insurance deductible incurred as the result of a break-in.
In what universe does this illegal arrangement beat a padlock and chain?
The code is clear–no latches or locks unless they are panic hardware.
It likely would have cost much less in labor and materials to just install the correct trim on the exit devices and remove dogging from them if they don’t want them unlocked.
This is unacceptable in all cases–there are no exceptions.
this is both kinds of wrong. Wrong code violation, and wrong stupid.
I have to respectfully disagree that these are good or harmless products.
This website seems to specialize in relatively inexpensive gadgets that circumvent self-closing, latching, and panic bar egress functions. Over 100 years of R&D by Von Duprin and other manufacturers have gone into the effort to provide doors that latch securely and still allow free egress. These products and methods put door hardware back in the proverbial stone age.
Latch is defined as “a spring lock for an outer door that catches when the door is closed and can only be opened from the outside with a key.” None of the securitylatch.com products appear to perform that function.
Regarding their stated features:
Fire Safety – self closing/latching fire doors and single motion egress increase fire safety.
Secures panic doors – so does a functioning and well maintained panic device.
Allows fire fighters immediate entrance or exit from a building – How exactly does this product allow that? What happens if an active shooter decided to use this handy product to effectively block out first responders?
Eliminates the possibility of being trapped in a burning building – Not if you are a person working late or the one responsible for putting all these bars in place.
Time Saver – time is better spent maintaining or learning how to obtain reasonable funding for proper devices.
Simplicity of application, easy removal and storage saves employee time securing a building. – checking to make sure the, properly equipped, well-maintained, exit doors are securely latched is much simpler and takes even less time.
Low Cost – save now, pay later.
The average school or building can be equipped with Security Latch for less than insurance deductible incurred as the result of a break-in. – what’s the deductible for liability insurance needed to cover the lawsuits if/when something besides burglary happens?
Additional thought:
After looking at the picture again, I notice something else. The school has decent doors with solid panic hardware. If the doors are not functioning (closing/latching) properly, they may think that something more is needed.
Their solution: Securitylatch.com
A better solution: Better training for their janitorial and maintenance teams.
I don’t like the damage the bar is causing to the doors, not to mention the bolt holes at glazing bite points. Would void the warranty on a new door …
If you look close at the RHR door, you’ll see that this device has cylinder dogging. With that I will assume that the trim is locking trim, if not they would be best off to change the trim to locking. Being Exterior, I’d recommend Pull Trim. But the real issue, and reason why they are no doubt using this code breaking device, is the removable T-Mullion. I’ve seen this many times over the years. Those aluminum T-Mullions have a lot of flex and if you want to bad enough, more times than not you can pull the doors open even when locked with a little effort. There are stabilizing brackets you can put on them which do help, but don’t always resolve the issue. If you look close, it appears that they were used as well, which is another clue that the issue is most likely in the flex of this mullion. Solution: use a steel tube mullion (even on the aluminum openings). You may be able to utilize a special strike to make it work with existing exit device locations on the doors or they may have to move the exit devices over a little on the door to accommodate the steel tube mullion.
I spent three years working at a high school, and these exact devices were used all over the place to secure the building after hours. While there is absolutely no excuse for these lawsuits-waiting-to-happen, there was an unfortunate reason as to why they were used:
The school district’s maintenance department did not do their job properly. A lot of the school’s outside were modern (1980s) heavy wood butcher-block doors and modern mullions fit into 1930s soft wood frames that were probably originally holding lightweight wood panel doors. This, combined with general-contractor-quality door/lock installation, gave us doors that basically didn’t lock properly: a half-hearted tug on the door, and the latch would pop right off the strike, since the latches tended to engage the strike by less than 1/4″. When reported to Maintenance, they’d show up, pull gently on the door, and claim it locked. If you demonstrated the vulnerability in front of them, they’d tell you to not pull on the door so hard.
Ergo, these devices were used, literally, to lock doors that had no other working lock.