This is one of those very specific but interesting questions. I hope some of you have insight to share.
Some hotels have rooms that can be rented individually or as a suite. Here’s an example:
Normally, the main door serving the suite has a magnetic holder – often with a higher holding force than a typical magnetic holder so staff can control whether that door is held in the open position (when rooms are rented individually), or allowed to close (when rooms are rented as a suite). I posted about this application at the W Hotel in Boston, a project I wrote the hardware spec for eons ago.
On a recent hotel project, an iDigHardware reader told me that the AHJ did not require door closers for the individual doors to the rooms, because the main door had a door closer and a magnetic holder that would release and allow the door to close if the fire alarm was activated. The AHJ treated the individual doors like communicating doors between two hotel rooms…the doors had to latch, but did not have to be self-closing. When two rooms are used as a suite, no fire separation is required between the rooms.
I had not considered this before. The main door does provide the necessary fire protection, but it means that under normal operation the individual doors could be left standing open even when the main door was also open; this is a security risk.
Is this typical for this room layout? How have you been specifying/supplying this application – with closers on the individual doors, or without? WWYD?
Floor Plan: CMB Commercial Designers
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For life safety, we have to assume that the rooms are NOT booked as a suite, which means the fire separation is mandatory. However, considering these openings a communication doors is dangerous. Communicating doors are NEVER the primary means of egress and I’ve never known anyone who would open their side unless the other room’s occupant was a member of their party. Let’s say a fire starts in unit 1, The occupant leaves immediately but, in a panic, forgets to close the door. At some point, the fire alarm goes off and the door to the main corridor closes, trapping all of the smoke in the MUCH smaller, now-enclosed hallway. The person in unit 2 reacts and tries to leave but is met with a wall of smoke and possibly flames, trapping them in their room. Failure to install closers on both doors is an invitation to a lawsuit.
I agree! With a real communicating door the two rooms are either rented as a suite or each side has a door that will provide 20 minutes of protection if a fire occurs in the other room. AND there’s another exit. With the set-up in this post, the main door would provide protection for the rest of the hotel, but the means of egress from the rooms could be compromised if a fire occurred in one of them.
– Lori
Haven’t had that configuration come up in any of my work, but since you asked ‘WWYD’: I’d use closers w/ a mechanical hold-open capability at the room entries (or maybe a stop+holder device). Hold-open, then, is a deliberate act — user has to open the door past at least 70deg for it to hold open — most people do not open a door that widely for simple entry/exit.
most people are not in wheelchairs or walkers either.. but you have to account for them as they would not want the door pulled closed by the closer to close on them and jam up their proceeding through the door or impeding their regular traffic through the communicating doors… and suppose one of those more rare individuals has a senior moment and forgets to close the said door/s when not in the room/s.. heightened fire/smoke risk.. hate to put it this way but have to plan for the lowest common denominator…
Have not seen that set up before. Appears in this case, they are trying to squeeze a room in.
I am thinking the doors should be self closing, just for privacy purposes, at least.
I had closers on all doors on my last project. AHJ I know would require closers on all doors. This post doesn’t seem to be wrong either.
I believe this would be more of a security issue than a life safety issue especially when the rooms are used individually. These doors probably have card reader locks on them. I don’t think I have ever stayed in a hotel where the door didn’t close and latch behind me when I left the room.
Just a thought. Put a closer and mad HO on all doors and key switch the opening array. For individual room use, key switch to de-energize each room mag HO, and energizes the corridor HO. When used as a suite, key switch de-energizes corridor HO and energizes each room mag HO, allowing room doors to remain open, but release upon fire alarm.
I worked on a hotel project in Chicago with a similar premise. One end of the corridor cut was off with a double door, with mag holders. The area created a small foyer for the two units on either side of the hall, allowing that section of the floor to become a suite. We had closers and rfid readers on ALL 3 doors. The doors can’t be treated as communicating because, as someone else said, they mostly function as openings to separate rooms from the corridor.