Today’s Fixed-it Friday photos, taken in an elementary school auditorium, were sent in by Michael Festa of Islandwide Locksmith. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at, it’s fire exit hardware (which is never equipped with mechanical dogging), that has been modified with a pin to hold the latch retracted. This means that if a fire occurs, the door will not be latched as required by code, and could allow the fire to spread. I’m kind of curious about what’s under the push plate. Any guesses?
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It also appears that there is a functioning flush bolt in the edge of the door. Is it possible that there were no exit devices before this one was added? I’d love to see what’s on the other door leaf.
Clearly without a doubt a violation . Plus a retrofit. Looks like it’s on a once inactive leaf of a set of double doors leading into a gymnasium . So now one has to ask what were these doors rated for and for what hardware.
A repurposed door???
Has the strike hole in the side
And
Flush locks
Door slab installed upside down????
Guessing the fire exit hardware was after the fact. I’m thinking when the doors were first installed it was push pull. I base that off of the shaped push plate, manual flush bolt, and deadbolt strike in the side of the door. And I hope they have a corridor mounted closer or spring hinges as I’m not see a closer in the picture. Based on this I would say the whole opening isn’t rated.
It seems they also have a manual flush bolt that may or may not still be intact. Very scary door configuration.
Lori,
I am not a door and hardware guy, (just a modest Fire Marshal) but I would bet that those doors are not original doors to the auditorium. They look like they may have been two doors (with a locking leaf) to a storage room or mechanical room. Just my thoughts!
My guess is it is hiding the holes for the dummy trim that was original to what was an inactive leaf. Note the flush bolts.
What’s on the other door leaf? it looks like this used to be an inactive leaf.
I’m wondering if the manual flush bolt works.
Was the exit device retrofitted? Looks like the push plate was there for a while. Perhaps it was determined that an exit device was needed, but then someone complained about the noise of its operation, and a handy-person figured out how to dog it.
Under the push plate is probably nothing. The door in the picture used to be the inactive leaf of the pair (hence the flush-bolt and deadbolt strike). Are you sure this is a fire door or just a fire rated exit device applied to a non-rated door? Either way, that doesn’t make the modification acceptable.
Kinda curious about the deadbolt strike & the manual flushbolts too.
I’d be curious to know more about this opening because it also has manual flushbolts and a deadbolt strike that have been painted over at some point. Did the occupancy of the room change or something?
My guess is that there is nothing under the push plate. It looks like they were originally set up as push/pull operation with flush bolts and a deadlock. The fire rating may have been added some time later.
Manual flush bolt. Deadbolt strike. Push plate. Lots of issues here.
I do not believe there is any prep under the push plates .Even though there usually is. I believe the active leaf had a deadbolt prep and the inactive leaf had flushbolts and a strike prep. I believe that they upgraded to panic hardware at some point and just surface applied over the plates. Probably still have the original pulls still on the door.
Judging by the flush bolt and strike plate on that door, I’m assuming they used to be non-latching doors that were locked with flush bolts and a deadbolt.
I’m hoping they actually removed the flush bolts; that would be a disaster in the waiting.
Just think if the dead bolt is still active. A disaster waiting to happen.