Yesterday I posted my next Decoded article, about how excessive clearance can affect the performance of fire door assemblies. After publishing the post, I found out that Hal Kelton of DOORDATA Solutions is presenting a webinar TOMORROW (Wednesday) on how to mitigate problems with fire door gaps. The webinar is being offered through the Door Opening Industry Training Group (DOIT), an independent company that provides education and training to the door security and safety industry.
Here’s the webinar info…
Processes and Products for Fire Door Gap Mitigation
Wednesday, July 27, 2022, 1-2:00 PM Eastern
Presented by Hal Kelton, DSI, DSC, AHC/CDC, CFDAI, CDT
Improper clearances are still the number one issue 15 years into NFPA 80’s requirement to test and maintain clearance tolerances on all fire doors. While proper installation and compliance testing from the time of the original installation is a key factor in performance during an annual fire door inspection, wear and tear experienced in a doors daily use will always play a significant role in managing that compliance throughout a doors lifecycle.
In this presentation, Hal will review the most common clearance issues found in the field and how the proper ongoing maintenance and innovative new products are helping facility managers comply.
If you missed the live webinar, click here to view the recording.
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Awesome webinar. thanks!
Missed it
Is there a way to see it?
YES! It’s on this page: https://www.educate-doit.com/Recorded-Webinars
– Lori
How often do gaps prevent fire doors from adequately doing their job in real-world situations, i.e. ensuring that nothing on the protected side of the door ignites, and the air on that side remains sufficiently breathable to allow egress? From what I can tell, the most common cause of fire door “failure”, by far, is doors being open. Given a choice between spending money on sealing gaps, versus minimizing the inconvenience posed by fire doors (which in turn often results people propping them open), I would think the latter would be more effective at improving safety.
Hi John –
I agree – we hear about problems with fire doors being propped open during a fire…I have no idea how often excessive clearance impacts the performance of the door in the real world. But in order to increase the allowable clearance, the fire test would have to be changed.
– Lori
I couldn’t agree more that fire doors left open are the worst case scenario in fire conditions. However, your question about how excessive fire door clearances can affect “real-world situations” was recently addressed in 2021 and 2022 in the first rounds of fire testing by the Fire Protection Research Foundation Testing and their study of the influence of door gaps around swinging fire doors. In the initial phase of the study, the Foundation focused on bottom of door clearances and exceeding the current ¾” maximum clearance allowed in NFPA 80. There were a variety of door materials and sizes tested. All doors with bottom door clearances more than ¾” failed, some miserably. Failure includes fire, smoke/gasses present on the exterior of the door in the test chamber, within the prescribed testing time.
Hopefully the funding of this non-profit Research Foundation will afford them the ability to continue to study of the effects of excessive clearances on fire doors. I would hope such studies and publicly available reports will start to wakeup building owners and managers of the importance of fire doors and maintaining their compliance.
https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Data-research-and-tools/Building-and-Life-Safety/Fire-Door-Experimental-Testing-to-Study-the-Influence-of-Door-Gaps-Around-Swinging-Fire-Doors
Thanks Hal!
Here’s an article on that research: https://idighardware.com/2022/07/decoded-allowable-clearances-for-fire-door-assemblies/.
– Lori