Anthony Gugliotta of Allegion sent me today’s Wordless Wednesday photos of some egress doors he saw at a science center during a recent vacation. One of the center’s “experience engineers” made the boxes that have signage suggesting that another exit should be used, while preventing the panic hardware from releasing the latches.
What do you say?? OK? Or NO WAY?
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I would say this would be OK if the doors in question were malfunctioning or otherwise not properly operable to begin with, but very not-OK if only done for user convenience/traffic circulation/…
(i.e. it’s OK to do this to something that’s not a functioning exit to begin with, but not OK to disable a normally functioning exit this way!)
NO WAY! How do these building owners get away with this kind of thing? Insurance companies would be well advised to conduct their own inspections of those buildings for which they provide insurance. This warrants criminal prosecution of building owners.
No way – two step process.
putting aside special knowledge and obstruction issues, it shouldn’t be too difficult to remove the wedges in case of an emergency, since they are sloped objects.
I like the little handles!
You crack me up, Jerry. 🙂
– Lori
Absolutely not! One motion, no special knowledge!
While I admire the ingenuity and workmanship, the answer is still a definite no.
Even if all of the exits are not required based on an expected occupancy level, the rules are that all the doors must still be operable.
To put a twist on an old saying, if it looks like a duck, then it has to act and quack like a duck.
Absolutely NOT!! First find out why they don’t want the door used. If they just don’t want them to use a rear door and want to channel everyone to the main front entrance/exit then they can persuade people to NOT use this door but… they can spend the money on delayed egress hardware that will release after 15-30 seconds or upon fire alarm activation.
If I were the Lord High Grand Poo-Bah in Charge of Everything, I would consider the question of what would happen if a bunch of people got crushed against the door. If the signs are made of a material that would give way with a moderate amount of force, allowing the door to open, I would say “o-kay”. If, however, the force against the bar might make it difficult for someone to remove the sign, however, I would say “no way”.
This is 100% against code. It blocks a means of egress.
That’s more than one action. You’d have to pull out the box, then push the bar. It would depend on the LAHJ, of course. The fire chief at my last location would have a fit over them, the one where I currently work would probably be okay with it.