I received this photo of a bank of doors with delayed egress panic hardware from Jim Elder of Secured Design LLC, and we got to chatting about some delayed egress questions. I’d love to hear what you think. WWYD? (see below)
1. Regarding the photo: This is a large mercantile occupancy (retail store). The large “temporary” signs are placed in front of the doors at 9 p.m., when they don’t want customers using these doors. Do you see a problem with this?
2. The signs on the doors state: “Fire Exit – Keep pushing door. It will open in 15 seconds and alarm will sound. Keep area clear.” This differs from the signage required by code: “Push until alarm sounds. Door can be opened in 15 seconds.” Is the signage on the door close enough?
3. Jim and I have both had projects where the delayed egress lock was armed “after hours” but the doors were intended to be used during the day. In this application, the signage required by code was confusing to building occupants, who might have been hesitant to use the doors during the day. For these projects, we used an illuminated sign with the language required by code, which would be automatically lit when the delayed egress lock was armed. Do you think this meets the intent of the code?
4. And the $64,000 question…the IBC allows a building occupant to encounter no more than one delayed egress lock per egress path (exception: Group I-2 and I-3). Imagine a stairwell, where the doors leading from some of the tenant floors to the stairwell are equipped with delayed egress locks and the stair discharge door also has a delayed egress lock. This was allowed by the IBC prior to the 2015 edition, as the code stated that a building occupant could only pass through one delayed egress lock before entering an exit (the stairwell being an exit). In the stairwell example, if passing through a delayed egress lock from a tenant floor to the stairwell simultaneously released the delayed egress lock on the stair discharge door, so the building occupant would only be delayed one time (even though two doors in the egress path were equipped with delayed egress locks), would this meet the intent of the code?
What other questions about delayed egress locks do you encounter?
For more on delayed egress locks, here is a whiteboard animation video, a Decoded article about a recent code change, and a webinar.
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Regarding the photo: This is a large mercantile occupancy (retail store). The large “temporary” signs are placed in front of the doors at 9 p.m., when they don’t want customers using these doors. Do you see a problem with this?
Yes I hate what some places do to doors at night, while the store is still open.
There are other things that can legally be done, with out locking or blocking.
2. The signs on the doors state: “Fire Exit – Keep pushing door. It will open in 15 seconds and alarm will sound. Keep area clear.” This differs from the signage required by code: “Push until alarm sounds. Door can be opened in 15 seconds.” Is the signage on the door close enough?
What is the last sentence on the sign??
The sign doesn’t say “Keep area clear OF SIGNS”! 🙂
– Lori
Regarding the signage and closing doors after hours – there are a few grocery stores I’ve been to late at night that close one of their entrances – which are high energy sliding alum – if these are locked, is this against code?
I think it’s very confusing to occupants who see a chexit not being used during business hours. If I saw this as an egress in an building, and it wasn’t an emergency situation, i’d go find another exit.
I’m also not sure I’d feel good about supplying a job where there were delayed egress on a specific floor and one at the bottom of the stairwell – especially at my egress to the outside. That would scare me as a building occupant if I can’t get out of the stairwell at all (or for at least 15 seconds).
Hi Amy –
If the sliding doors are marked exits or are provided for egress purposes, locking them at a certain time while the building is still occupied could present an egress problem unless the store has worked something out with the local AHJ.
I agree that it’s confusing to see a delayed egress lock – especially with the required signage – when it’s a door that is ok to use at certain times. That’s why the illuminated sign was used on the project I mentioned. During the day the sign was not lit, and most building occupants would not hesitate to use the door.
It’s code-compliant to have a delayed egress lock at the bottom of a stairwell…the complication is when there is one into the stairs and one out – 2 in one path. Upon fire alarm activation there would be no delay, so that helps with the life safety aspect.
– Lori
I am curious if the outside gates that are seen through these doors are set up for egress as well? A gated area is just an extension of the building.
I’ve seen this MANY times in the “Age of Covid.” They were required to maintain a count of concurrent occupants, so they directed customers to one exit/entrance. However, many did it better. They had signs ON the door (not in front of it) and staff assigned to assist people (like me) trying to use the door without reading the signs.
I won’t double up on the previous comments, but it looks like a garden center beyond the doors, with a locked fence. Is there another way out if you did go through the delayed egress?
These doors lead from the interior garden section of a retail store to the exterior (enclosed by fencing) section and count as required exits when the store is “open for business”. The delayed egress devices would be disarmed by key, or remotely from a central station during occupancy, but the general public doesn’t know that and the plastic laminated signs only add to the confusion. If the garden center typically closes early, and the rest of the store is open and occupied, then the devices should be armed to discourage and delay potential shoplifting. The large white signs, leaning up against the doors, must go! That’s a liability waiting to happen.
As for the IBC intent of allowing only one delayed egress opening in an exit path, I do not believe it refers to side by side doors such as this. I have had maybe two projects where there were long corridors with two pairs of doors in the same corridor and exit path and both were specified incorrectly with delayed egress products. These doors ultimately led to exterior exits, but one of the interior openings had to be revised to be free from any delay. This circumstance doesn’t occur often, but specifiers need to keep this in mind.
At typical door hardware and security system coordination meetings (always interesting) I would point out that yes, the delayed egress devices (when armed) will immediately disarm by activation of the fire alarm system, but there are other emergency situations that do not activate the fire alarm system. There are numerous scenarios and it’s nearly impossible to prevent everything- in particular, active shooter, or armed robbery, or knife-wielding assailant. In cases like these, being stuck at a delayed egress door opening for 15 seconds, while a deranged individual is aiming a firearm at you, or is lifting a machete to strike you, could be fatal.
I once visited a tech school for a meeting on renovations. The exterior doors were all locked and there was an intercom system. We discussed many things and the locked exterior doors gave the school staff a great feeling of security and protection for the students, but only if they are inside. I explained that a bus unloaded and students had to walk probably 100ft. to the entrance. A shooter could simply wait in the parking lot, wait for a bus to arrive and casually walk to the front of the bus, shoot the driver first, then pick off kids one by one. It’s a sick scenario, and I was sorry to describe it, but to combat evil, you have to think just as evil. We can only do our best, but there’s always someone out there who will push the envelope to do harm.
1) Burnable material in front of a fire exit door…nope, no issue there…
2) The sign in the picture is a bit wordy but to my mind delayed egress exits are going to be confusing no matter what language is used on the signs if for no other reason than people don’t read those signs normally (assuming they even can read the signs)…never mind in an emergency situation. In either case they’re going to try to exit the doors and when they can’t, they’ll look for a different exit.
3) If by “armed after hours” you mean the delayed egress isn’t active during the day then this is probably the ideal solution outside of having someone there to explain things. Maybe having an audible message play that explains how to use the door when someone tries to exit would be a good thing? Though personally I don’t like the idea of having to explain to people how to use an egress door in the first place….be it with signs or otherwise; an egress door should be 100% intuitive to use.
4) If that outside area is locked and there is no viable exit (other than going over the fence) then technically there would be two “delayed egress” openings within the path of egress…one of which can’t be opened. Thus, to my mind, this would not meet the intent of the code.
Thanks Philip!
– Lori
Another issue is that the sign says to “keep pushing the door”. If someone were to push the panic hardware and release it and at the same time push the door for 15 seconds the door would not open causing a longer delay. The panic hardware is what needs to be pushed for 15 seconds.
I agree…the language required by code doesn’t say what to push on so theoretically people would be more likely to push on the hardware.
– Lori
I question the idea these are really delayed-egress locks.
Are those sensors for power-operation above the out-swinging doors?
The in-swinging door appears to be power operated.
As to your question about delayed-egress locks in sequence, the codes specify when the lock must unlock, but place no restriction on additional conditions under which a delayed-egress lock could unlock.
Are the signs just a decoy?
Hi Kevin –
They are definitely delayed egress panic devices, and it looks like the doors have automatic operators. The “inswinging” door is a little weird because doors with panic hardware swing out. Maybe it’s a double-acting door? And I’m not sure what’s releasing the latch in order for the doors to operate automatically…maybe the “special dogging” cylinder on the head of the panic is holding back the latch all day while the auto operators are active?
– Lori
– Lori
Temporary Signs:
• Based on the spirit of building codes and life safety from a strict point of view, nothing should be in front of the doors.
• Solving the shore’s operational needs: It is probability the best way to communicate to the public while allowing an ok path of egress. The signs do not appear to stop the doors from opening or a person getting out the doors. The exit hardware is visible. I have seen retailers move spare shopping carts across the opening to stop customers from using a door(s) during night hours. The shopping carts make exit path unusable. The signs are a much better option.
Delayed Egress Signage:
• The code required signage is not the simplest to understand but keeping the verbiage the same for each application creates consistency. With consistency comes the probability that a person has seen this sign before and has a good idea of what is to happen.
• Any delayed egress signs visible during times where the doors can be used without the delay and alarm is very confusing to all. Based on the signage on the doors, I would not use the doors unless there was an emergency.
Pass Through Two Delayed Egress Openings:
• I firmly believe that there should be only 1 delayed egress opening in the designed pathway to the exterior. I make my living using low voltage solutions for all kinds of issues. However, I do not trust that the release of the first delayed hardware will then release the second one using low voltage wiring. It may work today but a few years from now, the wire between the two openings may be removed because no one knows what the wire is doing. Emergency path of egress is not only for fire. An active shooter could catchup to you if you were delayed 15 seconds at the first door and 15 seconds at the next door.
Interestingly, I know some big box stores have “do not encounter” type policies that ensure their employees aren’t confronting would -be shoplifters, thus why not install security cameras and just omit the delayed egress devices. It would likely be cheaper and eliminate the confusion. Delayed egress devices and hardware anticipate the fleeing subjects will read the sign, while we have panic hardware to ensure persons can operate it under “panic” conditions…
Would like to know, Why these doors has Cylinder from inside?.
The cylinder on the bar arms and disarms the delayed egress feature. The cylinder on the head could be either for “special dogging” or to control the outside lever – both kind of odd for this application, but possible.
– Lori