The other day Mark Kuhn asked if I had done a “What’s that?” post about coordinator brackets…coincidentally I had just taken some photos of one while we were at the BHMA meeting in Phoenix! So here’s Mark’s explanation with my photos, and if you’re not sure what a coordinator is, check out these links:
- Video of a pair of doors with a coordinator
- Whiteboard animation video about flush bolts and coordinators
- Decoded: Flush Bolts and Coordinators
- Ives Coordinators
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I received a FaceTime call today and spent several minutes explaining what a piece of hardware was, how it worked, and where it was mounted. So obviously my first thought was…“this would make a great iDigHardware post.” 🙂
The piece of hardware in question is a coordinator mounting bracket. And if you said, “a what?” then this post is for you. Because I believe a picture is truly worth a thousand words, this post includes photos of a coordinator bracket from various angles.
First, we need to understand the purpose of this piece of hardware. The mounting bracket is designed to allow a parallel arm closer shoe to be installed without damaging a soffit-mounted door coordinator. If that sentence just made you more confused, then please look here for some more information on coordinators.
A soffit-mounted door coordinator mounts to the soffit of the door frame (the underside of the frame head), but here’s the problem: a parallel closer shoe also mounts on the soffit of the door frame. Because they both need to be installed in the same place on the frame, and you can’t just attach the closer shoe to – or through – the coordinator, we need a way to resolve this conflict. The coordinator mounting bracket allows us to mount the parallel arm closer shoe to the bracket and not to the coordinator…allowing both pieces of hardware to mount to the frame header and to function properly.
Things to know…
- The coordinator mounting bracket is sized according to the width of the frame soffit – you need to know the soffit dimension to order the correct bracket.
- The coordinator mounting bracket typically comes with no holes predrilled for the closer shoe – you will need to drill and tap those holes in the field. (Also make sure the screws are the proper length and that they do not touch the coordinator.)
- Using a coordinator mounting bracket will require special templating of the door closer. Because of the thickness of the coordinator and the thickness of the bracket, the closer will be mounted lower on the door.
I hope that this post has helped some of you get a little better understanding of this piece of hardware, which may seem insignificant but is really very important.
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Since Ives has both the MB1/MB2 and the MB1F/MB2F you may want to address the difference between the two and where they have to be used. I saw a spec the other day that called for the MB1F. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve seen the F versions specified.
Raymond, it’s funny you should bring that up, because my spec writer said the same thing. It’s important to know that there is a fire rated and non-fire rated version of this product. Great Comment!
-Mark
True, but to clarify and unless something has changed, closers don’t require the F version, even on fire doors. Unlike a latch, once a door is closed, the closer serves no purpose during the fire. Now SVR top latches on fire doors, absolutely but you almost never see a need for coordinators on fire door pairs with exit devices any more. Hence the years (decades?) since I’ve seen one specified.