In keeping with (Almost-)Wordless Wednesday protocol, I’ll let you gaze upon this beautiful floor stop for today, and tomorrow I’ll tell you the circumstances that led me to it.
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WW: The World’s Most Beautiful Floor Stop
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Lori,
What would you do?
I have an area school district wanting purchase 100 spring hinges for doors they want to make self-closing. I have a safety concern with doing this. I feel they should be putting closer on these doors to better control the speed/movement of the door (sweep speed & latch speed). I am afraid someone is going to receive a serious injury from the use of spring hinges. They want to use the spring hinges because they are cheaper than the closer. In the short term, they are less expensive, but what about the long term liability?
Could you provide me with any code references that I could use to compel the school district to reconsider their plan of action? Anything else I might be able to use?
Hi Rick –
I’ve had this same situation a few times…spring hinges do not control the door (I know you know this) – the door either slams or doesn’t close at all. Spring hinges require maintenance or they stop closing the door, and we know how much maintenance is dedicated to hardware (almost none). So the spring hinges will either slam the door hard enough and fast enough to latch it, or they won’t, and the door won’t be closed and latched.
I’m not sure if these doors are fire doors, exterior doors, or why they are required to close, but in my opinion spring hinges will not reliably close the doors and definitely won’t control the doors. There is a lot of potential liability here…doors that don’t close will affect fire resistance and/or security. Doors that slam shut could injure someone. We even had one residential project where the slamming apartment entries were causing the light bulbs in the corridor wall sconces to blow out.
Unfortunately, there is nothing in the codes that will help. I wrote a blog post about spring hinges a while ago (http://idighardware.com/2010/03/spring-hinges/) and I’ve been planning to write another post – someone recently asked me whether using spring hinges instead of a closer affects the maneuvering clearance requirements. I can reiterate my position on spring hinges when I write that post. I’m just waiting for permission from the ICC to publish their code opinion.
– Lori
Rick,
I have battled this often. I typically put together a spreadsheet for the decision maker showing the cost of the spring hinges along with the labor to install them. In this case they will need to remove and reinstall the complete door so if you figure 1 1/2 hour of labor per leaf you will be pretty close to the total installed cost if they are doing a production install. Remember they will encounter problems along the way. Then I show a “Good and better” ( like a 1071/1461, 1600/8500, D1650, D3550 series etc.) closer price with the typical 45 min time to install. The numbers will come out almost equal in most locations with typical skilled trades carry cost. If they counter that they will be doing this “In House” I usually explain that even though the labor is already accounted for they could be doing something else and the labor really does need to be accounted for. Once they are educated as to the liability and inability to comply with ADA by using the spring hinges the argument is typically put to rest. From there upsel to a premium closer by bringing the maintenance leader into the conversation. Good Luck