Many code requirements are dependent upon the occupant load of the room or space in question. For example, the International Building Code (IBC) requires panic hardware for doors equipped with a lock or latch, which serve Assembly or Educational occupancies with an occupant load of 50 or more (the occupant load limit for NFPA 101 – The Life Safety Code is 100 or more)...
Late in 2010 when this blog was about a year and a half old, the editor of Doors & Hardware asked if they could publish one of my blog posts in each issue as a monthly column...
Jon Dudley from Allegion sent me this Fixed-it Friday photo after being called out to a hospital because of a panic device that was not functioning properly. The access control system would operate the device electrically, but two self-tapping screws had been installed on the underside of the device which prevented the touchpad from being actuated manually.
I received this photo from Chuck Noble of Certified Fire Door, and it is the epitome of Wordless Wednesday...
The New York City Department of Buildings has announced that New York City will be adopting a new construction code as of October 1st, 2014. Please forward this post to any of your colleagues who work on projects in NYC.
The 2010 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards for Accessible Design went into effect in March 2012, but there are several requirements that continue to surprise architects and specifiers...
Another creative locking solution for Fixed-it Friday...I wonder if they lost the key to the trim cylinder, or if they are trying to keep the guy with the key out at certain times (when the padlock is in place)...
If you're here in Dallas for DHI's CoNEXTions 2014 and you see any beautiful or interesting doors, send me a clear photo and I'll add it to this post! OH - and come to my class tomorrow (Friday) so I'm not all alone - CE1401 Codes and Standards Update at 1:30 in Senators Hall. Here are some that I've seen so far...
I've only seen this a few times in my career. I'll bet it was messy.
I'm tied up preparing for Day 2 of COR140 and the rest of the week's events, so here's another batch of reader photos. Thank you to all of the readers who make it a little easier to keep iDigHardware running when my hair is on fire. I just noticed that all of today's photos came from my Allegion brethren, so it's an all-Allegion post!
I'm in Dallas this week to teach DHI's COR140 - Using Codes and Standards and then attend the DHI Conference - CoNEXTions 2014. It's a crazy-busy week, so it may be a full week of reader photos. If you've been hoarding your awesome door photos, send them along!
I know some of you (door closer lovers) will be very excited by today's Fixed-it Friday special edition! Nathan Burkhardt of Opening Technologies sent me these photos from a California office building of something I've never seen before - an automatic operator on a stall door, with the new style vertical bar actuators...
In just a few days I'll be heading to Dallas for CoNEXTions 2014 - the DHI annual conference. As I mentioned before, I'll be teaching COR140 - Using Codes and Standards Monday-Wednesday, and in late-breaking news, I'll be teaching the CE1401 Codes and Standards Update on Friday (6/27) from 1:30-4:00 p.m. CE1401 is an online code update, but I'm going to talk about some of the recent changes live and in person. This class is being offered for FREE as part of the conference registration (it is normally $250 for members/$350 for non-members).
I'm at the BHMA meeting in Chicago this week, and the restaurant we selected for dinner (a Chicago icon) had the added bonus of a door that left me a little Wordless. This is the main entrance and exit from a restaurant with an occupant load of approximately 300. See any issues?
Rectifying clearance problems can be difficult and costly, so it may be tempting to leave non-compliant doors in place and assume that a little extra clearance won’t affect the performance of the fire door assembly; I can now say from first-hand experience that this is not true...
This is a guest post from John Truempy, CRL, CMIL, president of ALOA - Institutional Locksmith. This article appeared in ALOA's publication - Keynotes, last October. My question for you is...how can we use our industry expertise to help with these efforts?
After Tuesday's school shooting in Oregon, there were several news reports about a school security product developed by a group of teachers. It's called "The Sleeve," a steel sleeve that fits over the door closer arm to prevent an intruder from opening the classroom door from the corridor...
Architects and specifiers may wonder why hardware consultants need so much detailed information – and why it makes us crazy when changes are made and we don’t know about them. It all starts with the door schedule…here’s why each field matters...
Here's one for those of you who are familiar with hardware installation...what's wrong with the door in this photo? Hint: It's a fire-rated electrical vault door...
Love locks are padlocks which are attached by couples to bridges, fences, gates, and other structures around the world, and the keys are often cast into the river to signify everlasting love. But now these little locks are causing big problems...
Locksmiths are often called upon to increase security at an existing door or replace hardware that is damaged or defective. There are several code-related issues to note before getting started...
Fire doors are required to have an active latchbolt, so fire exit hardware (panic hardware for fire doors) is not equipped with a mechanical dogging mechanism that could be used to hold the latch retracted. When the lack of dogging creates an inconvenience, creative modifications sometimes occur. The added slidebolt on this fire exit hardware will prevent the fire door from functioning properly during a fire. I wonder what the insurance company would have to say about that.
I have worked with architects who specified grout for fire-rated frames, but as far as I know this is not typically required by the listing procedures. NFPA 80 - Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives does not state that grout is required...
It's Wordless Wednesday again, and Lance Werner of Allegion just sent me this photo of what happens when the wrong lock function is supplied. Creative solutions are more fun than buying a new lock...hopefully it's not a fire door...
I'm busy preparing to start my next online Decoded course today, so here's a quick post with some more photos from my trip to New York City. Most of my friends are still wondering why I took so many photos of doors - I did it for YOU! :)
I spent last weekend in New York City, and saw these beautiful leather entrance doors on the Trump SoHo. I'm not sure how practical they will be long-term, but they're gorgeous now!...
This video is pretty amazing. Swallows nesting in a university parking garage could have been locked in when doors were added to convert the garage to the campus bike center. Is this an example of the swallows' intelligence, or dumb luck?...
I read in the news this morning that a 2-year-old boy died when he fell from the roof of a 4-story apartment building in Dorchester, Massachusetts - about 25 miles from my home. Many of the news reports focus on the lack of supervision that allowed the toddler to leave the day care on the first floor, climb 4 flights of stairs to the roof, push the door to the roof open...
In addition to the blocked egress path, I see a security bar with a padlock and hasp, the original lockset, and an exit alarm, presumably requiring at least 3 operations to unlatch the door. And possibly a key. And a detailed map to find your way to the door...
I saw this application the other day, while I was taking photos for an upcoming article in Construction Specifier. The article covers several accessibility topics, including the requirement for a 10-inch smooth surface at the bottom of the push side of manual doors...
How is this closer attached? Seriously - this is a first for me. Happy Fixed-it Friday!...
Bain said the fire itself was suppressed fairly quickly, but smoke and hot gases rushed through the hallway and up a flight of stairs, in part because the fleeing tenant left her door open and also because doors elsewhere in the building were propped open...
This week's Wordless Wednesday photo is from Keith Lathrop of Midwest Wholesale Hardware - a particularly scary emergency exit with a chain and padlock to replace the missing rods and top latch...
Back in the Olden Days when I went to hardware school, I couldn't wait to get my AHC certification and become an instructor. I really looked up to them (and still do!). They were very knowledgeable but they had a lot of fun too. Then life happened...
What do you think, lock fans?...
In Chapter 3, the IBC defines each “use group” and NFPA 101 - Chapter 6 describes each “classification of occupancy.” Both terms describe how the building or a portion of the building will be used, and each of these codes contain requirements specific to certain uses...
Today's photo is from Connor Jordan, originally posted on the Door Closer Enthusiasts page on Facebook. I don't know for sure that this is a fire door, but let's assume that it is for the sake of this lesson. NFPA 80 (2013) states: "5.1.5 Removal of Door or Window...
As I stood outside the warehouse I noticed that everyone who went in or out of the exit (which was not the main entrance), had something to say about the "ramp." This exit would clearly not be considered accessible, but it was even difficult for able-bodied visitors to use...
This one goes out to my friends at Von Duprin Tech Support...I don't think I've ever seen this particular modification before. How about you?...
What is your preferred method for hanging an aluminum storefront door, and why? What are the considerations - aesthetics, function, durability...others?...
This is not the first time my friend Bob Jutzi has left me Wordless. ;) Each door is 3'-9" wide x 10'-0" high. The doors are thought to be original to the building, built in the 1880's...
Last week I read a blog post called, "Excuse me, but your slip is showing," from Constructive Thoughts, the blog of Sheldon Wolfe. I'm a sucker for a well-researched article on a code-related topic, so I sent Sheldon an email asking if I could reference his post here. Sheldon told me to have at it, but also said that it wasn't very satisfying for him to write this type of article - where you research every angle and end up without a useful conclusion.
It appears this massive mishap could have been a lot worse than it turned out to be, but it is nevertheless a scary incident that left many people hurt and hundreds in harm's way. That may prompt the MGM Grand to reevaluate its current design and make some tweaks to avoid similar incidents in the future...
These doors are fire doors and also a marked exit, so a) replacing the fire exit hardware with surface bolts negates the positive latching, b) the rim strike that has been installed with the rim panic is not acceptable for use on a fire door, c) the guide rails prevent the inactive leaf from opening...
She added: “The one thing that would have made the world of difference, other than the fire not being started in the first place, is if the door to flat 101 (where the fire broke out) had been closed.”...
It seems like every time I attend a meeting of one of the associations I belong to, I see something to use on this site (here's one from a CSI meeting, and another, and another...
These are 3-hour fire doors which divide the modern wing of the museum from the older wings. This is an award-winning museum which houses more than 300,000 works of art in its priceless collection. The chance of a fire may seem unlikely, but if a fire occurs, the wedged-open fire doors will not protect the rest of the museum...
Have you ever been working on a specification or submittal and needed to find out whether a particular product was certified, or listed for a certain application? Maybe the plans show an oversized fire door and you need to see if your preferred manufacturer has tested a door of the proper size...
I realize that almost-daily emails from me might be too much for some people, so we Fixed-it. There is now a weekly notification available, which will send you 1 email per week, on Friday afternoon, with a list of that week's posts...
Fire door assemblies play a vital role in the protection of life safety, yet many people remain unaware of their existence. We pass through these doors every day in commercial, institutional, and multi-family residential buildings. A lack of awareness...
