Assembly Egress
Hopefully you're not getting sick of my vacation photos because I've got a few more. This post has a special bonus at the end though - something I've NEVER seen before.
Iroquois Theater Fire
Today is the 107th anniversary of a tragedy at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, which shaped the early codes and led to the invention of the panic device. More than 600 people lost their lives in this fire, making it the deadliest theater fire and the deadliest single-building fire in United States history.
Another Hotel
I don't stay in flea-bag motels - I really don't. That's why it amazes me that almost every hotel I stay in has extreme issues with their fire doors. I'm on a short vacation with my family, and as you can see from the graphic on the right, the resort consists of several connected 2-story buildings with a total of 256 guest rooms. The only rooms that are equipped with sprinklers are the rooms that have fireplaces - if I had known that I might have sprung for the upgrade.
The Three Bears
I typically try to stick to more technical topics or photos of creative applications related to doors, but I'm on vacation so I'll be posting random photos and thoughts as I've done on other road trips (like these: Chip Falcon's Road Trip, Escape to Costa Rica, Maine/VT 2010). I don't usually write about one brand vs. another because I want this site to have universal appeal, but I just have to share my favorite Christmas gift of 2010 - a story written by my 9-year-old daughter (excuse the spelling and grammar - she learned to read/write in Spanish first so she's still perfecting the English). It cracked me up, and I know some of you will think it's funny too - whether you have IR hardware, or just "regular doors." :-)
Idig Hardware
The blog has hit the big time! American Express wants to give Idig Hardware a gold card! :-)
A Little Housekeeping
I'm working on a post for tomorrow that will solve another hardware mystery (regarding closers on classroom doors), but in the meantime, a couple of housekeeping issues...
Unequal Pairs
I've talked about this before, but the question still comes up almost weekly - "What's the code-compliant solution when replacing a pair of doors in a 5'-wide opening?"
Reader Photos
I'm in the mood to clean house (figuratively speaking only), so here's the latest collection of reader photos to hit my inbox. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to send them. More, please. :-)
Decoded: NFPA 72 on Access Control (December 2010)
This post was printed in the December 2010 issue of Doors and Hardware
The Bear Door
Last spring, one of my friends sent me a link for a "den-cam," where Lily the black bear was hibernating and eventually gave birth to her cub, Hope. There were over 20,000 people watching the den-cam for the big event. I was not one of them (although someday I would love to have enough leisure time to watch a den-cam), but I did become Facebook friends with Lily the Black Bear and the North American Bear Center.
The Rector Wanted it Quiet!
All the discussion about the unidentified piece of antique hardware reminded me to create a post about the invention of the door closer. Luckily, the story of the original LCN door closer was written down in approximately 1937, and I have reproduced it in this post. This story is near and dear to my heart, since the door closer was invented at Boston's Trinity Church, and I wrote the hardware spec for a large renovation there a few years back. The photo at right was taken about 10 years ago, and shows one of the original LCN closers at Trinity.
Antique Hardware Identification
[I added an update at the bottom of this post!]
A little help, please?
For several months I've been working on a short presentation for code officials about Fire & Egress door Assembly Inspection. I really HAVE been working on it, just not continuously. In my defense, it's really easy to get sidetracked when you get 100 emails per day. But there's one sure-fire way to get me focused, and that's to set a deadline. Not just a due date on my to-do list that I can change on a whim, but a real deadline with other people who will be waiting to see the results of my hard work.
Connections
When I started this blog, my goals were to organize all of the code information I had into a searchable database, and to offer a more painless way to learn about hardware. I think one of the hardest things about starting out in this industry is the way most of us learn about it - at the School of Hard Knocks. There are some great classes available through DHI and other sources, but it can take a very long time to attend them all, which gives us plenty of opportunities to make mistakes. I know I've made my fair share over the years, so I wanted to help people learn a little bit at a time and hopefully make it as painless as possible.
Exit? Really??
I received these photos from a fire inspector in Texas who shall remain nameless so he'll keep sending me the crazy stuff he sees in his travels. If you recall from earlier posts, an egress door has to look like a door, and can't be disguised in any way. This egress door is in a restaurant that seats 200-250, and the second photo is what the means of egress looks like after you go through the door. Nice.
Cocoanut Grove & Our Lady of the Angels
When I teach a code class, I often begin by talking about some of the tragic fires that have shaped today's codes. Because of the lessons learned from these fires and the code changes that resulted, the safety of building occupants has been greatly improved.
Double Cylinder Deadlocks – Residential
I don't get involved with residential construction very often, but a local locksmith recently asked about the use of double-cylinder deadlocks on single family homes. His position is that he will not install them, but he was looking for a code reference to back him up.
Movie Night
A couple of weeks ago someone asked me whether the exterior exit doors for a movie theater required panic hardware, and in my opinion, the answer is a resounding YES! Movie theaters are considered assembly occupancies, and the occupant load is well over the limit (50 or 100 occupants depending on the code) that would require panic hardware.
NFPA 80 & NFPA 105
Next Tuesday is the proposal closing date for the 2013 editions of NFPA 80 - Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives, and NFPA 105 - Standard for the Installation of Smoke Door Assemblies and Other Opening Protectives.
Maverick Bars
I recently received this photo from Michael Wojnarowski of Builders Hardware, and it reminded me of a Powerpoint presentation I ran across a while back. The presentation was created by the Anne Arundel County Fire Marshal Division - Code Enforcement Bureau, and the topic is Maverick Bars.
Meeting Stile Gasketing
"It's not what you know, it's who you know..."
Out to Lunch
I saw this door at a restaurant today. The decor is meant to look like a garage, and it's pretty cool - I especially liked the naked closers. I did wonder about the main entrance door though. It's tough to tell from the photos, but the graphics from the wall run over the aluminum portions of the door and frame and across the glass, so the glass is tinted orange with the dark stripes running across. You can barely see the word "extra" on the glass at the top of the door, but look at the window on the side of the vestibule - it's the same treatment that's on the door. When I looked at it from my seat it looked dark orange just like the wall.
FDAI
I spent most of today traveling to Connecticut to do a Code Jeopardy presentation for 31 building inspectors there. I'm pretty sure they thought I was crazy when I said that we were going to play a game, but they enjoyed it and learned something, and I was able to keep them awake even though they had just eaten a big slab of meatloaf. If you want to learn about codes in a fun an interactive way, let me know and I'll try to arrange Code Jeopardy for your group.
Change is Good
There have been lots of changes around here in the last few months...we moved the site to a new server and a new URL, and things seem to be running smoothly. We've added an archive in the sidebar, and reformatted the search results pages and the category index pages to match. My coworker, Lindsey Weiss, has spent many hours checking each post for broken links and posts that were missing the 2009 code excerpts, as well as updating the photo gallery. She's in the process of checking the categories assigned to each post, so the correct posts show up on each category index page. I'm very grateful to Lindsey for helping me clean up my act, and for Creekside Systems for working behind the scenes. I hope these changes will help you find things and navigate around on the site more easily.
Stay in School
I just noticed an article in the Edinburgh Evening News that was worth sharing. No, I don't make a habit of reading Scottish newspapers, but thanks to Google I see all kinds of news items involving fire doors.
Courtyard Egress
A few weeks ago I did a post about egress from an occupied roof, and that reminded me to go back and dig out some courtyard photos I took a while ago. When a courtyard is completely enclosed with no means of egress that leads directly to a public way, the path of egress is typically into the building and then out again through the building's egress doors.
Trick or Tweet
Ellen DeGeneres cracks me up - even though she never talks about doors and I never have time to watch her show any more. Recently, Ellen and I became Facebook friends, so I get random status updates from her show which often include videos. I happened upon a video of when she sent one of her writers through a haunted house, and about 25 seconds into the video, I noticed a set of emergency exit doors (which have LCN 4110s and Von Duprin 99s if I'm not mistaken). Yes, I do realize that I'm a weirdo, but you should know that by now.
Labels for Fire-Rated Frames
Questions about frame labels have come up several times this week, so I guess it's time for a post. I've pulled together some information from various sources and I hope some of you will chime in with your input.
The Parthenon – Nashville, Tennessee
I've been to Nashville a few times, but somehow I missed seeing the replica of the Parthenon while I was there. Luckily I received some reader photos of the gigantic doors there, and I also found some photos on Flickr and obtained permission to share them here.
Reader Photos
Here are some more reader photos that have recently hit my (e)mailbox...
Reader Photos: Cruise Ship Doors
I have received SO MANY reader photos lately - THANK YOU!
Gates
My daughter Norah and I went to New Haven yesterday for what will hopefully be our last trip to Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital. Thank you to everyone who has inquired about her...she's doing great and is back to her old tricks.
2009 IBC / 8th Edition Mass Code
If you missed the New England Chapter DHI meeting last week...a Q&A presentation on codes, the question/answer document and the handout are now available on the chapter website.
Watch out for the hoooooole!
I just got home from the Boston Chapter CSI meeting (that's the Construction Specifications Institute - I'm not cool enough to go to the Crime Scene Investigators' meetings). As I was leaving the parking garage I saw this door on the 4th floor.
Rooftop Garden
As promised, I found quite a few interesting applications during our stay at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, which I will post here in the next few weeks. I also received some reader photos in response to my plea for help in keeping this site supplied with posts that weren't too time-consuming for me while my daughter recovered from her surgery. Thank you for the photos, as well as the emails to check on her progress. We were able to go home on Friday as planned, and she's running around like nothing happened.
Surgical Suite Entry
I have been amazed and touched by the number of people who actually read my Good News/Bad News post all the way to the end and took the time to call or email me about my daughter's surgery. Thank you so much for your care and concern. It has been a tough week and an extremely stressful day, but everything went perfectly and my daughter is doing really well. We're still in the hospital but we hope to be able to go home tomorrow (actually today since it's 2 a.m.).
FDAI Resources
You may have already noticed that I added a new tab at the top of the page that says "FDAI." On this page I've collected some resources on Fire Door Assembly Inspection (FDAI). If you have comments about any of the documents or links there, or if you have ideas for other resources that should be included, let me know!
Good News / Bad News
First the good news. When the annual DHI conference was held in Boston, I conducted a 3-hour code class for architects (I later conducted the class for our DHI chapter.). Public speaking isn't my favorite thing to do, so when one of the attendees approached me before class started and said, "You're not REALLY going to talk for 3 HOURS about CODES, are you?", I got a little nervous. When we conduct presentations for architects, they're typically lunch-n-learns - 1 hour max, with lunch (and cookies!) as an incentive to attend. We get great feedback on our lunch presentations, but asking architects to sit through 3 hours of discussion on hardware and codes was a different story. To my surprise, about 100 architects registered to attend, they actually showed up, and they stayed until the end. I didn't lose my train of thought, pass out, have an "accident", or lose my voice, so I considered the class a success.
Coat Hooks
A couple of weeks ago, someone called to ask me where in the codes it states that 12 coat hooks can not be mounted on a 90-minute rated wood door. I have to admit, that was a new one.
Back to School
I received these photos last week and I didn't have much advice...maybe someone else does. These are classroom doors in a school for autistic children, and the extra locksets are due to the special needs of the students. The students are unable to retract both latches at the same time (if they can even reach the upper lockset). While this keeps the children in the classroom (a good thing), it also prevents egress (a bad thing).
The Coliseum
You wouldn't think that a fair would be a great place for door-hunting, but I saw the doors below at The Big E last weekend. There's a lot going on here - sliding, folding, and swinging doors serving a giant assembly occupancy. This reminds of many scenarios dreamed up by architects that I've advised strongly against. No offense to all of the architects out there, but I'll bet the facility hates these doors.
What would you do?
I received the comment below on my post about the childrens' museum doors with applied panels painted to look like stone. It's a good question, so I'm turning it into a post of its own.
Faux Stone
To finish up my spontaneous series on the children's museum, here are a few of the faux-painted doors we saw there. I think these are even harder to distinguish as doors (when they're closed) than the planetarium exit.
Mouse Holes
These doors are from the same children's museum as the planetarium exit doors in the previous post. I first noticed the "mouse hole" at the bottom of one pair, and wondered why it was there, until I saw multiple other holes with wires running through.
Planetarium Exit
When I need inspiration for what to write about and nobody has sent me a good code question that day, all I have to do is look back at my photos from family outings. That's sad, I know. :-)
Old Sturbridge Village
If you haven't been to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, you're missing out on some great old hardware applications. They recently had an exhibit of antique door pulls, and as soon as my first-grader saw it he said, "Mom! I think you're going to want to get out your camera!" :-)
All Fixed!
My site has been moved to a new server so hopefully all of the technical difficulties are behind us and I can get on with the important stuff - DOORS! :-)
Reader Photos
Maybe I should have a new series called "Jeff Tock's Photos." :-) Jeff is one of the Ingersoll Rand trainers who travels the world teaching people about hardware, and he sees a lot of "special applications." Jeff sent me this group of photos recently (thanks Jeff!):