I was recently elected as a town meeting member for my town (a pretty large town - 68,000 people), and tonight I attended my first-ever town meeting. It was pretty interesting to see government in action, but I also found time to hunt down some old doors for you all.
I wrote this post on Saturday but because of technical difficulties I couldn't get it uploaded until now. Sorry!
I've received lots of reader photos lately...thank you, and keep 'em coming!
Since I started this blog I've often thought how great it would be if JQP (John Q Public) knew the basic requirements of fire and egress doors. What if everyone who saw a locked egress door or a propped-open fire door had a way to change the situation? Imagine the effect this could have on life safety! In my imaginary world, I think of these informed people as door minions, except instead of serving an evil SuperVillian, they're helping to save the world. OK, it might be a stretch, but I saw this article the other day, giving me hope that there ARE door minions out there...
I have TJ Gottwalt to thank for this Wordless Wednesday post. Thanks TJ!
This post was printed in the February 2011 issue of Doors and Hardware
Today I went to a performance at a theater on a local college campus. The theater has 650 seats, so all of the required egress doors are supposed to have panic hardware. There are 4 pairs in the main lobby, all equipped with paddle devices which don't qualify as panic hardware. One of the requirements for panic hardware is that the actuating portion has to cover at least half the width of the door, and these paddles clearly do not.
I received a giant batch of photos today from a deputy fire marshal, and I could barely wait to post them. Whenever I get photos or comments from code officials I feel like the nerdy kid who got to sit with the cool kids at lunch one day. :-)
Considering how many photos I took of doors during my Mommy's weekend at Foxwoods, it's a good thing I'm not a gambler. I wouldn't have had any time to check out the doors if I was stuck at the slots. I can't imagine what Las Vegas will be like...I hope I don't get arrested like this guy. Now go get a cup of coffee while these 22 photos load.
This post was printed in the January 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware
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.
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.
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?"
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. :-)
This post was printed in the December 2010 issue of Doors and Hardware
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here are some more reader photos that have recently hit my (e)mailbox...
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.
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.
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.
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.).
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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. :-)
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! :-)
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!):
The good news is that these doors are being replaced, presumably with doors that will provide security without jeopardizing life safety. The bad news is that this is a popular restaurant and their main entrance doesn't come close to meeting the requirements for egress.
It's not very often that I see a news report about egress doors that don't meet code requirements. Considering the prevalence of the problem, it's amazing to me that it doesn't get more publicity, but then again, I'm a little more focused on the problem than the average citizen.
Every day I find a new excuse to avoid reading and writing about smoke doors. I swear I'll get back to them, but as construction gets rolling again we're getting really busy.
This is a new one. Translation: "Emergency Exit. Break and Press."
Tonight I attended the local DHI chapter meeting, where I was one of the presenters in a "cracker barrel" style presentation on fire door assembly inspection. It was kind of like FDAI speed dating. We had 6 tables, each with a different topic and 1 or 2 presenters per table, and the attendees cycled through all of the tables to hear a 10-minute presentation on each topic.
I know you're probably anxious for me to get back to the smoke series, but it's Mothers' Day so I'm going to take one more day off. Instead I'm posting the photos below, which I took yesterday at the local college campus center. Our school was using their function room for a fundraiser, and this door was the emergency exit for the room. On the other side of the door is a construction zone, and neither door was operable.
It's a little scary how excited I get when I find photos in my inbox...mostly because it makes the subsequent post pretty easy and I don't have to try to make the doors I see during my own wanderings meaningful. I received these photos from one of our esteemed trainers, who travels around teaching people about hardware. Any hardware people who have attended a class in a hotel meeting room can vouch for the scary hardware applications you can find there.
I think I've seen so many non-code-compliant doors that I'm becoming numb to them. In the old days I would be spurred into action by the sight of a blocked exit or propped-open fire door. Yesterday I was at the local bagel joint and I saw their marked emergency exit blocked with stored high-chairs. No surprise. I went to my chiropractor's office and in the 3-story stairwell, two doors were propped open by the construction crew doing a 2nd-floor office fit-up, and the third floor door's latchset had been removed and replaced with a push plate and pull. Ho-hum.
