I think we all know by now that egress doors are not allowed to be painted or covered in a way that would disguise them (except certain doors in health care occupancies where NFPA 101 allows murals)...

Take a close look. There are 2 doors in this opening - one inswinging, one outswinging. Each has 2 surface bolts. The request was to add yet another lock to these doors. Yikes.

In addition to the fact that you're not supposed to disguise egress doors, those hinges are severely under-engineered for those doors. Photos sent in by Dave Ilardi of Allegion.

This photo was taken in a high school, while school was in session. The doors lead from an enclosed courtyard into the school - the egress path should pass through the interior of the school and out the main exit doors to the public way...

I wonder how the designer got away with the design of this exit. From the corridor, it gives the impression of a normal exit door. When you open the door, you can only go either up to the 7th floor or onto the adjacent roof. There is no way to go down to exit the building...

I'm Wordless about today's photo, sent in by Paul Goldense of Goldense Building Products. But on another topic...please help with yesterday's WWYD? post if you can...

This Wordless Wednesday photo from Scott Straton of Allegion requires a bit of explanation. In Scott's words..."My niece was working out at 3:00 AM (she is an avid runner and had an early flight) at a hotel fitness room. When she went to get a drink of water, the lock failed and she was not able to get out..."

We've all seen this somewhere.  Did you say something?  Was the problem resolved?

These photos were shared on the Truck Floor Training page on Facebook, and are posted here with the permission of Chris Morgani of the Fort Myers Beach Fire Department. In addition to the obvious problem, the door is welded shut. Maybe it's not a required exit, or maybe someone made an uneducated decision. We will probably never know...

There are some AHJs who allow security measures that are not compliant for egress if they're only used "after hours." I always say that this is a slippery slope, because once the device is installed, there's no guarantee that anyone will remember that the door is supposed to be unlocked during business hours...

These Wordless Wednesday photos are from Erich Friend of Teqniqal Systems. According to Erich, the first photo is the initial egress door out of the auditorium. If you make it past the lab table, you encounter the trash can and piano stored in front of the exit discharge. No words...

John Lozano from Allegion sent me this photo he took at a festival in Wisconsin...I've seen worse at the state fair, but this exit is a little sketchy...

This is the rear exit of a liquor store. Although the store was closed when this photo was taken, on the other side of the door there is an exit sign, panic hardware, a surface bolt, and a padlock. This type of retrofit is common when additional security is needed, but it is NOT code-compliant...

The door in these Wordless Wednesday photos has 7 surface bolts, an exit alarm, a door position switch, AND a rolling door. Wow.

I've written quite a few specifications for museum projects and although many architects have asked me for "invisible doors," I do my best to talk them out of it. These are two different museums, in two different states, but these Wordless Wednesday photos were both sent to me the same week by two different people...

I've seen a lot of funky egress route restrictions in airports, but this was a first...