Some of you may remember the blog post below, which I first published in 2011. Time flies! When I visited Greenwich Lock & Safe and met locksmith and artist Phil Mortillaro, he told me that there was a documentary in progress about him. The documentary is now available on PBS.org!
I have run out of words. Is this the best we can do to secure our classrooms? :(
This post was published in the August 2017 issue of Doors & Hardware
Last week I posted a photo of the egress side of a "door" through some sheetrock that had been scored. Jonathan Mathew Taylor just sent me this photo of the other side...
This was posted by Lawrence Waters on the Truck Floor Training Facebook page, and it was also sent to me by a door hardware consultant / firefighter friend. Anybody know what it is?
When Deputy Jeff Tock of Allegion sent me this Fixed-it Friday photo of double kick-down holders, I knew what you would ask...
Are locks on stair doors required to be hard-wired locks which unlock upon power failure?
I don't remember seeing anything in the model codes that supports a Kool Aid Man egress model. Do you?
Do load-bearing walls within a dwelling unit require fire doors?
Promising to cut "red tape," business-friendly politicians evidently judged that cost concerns outweighed the risks of allowing flammable materials to be used in facades...sound familiar?
I have seen this many times with mechanical lever trim for panic hardware, but I have never seen this...
Have you run into problems with the effects of building stack pressure on the operation of doors? Here's a new whiteboard animation video that explains the basics of stack pressure...
Leo Lebovits of M&D Door & Hardware sent me this Wordless Wednesday photo. I'm not an expert on pull stations, but this just doesn't look right to me...
I'm working on another whiteboard animation video to help explain the different code sections that apply to mag-locks. Did I forget anything?
While the exterior cladding on the building is being investigated for its contribution to the blaze, there are also news reports where witnesses are quoted as saying that the door leading to the apartment of fire origin was left open. This undoubtedly impacted the egress routes...
Even if this jurisdiction is not yet enforcing fire door assembly inspections for schools, the school is required to keep their fire doors code-compliant and to repair them in a manner that is acceptable to NFPA 80...
Many of you have heard this story before, but this video is terrific! See if you can catch the original price of panic hardware in the catalog shown in the video! :)
This signage designates the egress path from rooms in a small hotel / guest house in a city on the east coast. Note the exit sign over the window inside of one of the (locked) rooms, and instructions to break out the panel in the door...
Now that the NFPA 101 vote has passed, the 2018 model codes will be pretty consistent with regard to classroom security. I pulled together information from the IBC, IFC, and NFPA 101 for this article...
It's relatively unusual to see beautiful door pulls and custom levers, so when I do see something special, it's pretty exciting...
For today's Fixed-it Friday photo, how about a little before-and-after action from Jimmy Resedean Jr. of A Better Door and Window Co.?
As many of you know, yesterday was the NFPA Technical Meeting where NFPA members voted to decide whether NFPA 101 should allow two releasing operations for classroom doors, or continue to require one releasing operation to unlatch the door for egress...
Can someone explain this please?
The rapidly-approaching deadline for fire door inspections in health care facilities is resulting in LOTS of questions about fire door assemblies. The most FAQ in the last few weeks has been...
I read the two news stories below on the same day, which struck me as ironic. When it comes to security and safety, you can take the easy, fast, and cheap approach, or take the time to carefully consider the issues and alternatives and invest in a suitable solution...
This Fixed-it Friday photo is from Paul Goldense of Goldense Building Products. Paul will be teaching a fire door class with Jeff Batick of Allegion at the NFPA conference next week...
NASFM is certainly aware of the need to protect our schools and businesses from senseless acts of violence, however we feel strongly we must carefully consider the solutions being proposed...
What do you think? Is this Wordless Wednesday exit visible enough?
The application is in a building where the floors are out of level, and the fire door frames are installed with one jamb flush with the floor, leaving the other jamb with a gap...
Charles Anderson sent me this Fixed-it Friday photo of a creative solution he saw at a university. Is it me or do some of those parts look like they came from the "leftover box" in the lockshop?
With the increased use of sprinkler systems in commercial and institutional buildings, the need for temperature-rise doors has declined, but there are still locations where they are required...
Call me naive, but I always assume that when tragedy strikes, people will learn from it and try to avoid similar incidents in the future. Unfortunately, ignorance mixed with greed often stand in the way of life safety...
Which door openings are required to have gasketing, according to NFPA 101 - The Life Safety Code?
Even though automatic operators have been available from LCN for longer than I can remember, I still get questions about which one to use where, why to choose one over the other, and pneumatic vs. electric operation...
Here's what I know. At one time, this door was in an isolation ward that was part of a Maine psychiatric hospital campus built in 1957...
The driving force behind this change is the Accessible Icon Project, which began in Boston and has gone global, leading some US cities and states to mandate use of the new symbol...
I have no idea what happened here. Wordless...
These introductory videos are great for people who are new to the industry, so use the share/save icon above to share the link with your colleagues!
On a fairly regular basis, someone sends me a video clip or a link to a news story, asking, “Have you seen this classroom lockdown device?”
The application in these Fixed-it Friday photos looks like a result of poor planning to me. Thank you to Mark Kuhn of Allegion for sending them!
Last week I posted a photo and asked if the signage made the door code-compliant. As many people commented, the short answer is "no." It's hard for me to resist a "teachable moment"...
This Wordless Wednesday photo is from the newly-deputized Joe Cross of Allegion. I have no words...at least no words that would be allowed on a corporate website...
Here it is! The next whiteboard animation video we created to introduce (or refresh) the basics of opening accessibility...
I could have sworn that I had already answered this question on iDigHardware, but there are almost 2,000 posts and I can't find one that specifically addresses this...Is there a required "hand" for a double-egress pair?
After a lockdown system was installed at this elementary school, a piece of pipe insulation was glued to the entrance door leading to the day care center. Why?
Following up on my earlier post about school security and safety, here's a report from Fox 4 News about a school fire that occurred just yesterday...
The graphic that will appear with this article in Doors & Hardware illustrates a potential application for existing classroom doors if the 2-operation language is approved...
Austin Bammann of Central Indiana Hardware sent me this Wordless Wednesday photo. You may notice that there is signage above the door stating, "This door needs to remain unlocked during business hours." Does this signage make the opening code-compliant? Why, or why not?
With these conditions in so many schools, I don't understand why any district would take on the potential liability associated with failure to meet their duties of care...
I will definitely attend at least one of Ron's classes, but if you are unable to be there, you can still get the answers to some of your questions about doors in health care facilities by watching Ron in this video...
