I know I just posted some news stories a few days ago, but Zeke Wolfskehl sent another one that I have to share. It appeared in the New York Times on November 27th. Considering how difficult it is to make people understand the value of their fire doors and why they should be kept in working order, I think this article does a great job of illustrating the importance.
I can't figure out whether these are providing security or acting as the door closers, but either way they leave me wordless!
Bangladesh fire: Exit door locked - News 24
I just returned from a trip to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Grassy Cove, Tennessee. If you're a long-time reader of IDH, you may remember when I visited them way back in 2009 for the Chip Falcon Road Trip (my brother did the cycle testing).
I'm spending most of this week in Tennessee, and yesterday I went out to the local supermarket for a few more Thanksgiving dinner supplies. This door caught my eye...
I'm on a road trip with my family this week to go visiting for Thanksgiving, and yesterday we stopped in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I can sniff out a beautiful or unusual door from a mile away, but I didn't expect to find such a plethora of different beautiful doors on the same building.
Yes, this is a fire door, and yes, the bollard is permanently bolted in place.
I haven't been able to find an answer to this one!
Although the schools in Providence, Rhode Island, are supposed to be inspected by code officials annually, some had not been inspected for 10 YEARS. I wonder how many public schools are in the same boat?
This week I've been spending some time with Karina Guadencio, an Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies specwriter from Brazil. In addition to lots of discussion in the office, we've been to a Boston Chapter CSI meeting, had lunch with the master specwriting team at Kalin Associates, conducted a punch list at Harvard Law School, and visited Columbus Door (thanks everyone!). It's been a whirlwind tour! Add the cold and last night's snow, and I think she's ready to head south (especially since she's having dinner with my family tonight! :D).
I'm not going to post the name of the person who sent these photos in, because I contacted the restaurant and I don't want them to see his name here and seek revenge the next time he places an order. I got no response after sending two emails...I wonder if the fire marshal eats here.
I've stayed at several hotels lately that had a sliding door on the bathroom within the hotel room. This solves some coordination issues involving the door swing and the method of stopping the door, but creates questions of its own. What type of sliding door hardware do you prefer for a solid core sliding door? And what type of latch do you use for privacy?
I'm getting ready to head home from Arc-US in San Diego (which has been a fabulous conference!), and wondering how long it will be before someone tweets a photo of me singing on stage with the Dueling Pianomen. Until then, here's some signage the likes of which I've never seen before. I'm in favor of signage to prevent door abuse. Save the doors!
I recently visited a facility where security is their top priority. Many of the doors are set to sound an alarm if they are left open for more than 6 seconds. This presents a challenge when carts are being moved through the opening, because the doors need to stay open long enough for the carts, but need to close before the 6-second mark. There are 10,000 employees on-site during a typical day, and leaving a door unsecure / not locked or latched can result in termination of their jobs. Many of the doors are fire doors, which adds some extra complexity to the issue. Almost all of the doors have access-control.
This is becoming a recurring theme. I'll be in a few airports later this week...maybe I'll see some more.
This post was printed in the January 2013 issue of Doors & Hardware
My trip to CoNEXTions 2012 in Las Vegas last week was a whirlwind! There were so many people that I didn't have a chance to catch up with - I don't know if I can wait until CoNEXTions 2014 in Dallas!
For the second time in two months, a news story came across my desk that involved the impact of mag-locks on security. For some involved in the security industry, mag-locks are perceived to be an easy way to retrofit a high level of protection, because the field preparation is limited and the manufacturers' literature shows holding force specifications which seem like more than enough to keep out the average burglar.
This post was printed in the November 2012 issue of Doors & Hardware
Today I was able to spend some time on the trade show floor at CoNEXTions 2012, the Door & Hardware Institute conference. It was great to see so many old friends and some new products. My pal and code aficionado, Steve Bettge, tracked me down and escorted me to a booth where there was a product that was right up my alley.
The good news...I'm on my way to Las Vegas for CoNEXTions 2012! The bad news...our flight lost a hydraulic system and we had to land in Denver. There's a replacement plane but it is larger and requires an extra flight attendant, who had to be called in from home. I'm sure he's not a happy camper right now. I will get there eventually, but while I'm waiting, here's another photo that left me Wordless.
Here's one more beautiful opening from Tucson before I head off to Las Vegas for CoNEXTions 2012! If you'll be there too, leave me a comment and let's try to meet up!
During a break in today's BHMA meetings I took a drive south to see the Mission San Xavier Del Bac. The mission was founded in 1692, and the current church was built between 1783 and 1797. It is located in the center of a Papagon Indian settlement. The mission has been constantly maintained and periodically restored, so it's in beautiful shape. You can read more about the history of this gorgeous building here.
On my way to Tucson I had a layover, and every single emergency exit door was set up similar to this one. Thoughts?
I'm in Tucson this week for the BHMA Fall Meeting. My husband thinks it's all fun and games, but we've been working hard on some new standards - one for ligature-resistant hardware and one for residential hardware. There's a lot more on the agenda over the next couple of days, but it's a beautiful area to have a meeting, the hotel is great, and I saw my first javelina today (I still think it was a wild boar :D).
Back in August, I posted some information about a change to the UL procedures regarding fire doors less than 32" wide. UL has just issued another bulletin, which reverses the August 2nd bulletin. There will be no special requirements for labeling doors less than 32" wide - doors can be labeled in accordance with the manufacturers' service procedures.
This article was originally published in the Summer 2012 issue of Life Safety Digest, a publication of the Firestop Contractors International Association (FCIA). The article has been revised slightly to reference more recent codes.
Last year I published a post about the two common types of smoke detectors - ionization and photo-electric detectors. There was a report on NBC News tonight about this same topic. In case you missed the first post or didn't get around to checking the detectors in your home, here's a follow-up:
This is the emergency exit for a day care center, sent in by Dwight Isaacs of US Homeware Inc. If you look closely, you'll see that the latch is up near the top of the jamb post, out of reach of the kids. This seems like it could be a viable solution, except that in another situation when I asked all of my code official pals about how I could prevent a child with special needs from exiting out of a school without permission, most of them said that they would not allow a latch mounted above the range mandated by code.
Here are some recent news stories you might be interested in reading...
I couldn't have said it better myself..."Mullion? Who needs a mullion when you can just turn the exit devices 90 degrees?" From Chris Steward of Steward Steel, by way of Jim Phillips of SBS Associates.
Mary Hinton of Mulhaupt's sent me a link to check out a one-of-a-kind door, and she was right - it's amazing! The door is on a single family home in India called "House with Wall of Light." It was designed by Matharoo Associates, for Dilip Sanghvi, a diamond merchant. The architectural firm won the Architectural Review's Emerging Architecture Award, when they submitted the door design.
Question: Is there a requirement for the location of a glass lite in a door or sidelite?
Whatcha think? Is this exit visible enough?
Since this blog began, it has had visitors from 165 countries. I've been contacted by readers from outside of the United States, and have heard first-hand of door and hardware professionals in other countries using the site as a resource. That amazes me.
Am I the only one bothered by this? Probably.
In case you're wondering, I do know that it's not Wednesday, but I'm never actually Wordless either.
I'm in sunny Phoenix this morning, getting ready to head over to the convention center for the CONSTRUCT show. I know that some of you are here too! Last week at our local CSI meeting, 5 different people came up to me and said, "I HATE HARDWARE!", usually with a theatrical grimace, a stomp of the foot, or a shaken fist (or all of the above) and a little smile. I'm happy to represent the industry that architectural specifiers love to hate because there are plenty of us who are here to help you.
It’s time. Today.
This used to be a very common application but I haven't seen it much lately. Do you know what the potential issue is?
How is it possible that hotels almost always have fire and egress door issues? It seems like they would get it right once, then duplicate those good applications across the chain and make sure that they're maintained. Yet hotels have been a great source of Doors Gone Wrong.
I just love when I ask a question and some of you actually answer me. Following up on yesterday's post about "The World's Heaviest Door", here are a few more big doors:
Brenda Dove of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies spotted this door on the Energy.gov website, where they feature a new energy-related photo each week. In 1979, this was the world's heaviest door, weighing in at 97,000 pounds. I wonder if it still holds the record. Seen any big doors lately?
Step 4: Invert the cylinder cam as shown.
Free Webinar: NFPA 80, Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Swinging Fire Doors
I recently saw this closer prep on a brand-new fire door. Now what?
I'm going to be traveling a fair amount over the next couple of months, and if you'll be where I am I'd love to see you! This afternoon I am headed to our office in Carmel, Indiana, to continue training our newest batch of specwriter apprentices. The door and hardware industry seems to always have trouble attracting new people, and specwriters are usually created over a long career filling other roles in the industry. Well, Bill Lawliss and I have risen to the challenge and are working with some recent college graduates to teach them everything we know about doors and hardware. They've already learned a lot and this week we will continue with some more training on hardware applications. If you or anyone you know might be interested in participating in this training program in the future, let me know!
Whenever I teach a class on fire door inspection, questions always come up about holes in fire doors and how to fill them. I promised a class of 120 last fall at the Yankee Security Conference that I would write a blog post about it, but there was really no good solution, particularly for wood doors - until now.
Question: Is there a code requirement for how often the delayed egress hardware in my facility must be tested?
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