Code Requirements for Electromagnetic Locks
This article was published in the February 2012 issue of the Locksmith Ledger:
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02, 2012
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02, 2012
Mullions…What’s not to love??
Way back in hardware school we were taught that rim panic hardware with a removable mullion is the most secure and maintenance-free application for a pair of doors. Most facilities prefer mullions instead of vertical rod panic hardware, which can be difficult to install and to keep properly adjusted. On the other hand, most architects request concealed vertical rod panic hardware, to avoid seeing the mullion or rods. I think the benefits of the mullion far outweigh any aesthetic issues.
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02, 2012
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02, 2012
Fractured Fairy Tales: Electrified Hardware and LEED®
Every so often I love to have a guest blogger write a post for me, so I can have the night off to do something fun and exciting like attend a PTO meeting (sad, right?). My colleague, Steve Ostapower, was recently involved in a situation where the power usage of a Von Duprin EL (electric latch retraction) device was questioned, and I asked him to share his findings with you (Thanks Steve!). Enjoy!
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02, 2012
Hartford Hospital Fire (Video)
December 8th, 2011, was the 50-year anniversary of a fire at Hartford Hospital which caused the death of 16 patients, staff, and visitors, and resulted in many important changes to code requirements for hospital construction. Connecticut Public Television has just released a video about the tragedy and the resulting code changes. Other than the statement "all patient room doors must have positively latching hinges," it's a great piece.
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01, 2012
Fire Doors – WIN!
I LOVE THIS PHOTO!
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01, 2012
It’s Official!
It’s official – I have a new job (woohoo!). For the last 3 years while I’ve been getting to know all of you and putting as much code/application information on this site as possible, I have also been managing our specification team for New England. At times it has been a struggle to do both, hence the late-night blog posts.
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01, 2012
Edge Channels
Even though I risked being called a weirdo by my colleagues, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try to learn more about the 5" wide edge channels that are sometimes required on fire-rated wood doors with concealed vertical rod exit devices. When these channels show up on the jobsite without warning, architects tend to be less than pleased. The interesting thing about these doors is that although they have the channels and fire exit hardware, there are no visible labels on the doors or frames. It's possible that the door label is on top, although the concealed closer channels take up most of the real estate up there. We explored ways to check the top of these super-tall doors, but it will have to remain a mystery unless we can sweet-talk our way onto the lift they use to change the lightbulbs.
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01, 2012
Access-Controlled Egress Doors
I'm in San Antonio, Texas at a beautiful hotel and conference center for our annual sales meeting, and there are A LOT of doors with mag-locks. Check out the coordination of the bank of pairs below...concealed closers, overhead stops, and mag-locks all coexisting in the same space. Notice that the mag-locks have a split armature to save space vs. a double-magnet. Every pair has a motion sensor, a push button, and a key switch, presumably for locking and unlocking the mag-lock. I would not typically specify a separate key switch for each opening in a bank of doors, but nobody asked me.
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01, 2012
Indiana War Memorial
My friends in Indy have obviously been holding out on me. I visited downtown Indianapolis in the frigid 14-degree weather last week, with the only thing standing between me and a broken hip my extremely inappropriate clogs, but it was worth it to see the gorgeous doors on the Indiana War Memorial.
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01, 2012
Multiple-Dwelling Fire Safety
Last week I wrote about a tragic fire in Chicago, in which Shantel McCoy was killed. I provided links to several articles in my post, but in a nutshell...
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01, 2012
How I Discovered Door Checks (Part 3), by L.C. Norton
I previously posted Part 1 and Part 2 of this article, and here is the third and final segment.
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01, 2012
Digging In Again
Last week's quiz question seemed to work pretty well, so how about another?
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01, 2012
Reader Photos
I have spent this entire week at our corporate office, so I haven't had a lot of time for posting. In return for your patience, next week I will post the third and final article from Lewis C. Norton's "How I Discovered Door Checks." That seems fair, right?
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01, 2012
WW: Blocked Exit Sensor
I saw this application twice in one week...the exit sensor for the mag-lock mounted behind the exit sign. It definitely affects the range of the sensor. The code requirements for mag-locks do not address exact placement of the sensor, but this seems like common sense, no?
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01, 2012
Apartment Fire – North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
UPDATE: More articles added at the bottom of the post.
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01, 2012
LCN Digital Calendar Page – January 2012
When I first started working for the New England agency representing LCN back in 1994 (MPS Sales), LCN used to print an annual calendar showing their door closers in action. Well, I don't know about you but it has been quite a few years since I have hung a calendar on the wall, and printed promotional calendars seem to have gone out of vogue. I miss looking at the photos on those old LCN calendars though.
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01, 2012
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12, 2011
LL Bean – What’s Missing?
We were on a mini-vacation earlier in the week, which is my excuse for forgetting two things. First, my pal Zeke Wolfskehl is in search of some research that I remember hearing about but have never been able to find documentation for. Maybe it's an urban legend, but I know that I heard/read somewhere that a pair of doors with a mullion allows more efficient egress than a pair of doors without a mullion. Do any of you remember where that was written? I need a lead to pursue.
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12, 2011
1,000 Door Building by Choi Jeong-Hwa
Maybe I'm becoming too predictable. Two people sent me links to information about this 10-story building in Korea covered with 1,000 recycled doors. I love it! It kind of reminds me of my visit to Greenwich Lock and Safe, with the facade covered in keys. In both cases the creators are artists, sharing their art with the public.
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12, 2011
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12, 2011
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!
I'm on a mini-vacation with my family for the holidays, but I've already spotted some doors of interest for you so I will post those soon.
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12, 2011
WW: Going Nowhere
This photo was sent in by Pat Bond of Shanahan's in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Thanks Pat!
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12, 2011
Social Media Roundup
There have been a lot of interesting door-related stories in the news lately. In case you missed my Tweets...
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12, 2011
EAC Catalog and Power Supplies
Many of Schlage and Von Duprin's electronic access control product numbers have changed within the last couple of years, and I've gotten a lot of calls about converting products and finding current information. The Electronic Access Control Catalog is now available on the Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies website, and the Search feature makes it much easier to find what you're looking for.
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12, 2011
WW: Everywhere I Go
I think I may need therapy. I was looking for a specific photo on my phone and here's what I found instead. As I was taking almost all of these photos, there was a friend, child, or stranger looking at me like I was weird. :-)
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12, 2011
Mouldering State Hospital
After the post on smoke doors I know I was ready for a break and I thought you might be too. I love photographs of urban decay, and Ward9 features some amazing photos of really interesting and often beautiful architectural ruins. I asked for permission to share a couple of the photos with you...go check out WardNine.com to see the rest and read a little about the history of these amazing places.
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12, 2011
Decoded: Smoke Door Requirements of the 2009 International Building Code (February 2012)
UPDATE: A new version of this article, based on the 2015 IBC, is located here.
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12, 2011
Panic Hardware Visibility
If you went to hardware school (like me), then you were taught that egress doors have to be visible and have an obvious method of operation, right? Well, every so often the question comes up regarding visibility of panic hardware, usually because someone wants to match the finish of a Von Duprin Inpact device to the door. Here are a couple of examples from one of my recent museum projects:
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12, 2011
WW: Arched Doors
Jeff Tock and Kyle Learch of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies saw these doors right after my post about closers for arched doors, and couldn't believe the methods being used to get these doors closed. The doors had spring hinges as well.
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12, 2011
How I Discovered Door Checks (Part 2), by L.C. Norton
I posted Part 1 of this article a while back, and apparently there have been people waiting patiently for the second installment. As requested, here is Part 2. Part 3 to follow.
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12, 2011
More Museum Hardware
Last weekend I put together the annual family photo album so I could order copies for the grandparents. Mixed in with all of the vacation photos were a ton of doors. Someday my grown-up kids will be on the psychiatrist's couch..."My mother always took us places just so she could look for interesting doors...I'm scarred for life." :-)
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12, 2011
Help Wanted
I really appreciate all of the comments and suggestions that were left in response to my post called WWYD? Cross-Corridor Pair. I love the collaboration and I know we can all benefit from the experience of others as well as the different points of view.
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11, 2011
WW: I C-U-P
Remember the old playground joke, "How do you spell 'I cup'?" Somehow it seemed hysterical back in the day, but it's not so funny now...
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11, 2011
WWYD? Cross-Corridor Pair
Thanks for your patience, everyone. My week "off" was followed by our Thanksgiving holiday, so I haven't posted as much lately. But I'm back, and I saw lots of doors while I was away.
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11, 2011
Miss Me? :-)
As many of you know, I took some time off last week. The plugin I had installed to scroll random posts broke my mobile site so I had to uninstall it. Hopefully you all read that last delayed egress post in depth to keep you occupied. :-)
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11, 2011
Decoded: Delayed Egress Hardware – Code Comparison (January 2012)
This post was printed in the January 2012 issue of Doors & Hardware
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11, 2011
The Great Boston Fire of 1872
It's almost impossible to imagine a fire of this magnitude, which began on November 9th, 1872. More than 770 buildings burned in less than 20 hours, most of them commercial buildings that were previously thought to be fire-proof. Several problems contributed to fighting the fire - the flu that had stricken most of the horses used to pull the fire engines, the attempts to reduce the fire load by exploding kegs of gunpowder inside of buildings, an inadequate water supply, and the crowds of spectators and looters filling the streets.
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11, 2011
WW: Cover Girl
I can't stop looking at the naked LCN 4040 behind Lindsey Vonn's head. Thank you to Eagle-Eye Jim Bystry of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies for sending me the link.
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11, 2011
Doors of Indiana
I coincidentally received these two sets of photos on the same day. Who knew there was such cool hardware in Indiana??
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11, 2011
Reader Photos
It warms my heart when someone says, "I saw this door and I thought of you." :-) That's what Angie Sutton of Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies wrote when she sent me this photo of an old vault door on a storage room at the county courthouse:
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11, 2011
WW: Cairo Airport
Check out these regular arm closers mounted on the push side of a pair with a transom panel. I would have used a parallel arm closer with a flush transom shoe, but I can appreciate the creativity.
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11, 2011
Decoded: Roof Access and Egress
This post was printed in the November 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware
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10, 2011
New York Minute
My coworker Don Cherry and I with special guests.
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10, 2011
Patient Room Doors
I don't know where this week went. I feel like I blacked out for a few days. On top of my usual load, I had 3 classes to teach within a couple of weeks - Code Jeopardy for the Massachusetts Locksmith Association, Fire Door Inspection for the Yankee Security Conference, and a Code Update for the DHI Conference in NYC. I had a lot of preparation to do because I hadn't taught these exact classes before, and I tend to spend a lot of time preparing so I'm less likely to pass out from fear on the big day. Anyway...this week has been rough but I'm getting there. I'm really looking forward to heading to NYC next Wednesday!
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10, 2011
Fire Door Brain Teaser
Paul Goldense of Goldense Building Products showed me this pair of fire-rated doors last week. He mentioned that the architect had to change the arch to make it a "flatter" curve because of the rating, and that they had to use continuous hinges instead of butt hinges. Who can tell me why?
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10, 2011
WWYD?: Back-to-Back Doors
Which product application do you use when you have doors that open back-to-back and need to close upon fire alarm? I was just explaining my preferred option to a specwriter last week, and then these photos arrived...perfect timing!
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10, 2011
WW: The Greatest Step is Out the Door
I'm getting ready to teach a code class for the Massachusetts Locksmiths Association (anybody want to play Code Jeopardy??) so I don't have a lot of time to post tonight, but thanks to Bob Borson (Life of an Architect), Ginny Powell (A Cracked Door) and Martin Badke (Laux Myth...Thoughts From a Locksmith), I ran across a site mentioned on Twitter that will keep all of you door lovers entertained for most of the day.
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10, 2011
Oldies But Goodies
Within one week I received two requests for help regarding old Von Duprin panic devices. I know that somebody out there has a dusty old file cabinet with information on these products. Ideally, we'd like to find exploded parts diagrams, installation instructions, or any other relevant information. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
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10, 2011
Decoded: Luminous Egress Path Markings
This post was printed in the October 2011 issue of Doors & Hardware