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.
Next Tuesday is the proposal closing date for the 2013 editions of NFPA 80 - Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives, and NFPA 105 - Standard for the Installation of Smoke Door Assemblies and Other Opening Protectives.
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.
"It's not what you know, it's who you know..."
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 spent most of today traveling to Connecticut to do a Code Jeopardy presentation for 31 building inspectors there. I'm pretty sure they thought I was crazy when I said that we were going to play a game, but they enjoyed it and learned something, and I was able to keep them awake even though they had just eaten a big slab of meatloaf. If you want to learn about codes in a fun an interactive way, let me know and I'll try to arrange Code Jeopardy for your group.
There have been lots of changes around here in the last few months...we moved the site to a new server and a new URL, and things seem to be running smoothly. We've added an archive in the sidebar, and reformatted the search results pages and the category index pages to match. My coworker, Lindsey Weiss, has spent many hours checking each post for broken links and posts that were missing the 2009 code excerpts, as well as updating the photo gallery. She's in the process of checking the categories assigned to each post, so the correct posts show up on each category index page. I'm very grateful to Lindsey for helping me clean up my act, and for Creekside Systems for working behind the scenes. I hope these changes will help you find things and navigate around on the site more easily.
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.
Questions about frame labels have come up several times this week, so I guess it's time for a post. I've pulled together some information from various sources and I hope some of you will chime in with your input.
I've been to Nashville a few times, but somehow I missed seeing the replica of the Parthenon while I was there. Luckily I received some reader photos of the gigantic doors there, and I also found some photos on Flickr and obtained permission to share them here.
Here are some more reader photos that have recently hit my (e)mailbox...
I have received SO MANY reader photos lately - THANK YOU!
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.
I just got home from the Boston Chapter CSI meeting (that's the Construction Specifications Institute - I'm not cool enough to go to the Crime Scene Investigators' meetings). As I was leaving the parking garage I saw this door on the 4th floor.
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.).
You may have already noticed that I added a new tab at the top of the page that says "FDAI." On this page I've collected some resources on Fire Door Assembly Inspection (FDAI). If you have comments about any of the documents or links there, or if you have ideas for other resources that should be included, let me know!
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.
A couple of weeks ago, someone called to ask me where in the codes it states that 12 coat hooks can not be mounted on a 90-minute rated wood door. I have to admit, that was a new one.
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.
These doors are from the same children's museum as the planetarium exit doors in the previous post. I first noticed the "mouse hole" at the bottom of one pair, and wondered why it was there, until I saw multiple other holes with wires running through.
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. :-)
If you haven't been to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, you're missing out on some great old hardware applications. They recently had an exhibit of antique door pulls, and as soon as my first-grader saw it he said, "Mom! I think you're going to want to get out your camera!" :-)
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!):
Someone sent me this photo of the custom door pulls made by Tice Industries for the Danner Shoe Manufacturing Company, and I thought they were so cool that I asked Scott Tice to send me more photos of their custom door pulls. They have other custom capabilities as well, so check them out!
By now I'm sure some of you are wondering if I'm lying in a ditch somewhere, but I'm not! Our website host has had some problems on the server side which left me unable to log in since last Thursday. :-(
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.
A while back, I posted some recommended specification language regarding the annual inspection of fire and egress door assemblies, and I have since revised it based on everyone's comments. The original language and comments are still here, and the updated language is below. This should be inserted into the hardware specification for projects designed to comply with the 2009 edition of the IBC, or in jurisdictions which require compliance with NFPA 80-2007 or 2010. Feel free to comment if you have suggestions for improvements.
I visited a jobsite today and saw some QEL devices in action. If you're not familiar with the QEL device, it is a *quiet* version of the electric latch retraction exit device. When the access control system (card reader, key fob, etc.) signals the door to unlock, the latch(es) retract to allow someone to pull the door open. You can always exit by pushing the touchpad. I have used the QEL device on several high-profile spaces where noise is an issue. I recently specified them for auditoriums at the United States Institute of Peace and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where the latches are held retracted while the auditorium is unlocked. As you can see in the video below, the touchpads are also held in while the latches are retracted so there will be no sound associated with exiting while the doors are unlocked.
A couple of weeks ago I got a notification that someone wanted to connect with me on LinkedIn, and it turned out to be an architect that I worked with on several projects many moons ago, Reese Schroeder. When I checked out his profile I found that he is the co-founder and Director of Product Development for RM Global. The company creates and manufactures absolutely gorgeous art glass, including glass doors. Their secret process results in a resolution of 4,000 dpi at 36 billion color potential - far exceeding the range of the human eye.
AccessibilityOnline is conducting monthly webinars on accessibility as a collaborative training program between the ADA National Network and the US Access Board. The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design were recently approved, and the revised standards will be the topic of the next webinar. The webinar is scheduled for September 2nd, 2010, from 1:30-4:00 ET. Here's a description of the presentation from their website:
Some creative and unusual hardware applications sent in by blog readers:
At least once a month someone asks me whether it's ok to use a deadbolt with a thumbturn on a door that is required to be accessible. It took some digging to get a definitive answer, because the accessibility standards don't specify a certain dimension that would be acceptable for the thumbturn. The ADA guidelines and ICC A117.1 both state that hardware has to be operable without tight grasping, pinching, or twisting of the wrist, but that still leaves a lot up to interpretation.
Some of the more attentive ihatehardware readers may have noticed a few little changes with the site lately. For a long time I've been thinking about adding another domain name for my blog, indicating my true feelings about doors and hardware. The original domain name, www.iHATEhardware.com, was chosen because almost all of the architects I work with hate or at least have an extreme dislike for hardware, so that URL is easy for them to remember.
It's hard to believe that last week was the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act. I clearly remember being sent to a seminar at the Ramada Inn in the early 90's to hear all about how this *new* law would affect architecture and construction. Of course, not much of the presentation was spent discussing the hardware requirements, so our industry was left to figure it out over the years.
When it's aJAR, of course!
I spend a lot of time with architects, and sometimes I'm put in the awkward position of having to talk them out of trying to do something with doors that hasn't been successfully done before. Many times this involves glass doors, which are becoming more common, yet still have very few options for hardware. It's tough to make a glass door do anything innovative, when all of the locking hardware is paired with a fixed pull handle.
The 8th edition of the Massachusetts State Building Code 780 CMR becomes effective on August 6, 2010. From August 6th, 2010, to February 6th, 2011, there will be a concurrency period during which the 7th or 8th edition requirements can be followed, and after February 6th, 2011, the 8th edition must be used.
Since it's one hour until Friday and I've had a very long week trying to catch up from being on vacation, here's some door-humor (yes, really). It's an automatic door on the Columbia University Physics building. The auto operator was being replaced with an LCN Senior Swing, but the installers were struggling through the installation without a wiring diagram, which can be extremely tough if there's other hardware involved. I feel a site visit coming on.
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.
This application came across my desk last week and for the life of me I couldn't think of where someone would use it. I don't remember ever being asked for a rim cylinder with a thumbturn, and people ask me for all kinds of random things.
