The types of fire resistant doors are diverse, including glass fire resistant doors, stainless steel fire resistant doors, and ordinary steel fire resistant doors. However, the installation methods are basically the same and depend on the site conditions. There are some common installation parameters that must be carefully considered.
Considerations for installing fire resistant doors
The installation of fire resistant doors should be carried out according to the type of fire resistant door used, using an appropriate installation method.
The door frame of the fire resistant door can be fixed to the wall with expansion bolts, or iron pieces can be embedded in the opening of the masonry wall during construction and welded to the door frame during installation.
Regardless of the connection method between the door frame and the wall, there should be no less than 3 anchor points on each side, and they should be firmly connected.
When installing fire resistant doors, they should be aligned and checked for proper dimensions before temporarily fixing them. After correction and adjustment, they can be connected and anchored.
Sliding doors should be flexible to slide after installation, while swinging doors should be easy to open and tightly closed.
Fire doors must be equipped with door closers, and sequential controllers should be installed for double doors.
Hardware accessories such as handles and fireproof locks provided by digital lock manufacturer on fire resistant doors must be complete.
The gap between the door and the ground surface should not be more than 5mm.
Issues with fire resistant doors leading to adjacent compartments
Under certain conditions, when there is a Class A fire resistant door leading to an adjacent fire compartment, high-rise buildings are allowed to have only one safety exit per compartment. It should be noted that since fire resistant doors can only open in one direction, if both adjacent compartments have only one safety exit, two fire resistant doors should be installed on the firewall and open to both sides to meet the needs of mutual evacuation between the two compartments.
The most commonly used type is a normally closed fire resistant door, which is always in a closed state and is manually opened when people pass through. After passing through, the door closes automatically. It is more effective to install push-in hardware to accelerate evacuation. However, normally closed fire resistant doors, including fire-resistant front doors, installed in public passageways have disadvantages such as affecting ventilation, blocking sight, and inconvenience in passage. If poorly managed, their door closers and hardware often get damaged or malfunction, causing safety risks. The appearance of normally open fire resistant doors solves the above problems. The door leaf is fixed in an open position by a door holdder, and the door holdder automatically releases during a fire, restoring the same function as a normally closed fire resistant door. Due to the addition of a door holdder and an automatic release system, sometimes in conjunction with an automatic alarm system, using a normally open fire resistant door will inevitably increase project cost. The current fire safety regulations do not mandate a specific opening and closing method for fire resistant doors. The choice should be determined by the designer considering the building standard, usage characteristics, management needs, and economic factors.
