| By :
Mark Etinger
Fire rated doors are important for your protection. They are used to prevent fires from spreading at home, at your office and anywhere else you want to feel safe. The term “fire rated” means that the door will not combust in a certain amount of time. Ratings are given by government agencies or authorized companies and range anywhere from 20 – 90 minutes. These doors are heavy duty, and are usually made from metal or gypsum, which is a sulfate usually found near lime and other minerals. There are also fire rated wood doors. • Doors separate one environment from another, and yet while containing enclosed environments, they set the tone for the larger environment. Efficiency is important when it comes to doors, but you don’t want to prop your fire door open. This completely defeats the purpose of fire rated doors. In a large building, it may be possible to set the doors to a shut mode upon recognition of fire. While some doors may need to be shut all the time, others can be set to close automatically after they have been opened. • While many a commercial fire door is made out of wood, in shopping around you may have seen a commercial metal fire door or two. There are even those fire rated wood doors that have an opening for glass or a mesh screen. In order for these fire rated doors to be effective, they have to include a rating for the glass or screen as well. You may also be installing fire rated doors within rated walls, which have similarly been determined to last a certain amount of time through a fire. • When installing your fire rated doors, you need to remember that the process of using certain sealants and protectors is just as important to the door’s rating as the door itself. Usually contractors know what hardware and materials are required to maintain the door’s safety standard. • While these doors are fire rated, that does not mean that they are fire proof. Plus, there is no guarantee against these doors keeping out smoke, which can be just as deleterious to the individual as the fire. How long the fire has been burning already is usually unknown and so attempting to shelter oneself behind a commercial fire door is not a good idea. In case of a fire, keep low, avoid breathing in smoke, and proceed towards a stairwell. Emergency stairwells are often built using fire rated doors and are surrounded by fire rated walls. Out of the many fire rated doors out there, you also might want to think about environmental factor of the doors you choose. Some doors are LEED certified, which means that they meet a governmental standard set by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). With these doors you can be confident that you’re doing your part to live in a cleaner, greener, more ecologically friendly world and that they will still maintain a certain level of safety for you and your associates.
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