Fire-rated doors are an integral part of building safety, creating a barrier which stops fire and smoke from spreading in case of a fire. They are designed and built with special materials so that the doors can withstand extreme heat without failing. This creates smoke and flame-free evacuation lanes, as well as contains the fire, reducing the loss of property and life.
These doors vary in their ability to deter a fire and will be given an hourly rating to classify its effectiveness at holding back a blaze and will be clearly labelled on each door. What are these ratings?
- 20-minute doors
- 45-minute doors
- 60-minute doors
- 90-minute doors
- 180-minute doors
- 240-minute doors
How Do Fire Doors Get Their Ratings?
Fire-rated doors are rated based on endurance. How long a door can effectively hold back a blazing fire will determine its fire rating, which ranges from 20 minutes up to 240 minutes.
To determine these fire resistance ratings, doors are tested to ensure that they can withstand the conditions that would be present in a real fire. What are the factors that play a part in the overall rating of a fire door?
- Door Materials (specially designed door materials will be more fire resistant)
- Density of Door Material (more dense materials are better at stopping the spread of heat)
- Thickness of Door Material (thicker door materials are better at stopping the spread of heat)
- Glazing (fire-rated glass is designed to withstand the presence of flames and heat)
- Hardware (heat-resistant hardware is necessary to ensure door integrity in a fire)
- Seals (intumescent or smoke seals stop the spread of smoke)
- Door Assembly (the frame in which the door sits and how all the parts are put together affect a fire door’s capabilities)
Doors are tested in several different settings to determine their ability to reduce the spread of heat to the other side of the door (temperature rise) and their ability to keep flames and smoke from spreading.Door slabs are also exposed to high heat (over 1100 degrees Celsius) to ensure they can maintain their integrity in the worst-case scenario.
Understating Fire Door Ratings and How They Apply to Regulations and Compliance
Fire door ratings are essential for compliance as all multi-use, public and commercial buildings are required to have building safety protocols that include fire-rated doors. These regulations determine the maximum allowable gap between the door and the walls and floor, the rating of fire doors required for each area, specifications about the door and frames and so much more.
Maria from Doors Galore said “Fire safety is the responsibility of the owners, managers or other designated “responsible persons”, placing the safety of the occupants and the property in their hands.”High-risk areas like stairwells require the highest possible rated doors and assemblies and lower-risk areas can use less durable fire doors.
How often doors need to be inspected, the exact ratings required for every type of door and entryway and replacement and maintenance requirements are all dictated by fire safety legislation.Thankfully, fire resistance ratings, specifications and all the related information about the door components are readily available. Understanding the fire resistance ratings of fire doors is a critical step in protecting both property and life from the inherent dangers of building fires.
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