October 2011

Q: Recommend a product for fire escape doors with door closers - when the doors slam shut they LOCK; so is there a mechanism which allows us to keep the door bolts UNLOCKED until we want to LOCK the doors?

A: Yes, such a mechanism exists and is called a dogging device, it allows the bolts to be withheld in the retracted position ensuring the automatic top trip catch or Pullman latch do not engage when the door is closed, enabling the door to be opened freely from both sides. It's disengageable. It is an Exidor product, designed to work on the Exidor 294 or the Exidor 293 panic hardware.

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Q: I am looking for a door opening rate, and travel extent, restrainer to limit the RATE at which the wind could snatch an outward opening patio door. Closing force should be low or zero. Do any door closers do this? Could any be mounted in reverse to achieve this?

A: What you're looking for is a "back check" door closer.  This feature dampens or brakes the opening, as well as controlling the close as a normal door closer.  You can look at the TS2000NVBC or the TS4000 which comes with back check as a standard feature. The TS4000 can be adjusted down to closing power 1, which is the lowest force available.

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Q: Is it possible to fit the Rollan 40 sliding door gear within an opening instead of the pocket system (obviously building a homemade 'pocket' like the Hideaway). Is there a reason why this wouldn't work?

A: Yes, you can fit the Rollan 40 inside your own stud work to form a pocket door system - quite a lot of people do this.  The only disadvantage might be that in order to get a nice rigid wall structure you may have to use more strengthening material in the pocket, and this would give you a thicker finished wall. 

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Q: Choosing ironmongery for four final fire exit doors and frames which will experience heavy traffic, and need to be secure (would prefer not to have a panic bar), can you recommend a handle arrangement, perhaps with a thumblock on the inside, that would be suitable for these circumstances?

A: For the arrangement you describe we would suggest using escape sashlocks - these have euro cylinder thumb turn locks (i.e. you can have any kind of high security, master keyed, anti pick, anti bump etc euro profile cylinder) but use a split spindle so from the inside the handle will ALWAYS over-ride the lock and open.  The sets we supply include standard differ cylinders, which you can see on the website clicking the bold link, talk to us about higher security cylinders or masterkeying.

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I want my fire door to hold open at 90° until someone pulls it, then the door closer kicks in and closes it as normal. What product will do this?

Under Fire Regulations fire doors must not be held or propped open.  Without using an electromagnetic hold open door closer wired into the fire alarm, the only suggestion is to use a delayed action door closer, which can hold the door open for up to 90 seconds, then closing as normal.  I recommend the Geze TS4000S door closer.