Fires in residential and office buildings are rare these days but only because builders have learned from past tragedies just how fire spreads and how quickly it can move. In order to avoid future issues, policymakers have put building codes into place that regulate the design of enclosed confined spaces where many people live and work. One seemingly simple but very effective piece of technology in these settings is a fire door.
What's A Fire Door?
Fire doors come in all shapes and sizes and are typically constructed of a solid wood frame sometimes covered in fire-resistant glass. They are intended to slow the spread of fire through a building. These doors come with number ratings, a number that indicates the amount of time that the door is designed to hold direct flame before succumbing to the heat. That's typically 20, 45, 60, 90, or 180 minutes. However, this rating is only valid if the door is closed with no through openings. One non-negotiable feature that a fire door must have is a gap between the door and frame that is no wider than 3/4". Those gaps must be protected with gap seals and fillers.
How A Fire Door Works
The main purpose of a fire door is to compartmentalize a fire by restricting its spread to confined areas. This slows the spread of a fire so that it doesn't engulf the entire space before people have a chance to escape. It also gives the fire department a chance to suppress before the building is lost. Fire doors are electronically wired to the fire alarm system of a building and held open by electromagnetic hardware. That means that if the alarm is triggered, the door will automatically close. But the magnet is also a failsafe. If the power to the building is interrupted in any way and the alarm can't activate, the magnet holding the door open will also become inactive and the door will automatically close. But the design of a fire door only works if the door can properly seal, which means no gaps.
Gap Fillers and What They Do
The gap between the door and frame is the weakest area of a fire door. Without proper gap size in conjunction with fire gap fillers and seals, the fire and smoke will always find a way around the door so that the fire continues to spread quickly. But the door still has to be able to freely open and close for regular use. That's why gap fillers like intumescent seals are so important. When exposed to the extreme temperatures of a fire, the seals expand and close the gap between the door and frame, compartmentalizing the fire and smoke and therefore giving people time to escape. To learn more about fire door gap fillers, contact a supplier.
Share23 September 2021
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