Yearly, many fire cases have been recorded, and about 70% of them are home structures causing several deaths, including civilians. Is there a way destruction by fire can be lessened? Could a fire rated door prevent or minimise life and property damage of a residential structure? Here are the things that you need to know about fire-rated doors.
What Is a Fire- Resistant Door?
This is also known as fire- resistant door and is specially made to slow or stop the spreading of smoke and fire. According to a fire investigator, a fire-resistant door is very heavy and is made of materials like gypsum or metal. The term “fire-rated” denotes that when the door is properly installed, it’s not expected to combust in a certain period in the average fire. Though time ratings differ, standard ratings comprise 20 to 90-minute doors.
Fire-resistant doors are commonly found in commercial buildings than in residential. Usual residential installations consist of application in garages, entryways, and multi-family houses.
How Can a Fire- Resistant Door Help in Case of Fire?
Fire-resistant doors help in slowing down or preventing fire spread, yet they are not completely fireproof. These doors are made with burnable materials and will burn. Yet, penetration of heat and flame will be slowed down by those materials for a specific time. Since smoke and fire is contained, they provide more time for people to exit the building.
Types of Fire-Resistant Doors
Although fire-rated doors are only commonly used in commercial buildings, several companies now sell residential buildings.
Some companies produce unfinished and fully finished exterior fire doors, aside from custom-made fire doors. Most company doors have a 30-minute fire rating, though some have 60 minutes. The outside fire doors are made of composite core or plywood. The inside doors can either be made of solid panels, obscure fire glass, or clear fire glass.
Do You Need It?
Fire ratings don’t necessarily specify the period the door will endure the fire. For instance, a fire-resistant door with a 60-minute fire rating doesn’t guarantee that it will survive fire for 60 minutes. The rating indicates that in a controlled environment, the brand-new fire door will help up to 60 minutes. Yet, other external and uncontrolled factors like heat intensity can reduce the assumed fire rating in the actual scenario.
Take note that a fire door with a faulty mechanism or propped open won’t do you any good. Moreover, make sure that the door is properly installed so there will be no gaps around it.
The fire-rated doors can give peace of mind. Yet, proper use of your existing doors may be all you need to do in case of fire. In a residential structure, simply closing the door to a room can already prevent or slow down the smoke and heat from entering and harming the occupants and destroying a wider portion of the property. If the fire is coming within the room, that closed door may help slow the spreading of fire to other areas of the house or building. Residential fires with closed doors result in considerably less smoke and fire damage than those with doors left open.
Steffy Alen is a freelance writer who offers ghostwriting, copywriting, and blogging services. She works closely with B2C and B2B businesses providing digital marketing content that gains social media attention and increases their search engine visibility.
