In Jacksonville and its environs, every exterior door in a building is a fire exit and every exterior door should be a fire rated door. As such, each door must meet certain criteria to comply with local life safety codes. With the exception of customer or employee entrances you may want to limit the use of certain doors for security reasons. However, such restrictions—security concerns aside—must comply with Life Safety Codes.
First and foremost, designated exits can not be locked, blocked, or chained shut to prevent unauthorized egress. Those exits must be easily opened from the inside (the one motion egress concept) to allow people to exit quickly in the event of an emergency.
At POP A LOCK of Jacksonville we have panic exit device, emergency exit device specialist who can come to you location—anywhere in the Jacksonville area and work with you to get the best panic bars for fire doors, and initiate professional, workmanlike, installation for all panic bars for fire doors.
The most direct way to comply with that mandate is to install panic exit hardware on those doors. Exit hardware will allow anyone to open the door from the inside simply by pushing on the “panic bar” and continuing to push the door open. This complies with the “No Special Knowledge” mandates of Life Safety Codes which state that the door must be easily opened with no special knowledge.
Unfortunately, with standard panic hardware, anyone can, at any time, exit your premises without your knowledge, or permission. That includes the thief that just ripped off some of your expensive inventory. To combat this type of rip-off, various panic hardware manufacturers have developed alarmed exit devices that sound a loud, high-decibel horn when activated by someone pushing on the panic bar.
Code approved delayed egress, alarmed, panic devices are also available. A delayed egress device will activate a self-contained, or internal alarm, and keep the door locked for up to fifteen seconds to give you a chance to respond to the security breach.
Security and code compliance can often seem to work at cross purposes. But, there are ways to secure any door, by proper panic bar installation, and stay within code mandates.
At POP A LOCK of Jacksonville, we’ll be glad to work with you to help determine what type of panic exit hardware you should buy and have properly installed to not only give you the security you’re looking for but keep you in compliance with Life Safety Codes and ADA mandates.
Pop-A-Lock Locksmith Jacksonville has the lowest prices in town of any legitimate Jacksonville locksmith.