# Question About Corridor Doors NFPA 101 / 80



## JItter77 (Jan 11, 2018)

Hello,
I work maintenance in a nursing home and have some questions regarding corridor doors.  We are a single story facility with 4 wings.  Each wing is basically its own smoke compartment with a 1 hour smoke wall and 1 hour rated doors / frames etc etc.  Each wing consists of 15 resident rooms and some resident rooms have fire rated doors and others do not.  According to NFPA 80 any door with a fire rated label must be inspected as such regardless of the surrounding walls and what not.  In NFPA 101 version 2012 under corridor doors (19.3.6.3) section 19.3.6.3.3 says that "compliance with NFPA 80 is not required."  How i interpret section 19.3.6.3 in general is that that corridor doors that are not part of a smokewall / firewall / hazardous rooms are only required to resist smoke and not follow the much stricter guidelines of NFPA 80 even if the door has a label.  All rooms have a smoke detector and the hallway / rooms are fully on automatic sprkinlers.

If anyone could clear this up it would be great.

Thanks


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## cda (Jan 11, 2018)

Welcome


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## cda (Jan 11, 2018)

We do have a door guru

Just email the question 


Email towards the bottom:::

http://idighardware.com/about-2/


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## ADAguy (Jan 24, 2018)

Good question, awaiting the answer.


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## cda (Jan 24, 2018)

Not sure if the question is clear 

Without floor plan


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## Builder Bob (Jan 24, 2018)

Generally, the doors to the patient rooms are required to resist the passage of smoke but do not require closures - Doors may have to meet the 20 min fire resistant opening protective, and smoke seal requirements, but generally closures are left off of patient rooms.

Fire/smoke barriers are required to create the smoke compartment and opening protectives are required to meet NFPA 80 - Closure, latch, and resistance to hose stream test are a part of meeting NFPA 80. (most likely a double set of doors in a corridor held open by door magnets)

See section 19.3.6.3.1 in the code and then read A 19.63.6.3.5 in Appendix A ---

"... under normal or fire conditions are self-closing, might create a special hazard for the personal safety of a room occupant"


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## FM William Burns (Feb 20, 2018)

I may be missing something but my concern is that some of your resident rooms exist without labeled doors and are not protected in accordance with the code: 
_
19.3.6.1 Corridor Separation. 

Corridors shall be separated from all other areas by partitions complying with __19.3.6.2__ through __19.3.6.5__(see also __19.2.5.4__), unless otherwise permitted by one of the following:  

(1) Smoke compartments protected throughout by an approved supervised automatic sprinkler system in accordance with 19.3.5.8 shall be permitted to have spaces that are unlimited in size and open to the corridor, provided that all of the following criteria are met: 
(a)* The spaces are not used for patient sleeping rooms, treatment rooms, or hazardous areas._


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## Sleepy (Feb 20, 2018)

FM William Burns said:


> I may be missing something but my concern is that some of your resident rooms exist without labeled doors and are not protected in accordance with the code:
> _
> 19.3.6.1 Corridor Separation.
> 
> ...


Yes, 19.3.6.1 requires separation and then 19.3.6.2 describes the required wall construction (if sprinklered, no rating required, just resist the passage of smoke), and 19.3.6.3 describes the required doors (again, if sprinklered no rating, just resist the passage of smoke, and the doors have to have a latch, but no closer is required).  

I have always figure this was because in healthcare occupancies there is always staff available to assist patients.  Part of their training, I believe, is to evacuate the patient if needed (in which case closers on doors would be in the way), or to close the door to compartmentalize smoke.  If there is actual fire they would be evacuating the patients.


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## Builder Bob (Feb 21, 2018)

or using stay in place strategy


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## tmurray (Feb 27, 2018)

I always understood the reason why the door does not require an automatic closing device was that this would delay egress in this situation (gurneys, mobility impairments, etc.).


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