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Mental observation room locking requirement

K

ken d

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Messages
8
Location
Vero beach Fl
I am reviewing a observation (padded room) room and trying to select hardware. We currently have a room we use a mag lock on with a dead man switch on it. But these become missed aligned from time to time and do not hold. The new rooms will be for adults and they maybe able to over come the mag lock even when properly adjusted. We are considering the following

1. fail safe electric strike with a passage lock, handle only on the outside, out swing doors.

2. electrical bolts fail safe locking into the frame or doors

I would be interested in any ideas and if you have seen such a set up in use. I would like to contact these organizations to ask how they have worked for them. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ken
 
Could be a school, jail, police station, my office, hospital, mental health ward, drug rehab
 
CDA said:
Could be a school, jail, police station, my office, hospital, mental health ward, drug rehab
Click to expand...
Adding to the list: Building Department, architects' office, engineers' office, and yes, contractors' office.
 
I'm interested to see what everyone thinks about the code aspect, once we have all of the information to make that determination. But from a product application aspect, here are my thoughts.

Electric Strike - This would work, as long as the hardware can hold up to whatever "abuse" the person in the room may inflict. The lock function you will need is usually called an exit lock - passage lever on one side and nothing on the other.

Power Bolts - I would not recommend using power bolts, because when you apply side-load pressure to them (someone pushing on the door), they can bind and then the door won't open. The alignment is also critical, so they will not work if the door becomes misaligned.

Mag Lock - I don't know if you've used shear locks or direct-hold mag-locks in the past, but shear locks are very prone to becoming misaligned and then they don't work. A direct-hold mag will work much better, and they are available with very high holding force. They are typically mounted at the top of the door, which can become a problem if the person in the room is violently kicking the bottom of the door, but you can also mount them vertically in a full-height enclosure - which would allow you to have a mag at the top and bottom.

Do the doors always need to be outswinging? If they do, and having the mag-lock housing on the push side is a problem, there are brackets to use the direct hold mag-lock on the pull side, out of the room.
 
Electric strike Folger Adams 310 series is the way I am leading. Maybe prison style if i can get it fail safe.

Electric Bolts we had the same concerns.

Mag Locks are used in a small child area now and we have had problems of them becoming missed aligned.

I am still waiting for the true occupancy classification.

Yes the building is sprinkled about five years old.

It has been interesting in trying to find codes or hardware specs for this job. does anyone know of a health care code this may fall under or eduction as this is at a collage.
 
College

So basically "B" occupancy

Would fall under generic building code for doors and locks

Whether that is ibc or 101

So they are locking up college students ? Or is this part of a college program where they train students for people with mental health and bring in actual patients???
 
This is what they are calling it

The Occupancy Type: Educational Group E, Sprinklered

Construction Type – IIIB (FBC Chapter 6)
 
Lot of variables in this specific case and seems to be going different directions

College "E"???

Locking up people?

I know you stated why , but why do they need to do it and what place/ program are they in that brings them to this place

I still say need to meet basic code for doors and locks, even though this may be an existing condition

There has been a thread on this type of room in a school
 
BayPointArchitect said:
I see no reason why the doors need to swing outward unless you have 50 crazy people in the same room.
Click to expand...
I was thinking maybe it would need to swing out because someone could try to barricade the door from the inside, or could pass out against it or something like that.
 
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