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Vinyl Strip curtain in egress door?

BillS

Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2015
Messages
44
Location
Pittsburgh
We're designing a renovation project, and the client would like to replace an existing man door, which is the only exit from the room, with vinyl strip curtains. Are there any restrictions that would prohibit installing the strip curtains in an egress door?

Thanks

Bill
 
BillS said:
We're designing a renovation project, and the client would like to replace an existing man door, which is the only exit from the room, with vinyl strip curtains. Are there any restrictions that would prohibit installing the strip curtains in an egress door?Thanks

Bill
Maybe only if it is an occupancy that requires flame retardant material.

What is the room used for??
 
It's a spice packing facility. We're converting a vacant school, and some of the classrooms will become "mixing rooms" where they take prepackaged individual spices from pallets, and either repackage them in small containers for individual sale or mix them into custom spice orders for restaurants. Those rooms are to be classified F-2, and the doors are the only doors in the room.
 
@ ~ @ ~ @

BillS,

When someone exits the F-2 Occ. Room, ..what type

of room do they now enter in to ?.......What is the

"new" assigned occupancy [ i.e. - is there an

assigned fire rating to those doors, or ...should

there be ] ?



@ ~ @ ~ @
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The doors egress into the main hallway (picture your typical 1950's school... a long central hallway, classrooms on both sides). The whole floor is 13,000 so I understood that the F-2 (mixing areas), S-2 (palleted storage areas) and B (offices) could all co-exist peacefully as nonseparated mixed use. The only rating required is at the stairwell enclosures.

Yes, like those door strips.
 
Egress-wise I can not think of a reason not to allow them, but always look for documentation on plastic and foam...I imagine they are fine with the amount of them that are out there for refrigerated rooms and such that are out there..
 
714.2.3 Doors in corridors and smoke barriers.

If corridor as you indicate is of II-B construction and therefore a rated corridor in a non-sprinklered building, then how is it to provide room protection with plastic "doors?"

Fire doors required to have a minimum fire-protection rating of 20 minutes where located in corridor walls or smoke barrier walls having a fire-resistance rating in accordance with Table 714.2 shall be tested in accordance with NFPA 252 or UL 10C without the hose stream test. If a 20-minute fire door or fire door assembly contains glazing material, the glazing material in the door itself shall have a minimum fire-protection rating of 20 minutes and be exempt from the hose stream test. Glazing material in any other part of the door assembly, including transom lites and sidelites, shall be tested in accordance with NFPA 257, including the hose stream test, in accordance with Section 714.3. Fire doors shall also meet the requirements for a smoke- and draft-control door assembly tested in accordance with UL 1784 with an artificial bottom seal installed across the full width of the bottom of the door assembly. The air leakage rate of the door assembly shall not exceed 3.0 cfm per square foot (0.01524 m3/slm2) of door opening at 0.10 inch (24.9 Pa) of water for both the ambient temperature and elevated temperature tests. Louvers shall be prohibited.
 
The occupancy of the entire floor is only 57 occupants, so this central hallway would be serving less than 30 occupants in each direction. Because of that, I didn't think that the corridor was required to be rated, as per IBC T1018.1.
 
If to be used as a packing facility, have you considered eliminating the corridor walls and going open plan?
 
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