A steel doorset is a complete set, made as one unit, of a door, frame, hinges, locks, and other accessories. When purchasing a door, one needs to consider the frame, hinges, and other accessories as these need to be designed and certified to work together.
Several different types of doors are in most commercial buildings, with tenants often unaware. There’s a security door on the back of the unit, an emergency exit to the service yard, a fire-rated door on the stair core, and a louvred door to the plant room. Different tenants may also use the doors for a different reason. From a distance, many doors may look the same, but on closer inspection you may realise they’re specified for completely different reasons.
The main types
Security steel doorsets are heavy-duty steel doors resistant to forced entry. Many are good with no formal rating, and are suitable for use in low to moderate risk areas, e.g. back doors, shop doors and outbuildings.
Steel doorsets with security ratings (usually LPS 1175) have undergone independent attack testing. They should be used when the insurer, specifier, or value of the contents of the doorset calls for more than a manufacturer’s claim.
Steel doorsets from emergency exits must be able to open instantly from the inside, but must remain hard to open from the outside. The escape hardware selected will depend on who uses the building.
Fire rated steel doorsets are tested to withstand the spread of fire for a set time. They protect escape routes and restrict the spread of fire between different parts of a building.
Acoustic steel doorsets are built to cut sound, and are primarily used to deaden noise in plant rooms, generator enclosures, and other industrial buildings that share a space with neighboring buildings.
Security Steel Doorsets and LPS 1175
Fire Rated and Emergency Exit Doorsets
Acoustic and Plant Room Doorsets
When one door has to do two jobs
This is where specifications go wrong. Take a riser door for example, which needs to be both fire rated and secure. What about a plant room door, which needs to be acoustic, secure and ventilated. A doorset can do multiple jobs, but only if it has been tested and certified to do them all.
A door that has been fire rated and then has a security lock added after may not be a fire rated door any longer. A security rated door that has a vision panel cut into it was not the door that was tested. If a door needs to meet more than one requirement, state it upfront and ask to see certification that addresses both requirements.
Supply only or supply and fit
Certified performance is reliant on the installation. Doorsets installed with the wrong fixings or into the wrong substrates, or with gaps the manufacturer has not permitted, will not perform as tested. That’s true for security, fire or sound ratings. For a contractor that installs doorsets regularly, supply only is an option. However, for all others, fitting is where the value is.