Picture this: It’s your lucky day, you get to go buy a brand-new car!
What are some of the criteria you look at when evaluating different cars?
- Make;
- Model;
- Miles per gallon;
- Options; and
- Don’t forget safety rating.
When we purchased our van a few years ago (yes, I’m a proud mama in a mini-van), safety rating was among the top criteria my husband and I reviewed.
Just like cars, door have ratings too. If you need a door to do a certain job, check the specifications to see what kind of ratings the door has.
Door Ratings You Need to Know
Here are some of the main door ratings you’ll want to know.
Fire-Rated Doors
One of the more important door ratings are fire-rated doors. These doors keep fire from passing through an opening for a specified period of time.
Different locations in buildings require different ratings.
There are six fire-rating classifications:
- Class A: three-hour rating for walls separating buildings or dividing a single building into fire areas.
- Class B: one and a half-hour rating for enclosures such as stairwells or elevator shafts.
- Class C: 45-minute rating for corridors and room partitions.
- Class D: One and a half-hour rating for exterior openings subject to extreme fire exposure.
- Class E: 45-minute rating for exterior openings subject to moderate or light fire exposure.
- 20-minute fire-rated door. These doors do not fall into a class, but rather, are normally found on interior rooms.
Windstorm-Rated Doors
Windstorm-rated doors are installed in storm-prone areas such as Tornado Valley and the Gulf Coast.
These doors maintain positive latching during high winds and when hit with blunt objects. They have various pressure and water infiltration ratings.
If you are building a location in a tornado or hurricane prone area, be sure your door is high velocity hurricane zone (HVHZ) rate d.
Sound Transmission Class-(STC) Rated Doors
If you need to sound proof a room, you need a STC door with a high STC rating. Developed by ASTM International, STC ratings depict how much sound will pass through the door.
The higher the STC rating, the less sound will transfer through the door material.
Some door materials such as wood inherently have sound proof properties. Other door materials, such as metal, can be filled with insulation to increase the STC rating of the door.
Blast-Resistant Doors
Blast-resistant doors are built to maintain positive latching during a short burst of pressure. You will generally see these doors in hazmat facilities.
Blast-resistant door ratings fall into four categories:
- Class A: provides life safety
- Class B: Protects equipment and supplies
- Class C: Protects against communication of detonation
- Class D: Protects against mass detonations
Overly has a great technical bulletin that tells you everything you need to know about blast-resistant door ratings. Overly was also featured on Modern Marvels for their bullet proof and blast resistant doors.
If you have doors that need to perform one of these specific jobs, it’s a good idea to look up the manufacturer’s specifications to ensure the door ratings are adequate. It may not sound like a big issue, but you don’t want to wait to find out if you are covered until you need the protection the various door ratings offer.
If you aren’t sure if your door ratings are adequate, let us know. We’re happy to take a look.
do you have more details to these you can add? Like for fire?