Businesses are always exposed to different kinds of threats in one form or another, including fire. As a business owner, you want to safeguard your company’s assets from going up in flames. At the same time, you are responsible for ensuring people’s safety by equipping your building with fire safety mechanisms.
That said, the use of fire-rated doors in offices and commercial establishments is a vital component of fire safety. Regardless of what your business is, you can benefit from the security that fire-rated doors provide in the event of a blast, which can result not only in the loss of property but also human lives.
With their superior features and extensive applications, fire-rated doors are the most suitable solution for ensuring safety in commercial buildings.
What is a fire-rated door?
A fire-rated door is one of the commonly used commercial door types. These doors are designed to act as a barrier against flames, smoke, or heat from a fire.
By installing commercial fire-rated doors in critical locations around buildings, offices, or factories, you can halt the fire from spreading into every corner of the facility. You can then have a valuable time window to call for help in putting out the fire or evacuate your equipment and the building’s occupants to safety.
Depending on the build you choose, fire-rated doors can withstand potential damage from a minimum of 20-45 minutes to 60-90 minutes or even 3 hours.
Fire-rated doors have several other special features that make them ideal for commercial projects.
- Full vision fire-rated glazing. Glazing makes a room more visible, allowing the maximum amount of light to illuminate the area. This vital feature enables first responders to have a clear vision of the situation inside the room and, from there, map out their search or rescue strategy.
At Titan Metal Products, we take this matter seriously, so we use full vision 60-90 minute temperature rise doors featuring SAFTI FIRST ®’s SuperLite® II-XL fire resistive glazing that has been tested and approved for fire safety.
For 20-45 minute fire protective doors, we use SAFTI FIRST ®’s SuperLite® I and the new, patented SuperClear® 45-HS/SuperClear® 45-HS-LI for maximum safety and unmatched clarity,
Manufacturers of fire-rated doors must also adhere to IBC requirements regarding the size of the glazing panel, as this contributes to how well fire-rated doors can prevent the transfer of radiant heat in enclosed spaces.
- Suitable height for tall structures. Commercial buildings like hotels and retail shops typically feature taller entry and exit points than non-commercial ones, which requires commercial fire-rated doors to be up to 10 ft. tall regardless of their placement inside or around the building.
- Available for multiple door profiles. Fire-rated doors come in all shapes and sizes to accommodate various construction layouts for commercial projects. Whatever your requirement is—whether it’s a standard versus narrow profile for single and pair doors —fire doors are fitted with accurate specifications for the door stile, top and bottom rails, and frame.
Titan Metal Products also customizes the 10-inch ADA (Americans with Disabilities)-compliant bottom rail on our standard and narrow door profiles. It can be modified, subject to the approval of the AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction).
- Composite materials and attractive finishes. Fire-rated doors are manufactured using a variety of materials that also have aesthetic finishes like custom paint, aluminum-clad and stainless steel clad.
- Fully customizable designs or applications. Besides being resistant to fire, customized doors provide additional protection from all kinds of potential threats to your project, including bullets, forced entry, hurricane, and blast incidents.
Where should you install fire-rated doors?
Some areas in commercial buildings require higher levels of protection from fire-rated doors because they’re supposed to facilitate movement. So it’s also essential that your installations are compliant with safety and security regulations for commercial buildings.
Here are major considerations for installing fire-rated doors in specific areas.
- Entrances and exits
When a fire breaks out, closing off your building with the barrier provided by fire-rated doors will better allow you to isolate the flames and fumes, so they don’t spread to other rooms or sections. At the same time, placing fire-rated doors at the building exits provides a means of escape so people won’t be stuck inside during a fire breakout.
- Doorways that divide two different buildings
Building annexes—or buildings attached to another building—can also benefit from having fire-rated doors installed between them. When used to connect one building to another, a fire-rated door allows easy and safe access since safety regulations require them to open and close automatically while ensuring fire protection during emergencies.
- Exits to elevator shafts
Fire doors must be constructed near stairwells or elevator shafts, as these structures are typically used as the primary emergency exit points for building occupants.
- The divide between safe and unsafe areas
Most commercial buildings have restricted areas where critical activities or operations take place. For instance, hotels and restaurants keep their kitchen space off-limits to non-authorized personnel and outsiders who may not be familiar with the safety protocols in that specific area.
Fire-rated doors support this kind of compartmentalization. In the event of kitchen accidents, any smoke, toxic gases, or flames won’t easily spread to the other parts of the building.
Business Security Starts with Fire-Rated Doors
Fire can be a major source of serious financial setbacks for businesses, potentially resulting in significant losses of property, equipment, and other company resources, including the lives of your employees and customers.
From the get-go, you must protect your commercial building and its contents and occupants by installing fire-rated doors. Prioritizing strategic places like entrances, exits, walkways, and other critical areas can help ensure that everything you’ve worked for won’t send your business up in smoke.
Our team at Titan Metal Products will be happy to present to you our complete line of fire-rated commercial doors. Get a quote now.