Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8.1
Doors for normal traffic
This chapter deals with all kinds of
hinged and pivoting internal doors
except fire doors, which are dealt
with in the next chapter, Chapter 8.2.
is given normally by thin lead sheet
incorporated into the leaf, with
X-ray resistant glass being specified
for the vision panels.
For new construction, hinged
doorsets are increasingly being
specified complete with frame. This
is becoming of more importance in
relation to sound and fire
performance (Figure 8.3).
Doors for special purposes, such as
those sliding doors providing
protection and access to lifts, are
almost certain to be of prefinished
steel, or, in older installations, may
be of the expanding gate type. Some
timber doors may be finished with
melamine sheets.
Characteristic details
Basic structure
In the simplest domestic
construction, the strap hinged ledged
and matched door in softwood
reigned supreme until the advent of
the flush door after the 1939-45 war.
These doors were not always braced
(Figure 8.2). In the more expensive
domestic buildings, and in other non-
utilitarian building types, the butt
hinged framed and panelled door, in
softwood or in hardwood according
to availability of funds, was almost
universal. Softwood was invariably
painted.
Flush doors take many different
forms, with cores which may range
from rolled paper to solid timber, and
veneers from thin cellulose fibre
boards to plywoods faced with exotic
species. All need to be provided with
blocks of sufficient size to
accommodate hinges and furniture,
but many were not lipped and edged.
The standards introduced after the
Tatchell Report
(222)
gave us the well
known leaf widths of 2 feet 3 inches,
2 feet
6 inches and 2 feet 9 inches, and a
height of 6 feet 8 inches. They were
used in vast numbers in the housing
drives of the 1960s and 1970s.
Glazing of internal doors ranges
from the provision of one or more
vision panels in hinged leaves - to
assist in the prevention of accidents -
to half or fully glazed doors where
light transmission is required. Fully
glazed internal doors may also be
frameless, and supported by pivots at
head and foot rather than by hinges.
Door leaves protected against
X-rays are available. The protection
Figure 8.2
A simple matched door in a sixteenth or
seventeenth century artisan's house in
Suffolk. The leading edge of the door has
been repaired. The door is handed and
hung unconventionally, and the strap
hinges are on the other side
Figure 8.3
A steel door and frame installed in the test
rig, and about to be tested for strength and
stability
