Have you decided on a change and are you choosing an interior entrance door to an apartment or a house? Materials and technologies are constantly improving. Knowing the door can therefore be challenging. What to pay particular attention to? How to choose a security door? And how do you know that you didn’t buy a “hare in a sack”?
What should be the first step in choosing a front door?
The most important parameter is safety. The standards distinguish security classes, which indicate the resistance of the door to damage and burglary. The security class means doors with higher resistance. The doors of the security class represent the maximum for securing the apartment.
At first glance, we are definitely interested in the design at the door. Can the door be safe and nice at the same time?
It has long been the case that the entrance door to the apartment has to be sheeted or upholstered on the inside. The anti-noise, fire-fighting and safety properties of doors today depend mainly on the internal material composition of the door leaf, on the method of its installation, on the safety of the lock insert and fittings. The top layer is then design. For example, various wood decors are popular.
What other parameters, besides safety, should you consider? Should doors also have noise and fire properties?
Ideally yes. Nowadays, it is great that these three parameters can be easily combined according to the customer’s requirements. We can make custom doors. Customers can design them themselves using the online configurator, where they choose the type of door, design and combination of their features. The growing demands on the door are also noticed by technicians from our stores, who are increasingly addressing not only safety, but also noise insulation and fire resistance of the door.
Doors from honest manufacturers certainly have the appropriate certificates. How do we know we didn’t buy a hare in a sack?
At Masonite, for example, we mark each door with a production label, which we place on the bottom edge of the door. The label contains information about the type of door, its surface finish, decor, size, orientation, date of manufacture – these are all things that the customer should know about their new door.
And what about fire and security doors?
These are provided with an identification plate, which is usually located on the lock or hinge side of the door. This label contains the fire resistance class, information on the type of door, the manufacturer, the serial number, the mark of conformity and other declared properties of the door, such as the soundproofing stated in decibels.
How can I check from the label on the door that the door is safe and fireproof?
The fire resistance of the door is the number one criterion and can be verified on the identification plate of a quality door manufacturer. The letters EI2 indicate the criteria for reaching the limit states, in this case integrity and insulation, the number 30 indicates the value of fire resistance in minutes and the designation DP indicates the type of construction. Fire safety doors provide higher security for the apartment and most insurance companies favor the property secured in this way. The safety class is indicated by the abbreviation RC. Entrance apartment doors should be used from security class RC 2 and higher. Depending on the selected material composition, our fire doors can also have other properties, for example they can insulate noise very well. You can also check this parameter on the door label.
When choosing a door, it is also necessary to address the dimensions and other parameters. What is the spacing of the doors you produce? And which door frames are the doors intended for?
We produce standardized doors according to the ČSN 74 64 01 standard, so they are designed for standardized steel or cladding door frames. Security doors are always installed in a steel door frame, for security class RC2 it is possible to install in the existing one, for higher class RC3 it is necessary to use a special, reinforced door frame. All interior doors, including fire doors, use a lock with a spacing of 72 mm. For security doors, the lock spacing is 72 or 90 mm.
Do you also produce doors in an atypical design?
We are mainly engaged in the serial production of doors according to European standardized standards, however, we are able to meet the requirements of our customers and produce doors of atypical dimensions. Recently, for example, there is interest in a door 210 cm high.
We have the door selected. Do they have to be assembled by an expert?
Yes. Installation of special doors with fire or security modification may be performed only by a person with a valid authorization to install fire and security doors. In other words, the craftsman must be trained like MAS Home Improvement. Only properly mounted doors will perform their function flawlessly. Similarly, for approval or regular inspections, firefighters may require a “PBZ installation certificate” or a “PBZ operability check” issued by a trained installer.
