Rework Happens: New Construction And The Locksmith

Reinstalling the latch on the right side of the door will leave screw holes all along the inside edge.

Astragals cannot be installed without affecting the strike plate of the lock. In every case where an astragal was installed, the lip of the strike plate was filed down in the field. This not only leaves sharp edges that can cut a hand that slides against it, but also affects the latch in a negative manner.

The lip of the strike plate times the dead latch component of the latch assembly. When the lip is removed, latches are damaged as the dead latch component has not been properly timed and the closing force of the door forces the dead latch assembly with undue pressure.

In a short time the internal damage to the latch will keep the latch from closing smoothly, resulting in doors that are cocked open. As this occurs, the door closers will be adjusted to close faster creating more stress on the latch.

The front entry to the building is through a set of storefront doors. Each leaf is independently secured at the top and bottom by a concealed vertical rod exit device. The top latch of the exit device secures by wrapping around the post of the “top strike” assembly.

In Figure 6, it is obvious that top strikes of each exit device were installed in the wrong locations. To correct the installation, the sub-contractor mounted the top strikes to a scrap piece of aluminum and then cut away enough of the top rail so that the plate could be properly placed and then fastened to the top rail.

The exit devices are mostly secured by the top strike. This installation has the doors secured by four small sheet metal screws instead of two thick posts that are normally anchored into a steel base.

Also notice the pencil marks in Figure 6. It would have taken less than a minute to erase the pencil marks but the sub-contractor felt confident enough to not finish the job.

Another botched installation was found at the threshold plate of the same doors. The floor closers were installed and then a single-piece threshold was installed over them. There were no provisions made to service the floor closers. No holes were drilled to get to the adjustment valves. (See Figure 7)

A call for a correction was entered into the punch list. The correction will involve expensive rework as the doors and door components will have to be removed, and then the existing threshold will have to be torn out and replaced with a sectional kit designed for floor closers.

Figure 8 reveals a typical installation of a delayed-egress door found on each floor of the building. Note the extra screws mounted onto the jamb under the closer arm and note that the closer is mounted on the wrong side of this door.

Figure 9 is the other side of the door. Note the extra screw holes under the door closer.

By re-examining both Figure 8 and Figure 9, it becomes obvious that there was a push or parallel closer originally mounted on the door. That accounts for the extra screws on the jamb where a pivot base originally was mounted and the extra set of thru bolts that are mounted under the door closer.

The extra set of thru bolts are installed so that the fact that extra holes in the rated door are not easily discovered.

So what happened? The “giveaway” is in Figure 8, the installation of the extra long magnetic lock that facilitates the delayed-action.

Originally each door on each floor featured a parallel-mounted closer. When it was time to install the first delayed-action magnetic lock, it was discovered there was not enough space to accommodate both the closer and the magnetic lock. Instead of doing the job right, possibly re-rating the door or installing new doors (these doors are required 60-minute labeled fire doors), the sub-contractor “finessed” the installation by re-mounting the closer on the corridor side; filling in the extra holes in the door with thru bolts and then leaving the screws to the pivot base mounted on the jamb.

Additionally, the sub-contractor installed the closer with only one pair of functional thru bolts and then substituted a pair of wood screws as a third pair of thru bolts would give away the botched job.