Kick-down holders: the $5 device that fails a fire door
Staff get tired of opening the same door all day, and someone screws a kick-down holder to the bottom of it. Now the door can’t close on its own. How to spot one, take it off, and fill the holes the right way.
I was reading through the latest issue of the Door Security & Safety Foundation publication I get each month, and one article caught my attention. It covered the top 10 deficiencies found in fire door inspections across the U.S., and number 3 on the list was kick-down devices on fire doors. We rarely see them in our own hospitals, but at other facilities around the Southeast they are very common. If my memory serves me right, I have only removed two in our buildings, and both were at off-site locations.
A couple of weeks back I was doing some surgery centers for one of my customers and removed several that I remembered removing the year before. Nurses and staff get tired of opening a door every time they go into a room for supplies or move a patient from one area to another. The quick fix is to call the maintenance guy, he throws a $5 kick-down on the door, and the problem is solved. The problem now is that this self-closing door is no longer self-closing. Every fire door has to be self-closing and latching under Chapter 5 of NFPA 80: the self-closing device has to close the door completely from the full open position, and the latching hardware has to secure the door when it is closed. A kick-down stops both from happening.
These devices are usually held on with a few small wood screws that come out easily, but you have now drilled into a very expensive fire door to mount a device that doesn’t belong there. If you run across one, take it off and put the mounting screws back into the holes. NFPA 80 covers that too: install steel fasteners that completely fill the holes, or fill the holes with the same material as the door or frame.
It is good to know how to resolve these when we do run across them. As always, feel free to call me anytime with questions, and I will do my best to get you an answer.
A fire door has to close and latch on its own from wide open. A kick-down holder stops that, so it fails the annual inspection. Take it off, fill the holes with steel screws or the door’s own material, and if the door really needs to stay open, use a labeled hold-open that lets go on a fire alarm.
What the code says
Three inspection items it fails
NFPA 80 (2013, 5.2.3.5.2) lists 13 things to check on every swinging fire door each year. A kick-down holder fails three of them at once: item 7, the closer must bring the door fully shut from the full open position; item 9, the latch must hold the door shut; and item 10, no added hardware may be fitted that interferes with how the door works.
Why “it can be flipped up” doesn’t help
A self-closing door has to close and latch every time it is opened, and the closer may not have its own hold-open (NFPA 80 2013, 6.1.3.2). A kick-down is a hold-open someone has to remember to release. In a fire nobody walks the hall lifting them, so the door stays open and the wall has a hole in it.
The legal way to hold a fire door open
Turn it into an automatic-closing door: a labeled, fail-safe door holder/release, such as a magnetic holder, that lets go when the fire alarm or a detector trips (NFPA 80 2013, 6.1.3.3 and 6.4.1.5). The door must still latch when it closes. In health care, NFPA 101 allows these doors to be held open only by automatic release devices of this kind.
Filling the holes
NFPA 80 (2013, 5.5.7) gives two ways to repair holes left by removed hardware: steel fasteners that completely fill the holes, or the same material as the door or frame. From the 2016 edition a listed fill product is also accepted. Open holes are their own failed item on the annual checklist (item 2), so don’t leave them.
Fix the reason it was put there
A kick-down usually means staff need that door open. Ask who uses it and why. If it really needs to stand open, budget a holder/release tied to the fire alarm. If it doesn’t, a short talk with the unit usually ends it. Either way, write it on the inspection report so the device doesn’t quietly come back.
Practice drill: check it on your next round
- Look at the bottom of every fire door, both faces, for kick-downs, hooks, wedges and chocks.
- Open the door fully and let go: it must close and latch with nothing holding it.
- Holder found? Remove it, then fill every hole with steel screws or the door’s own material.
- Door needs to stay open? Ask for a labeled holder/release tied to the fire alarm instead.
Sources and further reading
- NFPA 80 (2013) — 5.2.3.5.2, 5.5.7, 6.1.3 and 6.4.1.5 ↗
- Door Security & Safety Foundation ↗· shared by Donald
Section numbers are from NFPA 80 (2013) and NFPA 101 (2012), the editions CMS and The Joint Commission enforce for hospitals. Check the edition your authority having jurisdiction has adopted.