Fire-Rated Garage Doors
To our residential garage door folks, this blog is not for you – unless you happen to have a commercial operation running out of your home! To our business owners or operators that regularly use overhead opening garage doors, you will want to look into fire-rated garage doors.
Overhead Door Company of Southeast Missouri™ is proud to offer a whole line of commercial garage doors that meet the highest fire code standards! If you’re curious about how they work or why they are needed, you’ve come to the right place.
Purpose
Fire-rated commercial garage doors are designed to close automatically if the fire alarm is triggered. Why is this needed? This closing feature helps prevent a fire from spreading, starves growing flames of much-needed oxygen, and saves lives. Overall, this makes the job of your local fire department easier in helping to contain the situation.
Fire-rated commercial garage doors also help protect the people that work for you. It may sound counterintuitive because closing doors would seem like something that would rob your team of an alternative escape route. However, a contained fire means more places for people to seek shelter from the fire. A controlled fire means less damage to your business and, more importantly, safe people in surrounding areas.
Types of Fire-Rated Garage Doors
Fire-rated garage doors are tailored to the size of your commercial operation. Our installers, the best in the business, are excellent at helping you determine what door will be right for you. As we said above, all of these garage doors are already up to all fire codes, so you don’t have to worry about doing research on local laws, potential fines, etc.
Contact Overhead Door Company of Southeast Missouri™, they will have the door that will work best in tandem with how your local government operates and what your fire marshal will expect to see when they come around for their visits.
Maintenance
You must always consider maintenance when dealing with garage doors, especially ones of commercial size and scale. DO NOT ignore telltale signs that your door might be breaking, and always have a garage door inspection on your fire-rated door at least once a year. To do their job properly, all doors of this size must have all their moving parts operating correctly. If a fire-rated garage door cannot shut completely, it will not stop the flame spread.
Telltale signs of a door needing maintenance are excessive squeaking, sudden closures that an operator does not trigger, and shaking of opening equipment as the door moves. WARNING: garage doors, especially of this weight and size, can cause serious harm if they malfunction and close on somebody. Thousands of people are injured by garage doors every year.
Call Overhead Door Company of Southeast Missouri™ Today!
We get it. The last thing you need on your list of things to do is a bunch of research on what doors will be accepted by your local fire marshal. That’s why Overhead Door Company of Southeast Missouri™ makes this as easy for you as possible. For best results on what door will work best for you, contact our local teams, and they will get your business set on the right path today!
We’ll also get you scheduled for regular inspections, so you don’t have to have downtime or the safety of your employees in the event of fire constantly on your mind. Let us do the heavy lifting, so you can focus on running your business.