Every building or structure, regardless of its purpose, has doorways for entry and exit, as well as for movement between rooms. The key characteristics of doorways include their dimensions, such as the width and height of the door. These dimensions should ensure a clear passage for the required number of people (depending on the building or room's purpose) and also consider the ability to move furniture, appliances, and comply with fire safety regulations.
Understanding Door
Width This term can be interpreted differently, which can lead to errors in both design and installation of various systems and, therefore, requires clarification.
- Doorway Dimensions: This term describes the size of the opening in the wall or partition where the door is installed and does not take into account the size of the door frame. Typically, after installing the frame, the opening size decreases by approximately 50 mm on each side. This aspect should be taken into account when building a wall or partition or when replacing old doors.
- Door Leaf Size: This term is used when choosing or ordering new doors for an apartment or house. For example, when the width is specified as 800 mm, it means the width of the door leaf, and the opening in the wall should be wider by 100 mm, making it 900 mm. The modern construction materials market offers ready-made doorsets, and when purchasing such a product, you should consider the external dimensions of the block, excluding the door casing, and prepare the opening for installation with virtually no gaps.
- Actual Dimensions: This is the actual width of the door system when the door is open at 90° or for double-leaf doors. Measuring in this way allows determining what furniture or household appliances can be brought into the house or apartment. This is especially important if there is a disabled person living in the house who uses a wheelchair. A properly chosen door in this case will prevent injuries to the disabled person and protect the door frames from damage and scratches caused by the wheelchair.
Door Classification
Door systems are classified based on the following criteria: • By location in the building; • By the method of opening; • By the number of leaves; • By the materials from which the doors are made; • By the method of filling the door leafs.
Since each of these criteria includes numerous types of door systems, let's consider only those directly related to their dimensions.
By Location in the Building
- External Doors: These are divided into entrance and balcony doors. Entrance doors, according to fire safety regulations, are mandatory for any house or apartment as they serve as evacuation exits to the outside. According to regulations, the width of an entrance door should be at least 800 mm. To determine the required clearance and choose between single-leaf or double-leaf doors with a width of at least 800 mm, you should consider the number of people in the building and the size of the items being moved. The width of balcony doors is not standardized.
- Internal Doors: This category includes second entrance doors in a house, if there is a vestibule, and interior doors. Internal doors are subject to the same requirements as entrance doors. The standard width for both interior and internal doors, according to GOST 6629-88, starts from 550 mm. In residential houses, such sizes are rarely used, except for storage rooms or closets. The most common standard widths are 650 and 750 mm with a height of 1950 mm, or 850 and 900 mm with a height of 2 meters.
By the Number of Leaves
Door systems are divided into:
- Single-leaf doors;
- One-and-a-half-leaf doors;
- Double-leaf doors.
Single-leaf doors are typically used for bathrooms, toilets, kitchens, as well as balcony and interior doors. At the entrance to an apartment, a single-leaf entrance door with standard dimensions of 800x2000 mm or 900x2000 mm is almost always installed.
One-and-a-half-leaf door systems have two leaves of different widths, one of which (the narrower one) opens when needed, while the other is used constantly. These doors are most often installed as external metal entrance doors in multi-storey building entrances. The standard sizes for such doors are 1050 mm or 1200 mm in width and 2200 mm or 2300 mm in height.
Double-leaf systems have two leaves of the same width and are used as both internal and entrance doors. The standard dimensions for such doors are 1290 mm in width and 2200 mm or 2300 mm in height. These dimensions are then increased in increments of 100 mm.
Custom-Made Products
In modern construction practices, the standard dimensions of door leaves established back in the Soviet era are often not adhered to for several reasons:
- Variety in the Market: Today, the market offers a wide selection of door systems from European manufacturers. Their sizes differ only slightly from domestic systems, and the quality of the products is at least as good.
- Individual Layouts: When constructing multi-story residential buildings with non-standard layouts and creating apartments with unique designs, the dimensions of interior doors can significantly deviate from standard sizes. The same situation arises when building private residential houses based on individual projects, which may incorporate non-standard solutions for interior doors. These solutions are permissible according to building codes, provided that fire safety requirements are met.
- Thickness of the Product: When ordering custom-made external entry doors, it's essential to consider that their thickness will differ from that of interior doors due to the construction's peculiarities. The addition of insulation, soundproofing, metal, and decorative finishing can increase the thickness by 20-40 mm. This will result in a reduction in the width of the opening, especially noticeable in the case of one-and-a-half and double-leaf doors, where two open leaves will reduce the available space.
- Opening Direction: When installing standard hinged doors in interior openings, it is necessary to ensure that they open outward from the room. This is important to ensure that the open door does not block the path to the exit from the building, meaning it should open in the direction opposite to the exit.
- Avoiding Collisions: If room exits are located close to each other and are perpendicular, there is a risk of collision between two doors when they are opened simultaneously, which can reduce the width of the evacuation path. According to fire safety rules, the minimum width of an evacuation passage is 0.8 meters.
To avoid such situations, it is recommended to install the door unit in such a way that one of the leaves opens inward. This does not contradict regulations and is considered safe for rapid evacuation in case of a fire. Despite the apparent simplicity of selecting the width and height of doors, this matter should be approached responsibly, with careful measurements, and choosing the opening method in consideration of the room's characteristics.