What front door for multi-occupancy flats?

[Phil Addison]

Top tips, thank you Fred.

Phil

[Phil Addison]

Food for thought, thanks djc. Did you solve the door closer conundrum?

Phil

[Bill Wright]

Good practical advice.

Bill

[NT]

If the householder says yes, 6 pin hardened pin locks were used, then your insurance is based on the consequent risk level. If you then replace it with a 5 pin, your insurance is invalid. Whether they'll check in the event of a claim depends. Its a mistake very easily made.

NT

[The Medway Handyman]

I once fitted a door closer to the front door of a house converted into

3 flats. Tenant A complained that tenant B never closed the front door.

Tenant B then complained that the door slammed & the noise annoyed him...

I also had to fit 3 x mailboxes because tenant C complained that A & B were stealing his mail...

On that subject - all the Argos mail boxes are keyed alike....

[Dave Liquorice]

pressed,

So much for your secure area. B-) To have better security you need an electronic keypad and better still one that shuffles the number positions about between attempts or even button pushes. Users will hate the number shuffling though as they can't just learn the push pattern. This might lead to the door being wedged open.

[Chris J Dixon]

Other problems with those - if you don't keep swapping the code, the numbers wear off the used buttons.

OTOH, we had one at work with an unknown code, (big place, staff churn...) but we needed out-of hours access. So, during the day, when the whole place was unlocked, it was the work of a moment to take it off the door, read the code and replace it. So, anyone who has access can change the code.

They are really only a protection against folk accidentally straying into restricted areas.

Chris

[Chris J Dixon]

A few years ago, staying in a hostel in Prague, our room was next to a heavy internal door, which slammed through the night. A quick tweak to the two adjusters, with my Swiss Army screwdriver, soon achieved silent but secure closure. Simples :-)

Chris

[fred]

The point I was making is that I've never seen a tick box asking a such a question, have you? All I've seen are BS/multipoint lock tickboxes?

And again, what is a 6 pin hardened pin lock? I'm trying to avoid the proliferation of misleading terms that could result in confusion. Happy to see an example of such.

[Tim Lamb]

I hope it wasn't in your pocket when you went through airport security:-(

regards

[Chris J Dixon]

I remembered to stow it.

Chris

[dennis]

Its OK as long as you realise that it makes the security weaker. The first door may only be the equivalent of a three pin lock. The second that of a four pin lock. The third a five pin lock. All bets are off if someone has two or more of the keys as they can workout which pins are common and cut a few keys to fit the rest.

If security is a real issue then you need to adopt a mechanism where you need something physical and know a secret. This could be a key and a code lock, a keypad and a fob electronic lock, etc.

[charles]

In our theatre there are 13 pin locks witha "master" & submaster" arrangement.

[mogga]

Fortress near us claim their doors are 'enforcer proof' ...

[dennis]

This means having a weak entrance. A weak entrance, even a porch, makes the rest almost useless. People take no notice at all of "workmen" inside porches let alone buildings. This means "workmen" can use what they like to open internal doors. When was the last time you took any interest in someone "working" in a porch or building?

[dennis]

Any idea how much they cost?

[charles]

none at all, but I know the theatre had a very tight budget.

[Hugo Nebula]

It's from Approved Document B (Vol 2) to Part B of the Building Regulations. It would apply to any applicable building work to any type of building except dwellinghouses. I suspect HMO licencing and/or RR(FS)O enforcement would apply it also.

[Hugo Nebula]

For Building Regulations, either a change of use to some other use, or a material alteration that made the building any worse in terms of the requirement than it was before. For any other legislation, it may be that Housing legislation or Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order could require improvements to the existing situation.

[Hugo Nebula]

They would have to fail to open in a power failure or an alarm (and would therefore require automatic fire detection in the common areas - an aditional expense), and have a manual release mechanism (to cut all the power) from inside in a break-glass. The problem with some magnetic locks is that the bolt becomes magnetised and stays in position even when de-energised.