By definition, a fire rated door is an entryway or door manufactured with the purpose to resist spreading fire if any part of your commercial structure catches fire. If a fire breaks out in your kitchen, with fire rated doors in place, and with all doors closed, the fire will take longer to spread to the dining room and break room.

Commercial Fire Safety
Metal doors (both single and double doors) ratings consist of 20 minutes, 45 minutes, 90 minutes or a 3-hour rating. CDF distributor's fire rated wood doors come with three options: 20, 45 and 90 minute ratings.

These time-based tests are based on the timed exposure of flames the door and assembly can handle; examining the hardware, wall and door assembly as written in the building code standards. The doors are put into a large furnace to properly test the door against its specific rating.

When deciding upon any specific given door model it's important to understand that "UL 20", for example, means the underwriter's laboratory has tested the door at 20 minutes of fire resistance.

Materials Used in Fire Rated Metal Doors
The standards of how our hollow metal doors and frames are made determine the level of fire safety protection in terms of UL safety ratings.

Example materials used to make our doors include galvanized, galvannealed, cold rolled, and hot rolled steel materials. Every single one of our doors go through an extremely diligent testing system, not only testing our materials against fire, but, also, testing the closing devices used and more.

Checking Building Codes For Fire Doors
Your building code mandates the required fire resistance rating of a wall in each particular location, and it also states the required rating of the opening protective, or fire door assembly. As an example, here is a table below from the 2009 international building code (IBC) which in detail describes the required fire resistance rating of fire door assembly for each type of wall.

Requirements on what type of door used are often based on the use of a building, as well as how many people will occupy it during a given time. Always ask your building professional for more information. Be sure to always check with your local building code authority to confirm fire door requirements in your location before the unthinkable happens.