Most doors in a building or complex also serve as emergency exits for evacuating floor areas, including access doors to small server rooms. While a server room is vacant and unoccupied most of the time, its access door becomes an emergency exit door once the premises are occupied.

A door that is also a means of escape should always be easy to open. It must not require keys, special devices or specialized knowledge of the door opening mechanism.

When security intrusion imperatives require controlled access and recordings of the flow of traffic through a doorway, installing an electromagnetic door locking device activated by an access card is a popular option.

Buyer beware! Do not opt for blue manual pull stations! This device for unlocking doors in case of an emergency is not among the options stipulated in the regulations governing the safety of building occupants. Only in rare cases is a different agreement with authorities permitted.

Since the 1995 edition of the National Building Code, there is a solution for unlocking exit doors controlled by an electromagnet. Only once the 2010 edition of the National Building Code came into effect has there been a safe, secure solution to unlocking all emergency exits. The conditions are outlined in paragraph 3.4.6.16. (4) of the National Building Code – Canada 2010. Basically it consists of a locking mechanism with a 3/15 s panic bar. That means that the locking device is deactivated within 15 seconds after pushing on the panic bar for at least 3 seconds.

Once you install this 3/15 s unlocking mechanism, it includes ten restrictive conditions that ensure the safety and security of building occupants. Note that there are exceptions for health care institutions, long-term care facilities, correctional facilities, banks and retail businesses. 

Keep in mind that an exterior door that serves as egress for stairwells during an emergency evacuation is deemed to be neither an exit door nor a door that, during an evacuation, provides access to floor areas. The regulations make no arrangements for the possibility of installing electromagnetic locking mechanisms on the exterior door of an exit stairwell.

If the technician installing a controlled access device suggests different solutions, it is important to verify that such options comply with applicable regulations.

Nicole Olivier, architect, and Frédéric Lévesque, engineer
TECHNORM