Yes, recently. For buildings, escape routes have been defined in the legislation and regulations. The doors in these escape routes are called escape doors. As a result of the harmonization of construction and occupational health and safety regulations, a new definition has been included in the amended Building Decree 2005: "emergency door: a door that is exclusively intended to escape the building". A door only for calamities and not for regular use. The use of a sliding door as an emergency door is not permitted

No, but that is mainly a matter of terminology. The building regulations state that when a door in the escape route is also used under normal circumstances to reach spaces in a building, there is no question of an emergency door but of a door of an entrance that can also serve as an escape door. It should be noted that an emergency exit - exclusively intended for the escape of a building - is also designated as an access according to the system of the Buildings Decree.

In the escape routes of a building defined according to the laws and regulations, it must always be clear where the emergency exits are located. The route to the emergency doors must be indicated with the flight route indication in accordance with European Directive 92/58 / EEC and NEN 6088. The main point is that they (in combination with emergency lighting) should stand out well. If necessary, a map with a specified flight plan can also be consulted in a readily observable location. It is advisable to have the floor plans tested by own - non - expert staff and visitors: is the plan well understood?

No, not specifically for complete emergency doors, but for the hinges and locks of those doors, including the electrically controlled versions. This concerns four European design standards that, if definitively established, will be regarded as Dutch standards. These include the NEN-EN 179 (Emergency exit devices) for emergency exits with a door handle or a pressure plate. And the NEN-EN 1125 (Panic exit devices) for the panic closure of escape doors with a horizontal control rod; also called "push- or touch-bar". These standards are based on the ability to quickly and easily deploy emergency and escape doors in one simple movement. They are already open, as it were, when you run into them. With the 'Panic exit devices' it is taken into account that the operating force for unlocking also remains low at a pre-pressure on the door leaf (caused by people in panic). With a conventional lock, such a door could possibly no longer be opened under these circumstances and the consequent clamping of the bolt. Other Standards are the prEN-13636 and prEN 13637 these are design standards. These standards have already been developed but are not yet active because the comments from different countries have yet to be processed. That is why these standards contain 'pr' of preliminary.

An emergency door will have to be able to be opened quickly and without a key in all circumstances, for example by means of a so-called "panic closure", while this door can not normally be opened from the outside. The European standards for emergency and escape doors indicate that the closures must be designed in such a way that the door must be able to be opened in less than 1 second in a smooth continuous movement in the direction of escape and / or downwards.

Emergency and escape doors are up to 2500 mm high and 1300 mm wide. New in the amended Building Decree 2005 is that the minimum width of the emergency door has been increased from 0.60 to 0.85 meters.

The maximum permissible weight is 200 kg. The standardized classification in the NEN-EN norms for panic closures has two classes for the door weight: up to 100 kg and up to 200 kg.

If a panic bar or push bar is used, it must be located at least 60% of the door width, with less than 100 people. If there are more than 100 people on this emergency exit door, the panic bar must be placed over the entire width of the door.

Yes, if it concerns a situation where the NEN-EN 179 is declared applicable, a door handle, push-disk or rotating handle may be used to operate a lock, so that the door can be opened freely and without any need for other operations with slight pressure.

The usual door handle height is 1050 mm above the finished floor. Panic closures must be mounted between 900 and 1100 mm.

Yes. The NEN-EN norms for panic closures are classified in the Classification 2 classes for resistance to corrosion: class 3 (high) and class 4 (very high) according to NEN-EN 1670 Hinges and locks - Resistance to corrosion Requirements and test methods. Sustainability is regulated according to the same system.

No. To prevent undesired use of emergency and escape doors, the 'red key box with break glass' was used for a long time. A kind of barrier to be able to open the relevant doors less easily. Obviously, this is contrary to being able to flee quickly and unencumbered. Keys and key boxes are therefore explicitly prohibited in the current building regulations and the practice guidelines of the fire brigade. A drawback in practice was mainly that the windows were often destroyed; the key was lost and the door could no longer be used as an emergency door.

Yes. Instead of the forbidden red key boxes (or chains with padlocks) this can be done by, for example, using the 'green boxes with alarm' on the emergency doors. These are placed under the door handle or horizontal bar of the panic lock. During the required 'single operation' the handle or bar touches the 'green box', after which alarm follows; local (loud and possibly optical) and possibly remote as part of a security system. Resetting is only possible by authorized persons with a key. Those people can also operate the lock and open the door without an alarm. Intended lockers, also known as 'GfS Exit Control', should preferably be tested by a recognized test institute for good cooperation with products that comply with NEN-EN 179 and 1125.

Yes; at the very least, the door must be able to rotate fully outwards. But that does not always succeed because bicycles have been parked, cars are parked, rough dirt has been dumped, trees have been planted or even illegally built directly behind the emergency door. If the emergency door opens sufficiently far, the risks sometimes appear to be due to a step of half a meter, an almost immediately connected ditch or an incomplete emergency staircase. That kind of situation must therefore be adjusted. The location immediately behind the emergency door must also be well lit, as well as the route that still has to be followed outside the building to the safe place.

Yes that is allowed. Emergency doors must rotate with the direction of the flight and in some cases this may be on public roads. When granting permits, this soon caused problems with the local government. In the new building regulations, the basic principle now is that an emergency door is only used for flights from a building, whereby the safe operation of flights can outweigh the nuisance that this could cause for passers-by on the non-motorized road. For this reason, an emergency door may turn out over, for example, a footpath.

Yes, but that is very soluble, even though the starting points seem to be at odds with each other. Locks with a panic function can not be certified in the known manner in terms of burglary resistance. The degree of burglar resistance indicated by 'stars' will therefore not be found on these types of locks. They do not meet the relevant requirement that they can be closed with a key on the inside. This could cause problems with, for example, insurers' requirements, claims settlement or in a liability situation. In a practical sense, however, the problem can be resolved properly because the inspection body can issue statements for that purpose from which the burglary-proof value of the lock is apparent ('stars'0, with the exception of the requirement of lockability on the inside. locks can provide further information about this.

Yes and no. In the physical sense, many improvements were made to the Building Decree and the MBV in 2005 and the enforcement was tightened. But, there is still plenty to do. For escape routes, for example, it lacks comprehensible performance requirements for reception and transfer capacity and the 'draft behavior in fire' is unfortunately not included in the related draft standard NEN 6089. And that is exactly what matters in a calamity. Human behavior can deviate considerably from what is assumed by regulators in the event of a fire. People may do nothing at all after an evacuation alarm, they go through what they were doing, ignore the instructions or simply walk in a different direction. Meanwhile, in the past year, the Ministries of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) have given concrete thought to intended human behavior and further research will be started.

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Turn the key all the way to the left and press through, the GfS Exit Control housing will release at the top. You can then tilt the housing forwards and downwards.

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For escape doors of which only a limited number of people use (buildings with low occupancy) it is generally allowed to use button cylinders or latches. These must then be in a logical and visible place. For example, a latch may not be completely at the top or bottom of a door.