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threeapples

Ideas for a spring hinge in unlacquered brass for firesafe door?

threeapples
11 years ago

our other door hinges are unlacquered brass and the fire safety door to the garage needs special spring-loaded hinges, but the door guy is unaware of this kind of hinge in the finish i want. any ideas on a brand that carries this?

thanks!

Comments (12)

  • bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz
    11 years ago

    Typically I think the kind of spring-loaded hinges you want are carbon steel with a thin coating to make them LOOK like other metals.

    As I recall, steel melts at around 2700 degrees Fahrenheit while copper and brass melt at around only 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. So, for a fire safety door, you definitely want the steel. It may even be required by code.

    The unlacquered brass hardware on your other doors will eventually darken. So, would an antique brass or an ORB finish work for you? Deltana makes both. See the link below.

    The other option might be to get some with a lacquered brass finish and then take the lacquer off. It's not that hard to remove lacquer from solid brass objects. But since the brass coating will be only a thin layer over the steel, I'm not sure how good the results might be. You might remove part of the brass layer with the lacquer.

    Here is a link that might be useful: spring hinges in ORB, antique brass, etc.

  • ILoveRed
    11 years ago

    My fire safe door to my garage has our regular hinges. Threeapples, are you saying that we should have had a different kind of hinge?

  • millworkman
    11 years ago

    Sopposed to be "self closing" by code. You could also add a door closer instead of a spring hinge or a "hinge pin door closer" or two depending on how heavy the door is.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Hinge pin door closer

  • ILoveRed
    11 years ago

    Thank you mill workman. Guess my goys did not follow code here. Is it code everywhere?

    Not meaning to hijack your thread Threeapples. My apologies.

  • nini804
    11 years ago

    Self-closing must not be code here, either (NC.)

    Threeapples, can you see samples of the hardware and see which matches best? What color is your door?

  • sombreuil_mongrel
    11 years ago

    That's the problem with goys; they're all meshugenah.
    Casey

  • threeapples
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    the door is going to be cherry 6 panel with a steel center.

    the other hardware in the house is unlacquered brass. there will be a door very close to it with the brass hinges so i'm not sure what to do.

  • ILoveRed
    11 years ago

    Casey--goys, lol. Was supposed to be guys. Guess my autocorrect didn't know what to do with the word.

    Threeapples--now that we understand this, maybe we can assist you in your search. I'll spend a little time looking today.

  • bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz
    11 years ago

    threeapples, try not to stress about about the not-quite-matching hinges overmuch.

    I wanted EVERYTHING metal in my house to be antique brass - door hinges, doorknobs, window latches, light fixture, faucets, etc.

    Somehow, one door in DH's office got installed with shiny brass hinges. Like all my other doors, it has an antique brass doorknob. And, there are two other doors within 6 feet of that office door. I noticed the shiny brass hinges while we were putting up trim work around the doors but figured that, rather than hassle with calling the door guys back to replace the hinges and trying to "be available" whenever they finally deigned to show up, I would just swap them out myself... after we got other, more important, things taken care of. (When a door has three hinges, it's easy enough to swap out one at a time without even taking the door down.) Well, we've lived in the house over two years now and until you posted this, I had totally forgotten all about it. I walk past or thru that door about a hundred times a day and never even notice the shiny hinges even tho I absolutely abhor shiny brass. Hinges just simply aren't that noticeable.

    Consider how your unlacquered brass hinges will "age" and get whatever option is available that comes closest to matching the aged look. No one else will ever notice and, within a month or two of living in the house, you won't either.

  • brickeyee
    11 years ago

    "steel melts at around 2700 degrees Fahrenheit while copper and brass melt at around only 1700 degrees Fahrenheit."

    The fire will be well past the door by the time brass hinges fail from fire.

  • bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz
    11 years ago

    "The fire will be well past the door by the time brass hinges fail from fire." One would think so, wouldn't one? LOL!

    Actually, I talked about "melting point" b/c that's relatively easy to understand. In fact, non-ferrous metals tend to begin to "distort" well before they actually melt. With brass hinges, hinge distortion COULD occur well before a fire had burned through a fire door. Such hinge distortion could cause the door to gap away from it's frame allowing smoke, hot air and flames to enter more easily.

  • brickeyee
    11 years ago

    " With brass hinges, hinge distortion COULD occur well before a fire had burned through a fire door."

    Very unlikely.

    The door rating is minutes.

    Heat distortion occurs in steel as well.