FAQ Category: Door And Frame Construction

There is not an industry standard on weep holes. They are not required and not all manufactures incorporate such a configuration in their doors. If a manufacturer should determine that some sort of drain needs to be part of the door construction, how they accomplish that is up to them—whether by designing it into the door or by drilling holes/slots after manufacturing. A sealed flush cap on the top of the door should be requested if the opening is expected to be located in an area where moisture is expected (e.g. – exterior opening). Some holes in the bottom of the door are used by manufacturers to suspend the doors during coating operations.

SDI 127H contains information on water penetration. In summary, door assemblies are not manufactured to be watertight. Seals and thresholds are required to ensure water resistance of the opening assembly in normal environmental conditions. In situations where water penetration is a concern, the contractor must seal all joints that are exposed to the elements after the frame assembly is installed. Whenever possible, it is strongly recommended that glass and glazing be installed on the exterior rabbet of the frame assembly.

Yes, whenever metals are welded there is significant heat involved, potentially resulting in surface imperfections. Most steel doors have the majority of the welding done on the hinge and lock edges in order to minimize imperfections on the faces.

The most common method to minimize aesthetic imperfections is the utilization of projection welding versus spot welding. Both are forms of resistance welding, but projection welding utilizes a formed projection on one piece to localized the weld current and minimize the resulting imperfection. While this technique will minimize the imperfections, all welding tends to leave some degree of surface imperfection. More information can be found in the Aesthetics section of A250.8 Appendix B.

Yes, doors specified with vertically steel stiffened cores are prone to some level of surface imperfection due to the internal stiffeners being welded to the face sheets. Doors intended for more aesthetic applications should avoid vertically steel stiffened cores in lieu of a laminated polystyrene, honeycomb or polyurethane core.

Transfer of door loads to wall studs may cause local buckling of the wall stud if the stud gage is too light. Additional jamb anchors will spread the load more evenly on the wall stud.

Reduced metal thickness may contribute to local buckling of the stud depending on the door weight and location of the performance enhancing features in the wall stud. Flange stiffening grooves and web embossments will resist local buckling if properly located.

Maximum Duty doors are listed as Level 4 in accordance with ANSI A250.8 and Physical Performance Level A in accordance with ANSI A250.4. The door core, hardware reinforcement, face gage, and edge construction are design attributes that contribute to the door assembly performance rating.

Materials like fiberglass batt, mineral wool, strips of drywall, and acoustic coatings (e.g. Silent Running) may be added to the throat of the frame to improve acoustic performance. Performance may not equal that of a grouted frame.

Face welding is weld applied only to the face of the frame, usually at the 45 degree joint. The full profile weld is applied to the full contour of the frame at the intersection of the head and the jambs. Since most manufacturers can fire rate their frames knocked down (in 3 pieces), welding is not required and is usually for cosmetic appearance and ease of installation. Since the frame throat is sheltered by a wall on all sides, full profile welding is usually not required.