Fire Rated Door Hardware Explained

Fire doors are placed throughout a building to hold back flames, smoke and hot gases, giving people time to get out and containing a fire to one part of the building. The hardware on those doors carries part of that responsibility. A fire rating tells you a handle, lock or closer has been assessed to resist heat and smoke, and to keep working when it’s needed most. 

What a fire rating means 

A fire door is more than the door itself. It’s an assembly of the door leaf, frame, seals, hardware and locking, and each part has to meet the required standard for the whole doorset to hold its rating. The rating of the finished doorset is set by its weakest part, so the hardware matters as much as the door. 

A fire-rated door also has to let people out. Any door used as an escape route must open easily from the inside, without a key. 

What we supply 

We make and supply fire rated door hardware; we don’t make fire doors. Fire doors are designed and tested by specialist manufacturers to meet Australian standards for heat resistance and structure. Our hardware is fitted to their door systems, so it’s worth confirming your door system with us early, and we’ll tell you which products suit it. 

Our fire rated range 

Our hardware has been tested and assessed on several leading Australian fire door systems, achieving ratings of up to 2 hours depending on the door and how it’s configured. 

  • Lever handles: every lever design in our range, in brass or zinc, when fitted with our ML2000 mortice lock and our own roses or long plates
  • Entrance pull handles: a selected range
  • Door closers: the H25 series, with standard arm, parallel arm or slide track
  • Hinges, roller bolts and door viewers: fire rated options for each.

Most of the range reaches 2 hours. Some closer setups and thinner doors are rated at 90 or 60 minutes, so tell us about your door system and we’ll confirm the rating before you order. Our Bullet+Stone concrete and Monte timber collections aren’t fire rated. 

Choosing hardware for a fire door 

  • Levers over knobs: Some regulatory bodies require lever handles on fire rated doors in place of knobs
  • A lock that lets people out. Choose a lock function that opens from the inside without a key on every escape door.
  • Hardware that lasts. Components on a fire rated doorset must keep performing in medium to high-traffic areas for the life of their warranty.

Australian standards

Two Australian standards govern fire rated doorsets and the hardware fitted to them.  

Standard What is covers 
AS 1530.4:2014 Fire resistance testing for elements of construction, including door hardware 
AS 1905:1:2015 Fire resistant doorsets: their design, construction and installation, how hardware is assessed for use on them, latching hardware, component durability, and smoke control such as self-releasing latches and door seals 

 

Certificates and project support 

Our hardware is listed as fire rated in the approved hardware assessments for each door system it’s tested on, so your building certifier can refer to it directly. Our estimating team can send copies for your project. 

We’ve scheduled and supplied fire rated hardware for residential and commercial projects across Australia. Our door scheduling team checks fire, acoustic and accessibility requirements door by door, so every fire door on your project is fitted with hardware that complies. S end your floor plans for a free door hardware schedule.