Dorgard plunger depth advice for an elevated fire doorframe

[Guest Lewi]

I have a Dorgard and it works great in one area of the flat we let. But I need to add another one to the bedroom fire door as it is off he kitchen. Problem is that the doorfame with its fire door is mounted on the kitchen side, so the bedroom is about a 2 inch/5 cm step down from the kitchen floor doorway.  Will the plunger in the Dorgard go down that far for when the door is open in the bedroom?  Carpet is very short pile. We put the floor plate on this carpet successfully for the other installation in the flat's hall to isolate the kitchen from the rest of the flat.🙄

 As the door opens only slightly past 90 degrees into the bedroom because of an overhead beam, we don't think putting a block or other obstacle on which to mount the plate to raise it up is a good idea  I am concerned the tenant might trip over it at night in the dark when the door will be shut for sleep (or whatever!)  It's a great piece of kit, and only goes off when the hoover is run, but that's not a biggie. At least we know it is working!!  Oh, and having a 3 year old let off a high scream of delight shuts it as well. 😂

Any advice is most appreciated before we commit to buying another. 

[Rahel Lock]

Good morning
the plunger travel of the Dorgard is 2cm so a 5cm gap would be too large. 
The Geofire Agrippa Acoustic Door Closer might be a solution. This is also battery operated and acoustically triggered and gets installed at the top of the door.
Thanks
Rahel

[AnthonyB]

Is this a flat or a HMO? Self closing fire doors haven't been required in flats for a very long time. Bear in mind that a kitchen usually has a heat detector and the use of hold open devices is deprecated in these situations as there is a risk of delayed action until after the escape route is compromised.

[Guest Lewi]

On 07/08/2023 at 08:47, Rahel Lock said:

Good morning
the plunger travel of the Dorgard is 2cm so a 5cm gap would be too large. 
The Geofire Agrippa Acoustic Door Closer might be a solution. This is also battery operated and acoustically triggered and gets installed at the top of the door.
Thanks
Rahel

Thanks Rahel, Yikes, that a bit out of our budget, but it wouldn't work as the top of the door opens into the bedroom and there is a beam in the way. 😔

[Guest Lewi]

13 hours ago, AnthonyB said:

Is this a flat or a HMO? Self closing fire doors haven't been required in flats for a very long time. Bear in mind that a kitchen usually has a heat detector and the use of hold open devices is deprecated in these situations as there is a risk of delayed action until after the escape route is compromised.

Hi Anthony,  It is an HMO. and our council  decided in 2019 that 3 bdr flats that are shared must be converted to pass HMO regs. It was a PITA!  Our council does require self-closing fire doors post-Grenfell because it is a galley/vestibule located kitchen that also has the main entry door to the flat in it which is an 'escape route'. So one of the bedrooms and the hall to the rest of the flat are off this kitchen.  I almost wish we had not bothered with the HMO, but the tenants we have are long-term and loyal and pay a good rent.

As it is a basement flat and was not designed to have the kitchen isolated as there was no 3 bdr rule when it was created 20 years ago, it affects air circulation terribly having fire doors blocking the flow.  So the acoustic closers work fine as they let the air flow, and yet at night the bedroom tenant can close their door. The one to the hall stays open all the time... of all the crazy things, why would you want a shut door to a kitchen if you have a roast in the oven and you are in the lounge watching telly? That is just asking for trouble.  And don't get me started on kitchens that are in open plan living/lounge areas as in another flat. We had to put a fire door there. Usually that flat is let to sharers, but at the moment a family has it and the mother did not like a door that was shut when her child was playing in another room. So a Dorgard went on that door.

Back in the basement we found mould growing on the kitchen ceiling once the fire doors were installed at each end of the kitchen before I got the Dorgard for the hall end. Worse, we had to block a kitchen window to put a high-capacity exhaust fan in, but have now moved that to a place in the wall that we punched through to get light back into the kitchen. It has been a nightmare, but are getting there.  Had to put in a heat-exchanger system in the off the kitchen bedroom which is tanked.  So I was hoping to put a Dorgard on that bedroom door as well to legally keep the door open during the day, but the depth of the plunger won't allow it. 

Back to the drawing board.  Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. 🤗

 

[AnthonyB]

Sounds like you are in an area with selective/additional licensing so virtually every rented property falls under their remit.

I think Rahel meant to link to this which is similar in cost to a Dorgard - https://www.safelincs.co.uk/geofire-agrippa-acoustic-door-holder/

[Lewi]

19 hours ago, AnthonyB said:

Sounds like you are in an area with selective/additional licensing so virtually every rented property falls under their remit.

I think Rahel meant to link to this which is similar in cost to a Dorgard - https://www.safelincs.co.uk/geofire-agrippa-acoustic-door-holder/

Thought it better to sign up. 😀  You only have to get an HMO is you have 3 bedrooms that do not have their own bath/toilet facilities and you want to rent to 3 sharers on an official lease who are not related to each other (family) or in a relationship. Not sure about the kitchen being shared, but the fire regs are all post-Grenfell.

Lots of landlords just pulled their properties from 3 bdr sharers market and called them 2 bdr with a 'study'. at a higher rent than a 2 bedroom flat with an eg 'box' room?  I don't know how that worked. Especially if you use an agency. I guess if you have a lease that only shows two unrelated tenants on it, then I don't know if the tenants would be responsible for it if they bring their own third person in to live in the 'study'.  Would the landlord be ultimately responsible for knowing a third person was 'living' there? 

Anyways, thanks for the link.  I have printed out the spec sheets on that one. Looks much more affordable. Will see if there is enough overlap of the top of the door against the beam to let the two parts meet and magneti-ify.  Will let you know down the line if we go this way in the future in case someone else has a similar problem. 👍