Fire exit signs pointing up or down?

[Magic]

On 17/08/2022 at 20:45, Tom Sutton said:

Use a standard FIRE EXIT sign with upwards arrow and fix to the door itself.

Hi Tom, i have seen lots of your posts and you know your stuff. I have tried to send private message but wouldn't let me. DOH. 

In regards to fire signage exit signs, i m pretty sure the downward facing arrow was put in place in the year 2000. But when i put exit signs up i usually put above the door, as long as you can see this clearly. As you know even though shouldn't people do wedge open fire doors, and then you wouldn't be able to see the sign, would you agree. 

PS do think your information and guidance in general is great.

Mick

[AnthonyB]

It should always in theory have been an up arrow, but confusion set in with the example pictograms used in the UK implementation of the EU Safety Signs Directive in 1996 (The Health and Safety Regulations 1996). Rather than continue the use of our existing BS 5499-1:1990 pictogram & arrows it copied the example European signs from the Directive and we ended up with the man/arrow/door symbol and three arrow variants - Left, Right, Down.

Things went full circle in 2013 with the EC Directive sign being supplanted by the BS EN ISO 7010 exit signage (very similar to the old BS5499 system) which went back to the 8 directional arrows including up for straight on.

[Guest SteveGS]

Understood that an up arrow above a door means go through the door, but what if this door is the final exit and there is a low brick wall (about 300mm high) one metre away facing the door?  The escape route therafter is to the right alongside the building to the street.  Ideally there should be a right arrow on the wall, but it's unlikely to be seen since the wall is so low.  So should I put a right arrow instead above the door?

[AnthonyB]

No - it doesn't direct people correctly to go through the door. Up above the door. If the wall is so low many people would just step over it, once they are outside the signage is less of an issue. What would happen if they went over the wall or left? Is the route to the right obvious?