Design Considerations for Specifying Architectural Wood Doors

Design Considerations for Architectural Wood Doors
VT Industries Architectural Wood Doors are key to the completion of a building’s design. Careful
consideration must take place to select just the right face material, accessories, and hardware to
create a pleasing aesthetic. VT’s manufacturing capabilities are almost limitless with the
availability of a variety of wood veneers and high pressure decorative laminates (HPDL) and
additional sketch face, horizontal, and laser marquetry layup opportunities.
The artistic design significance is just the beginning when specifying architectural wood doors.
Building owners, architects, and designers, as well as local building codes, have additional
requirements and principles that are valued in a project. These life safety, comfort, and
environmental considerations must be weighed and balanced.
These desirable attributes can be achieved through architectural wood doors constructed with
fire-ratings, STC ratings, lites, and sustainable materials. Each of these design considerations
affects the other. The following paragraphs and technical charts highlight the applications and
requirements for specifying VT Architectural Wood Doors with these features.
Fire Protection
Life safety for building occupants is a priority of any building. Fire protection is major feature of a
building and architectural wood doors are an integral part of providing a complete system. Fire
rated doors provide escape routes and areas of refuge for building occupants. They also provide
structural integrity allowing rescue squads precious time to save lives and extinguish flames.
While fire-rated doors are often required in building standards and codes to protect means of
egress in corridors and stair towers and to separate hazardous materials and equipment. i It is
important to note that these doors protect from smoke as well as fire. Design consideration
should be taken to ensure life safety as well as to protect important assets, documentation, and
collections that could be damaged by smoke held by businesses, libraries, and government
buildings.
Fire rated doors are available and labeled with 20- to 90-minute ratings and offered with lites,
STC ratings and LEED ® credit assistance. VT doors are constructed with multiple cores, stiles,
rails, and intumescent materials depending on the fire and pressure rating required.

Acoustical Performance
The amount of airborne sound blocked from transmitting through a partition is measured in a
Sound Transmission Class (STC) rating. ii STC rated doors are an important product for a
building’s acoustical performance system. Tight fitting doors with STC ratings prevent audible
sound from exiting and limit background noise from passing both in and out of interior spaces.
STC ratings have importance in many applications. Office, school, university and library building
occupants are less distracted creating indoor environments advantageous to productivity and
learning. Law, hospital, and other spaces, where privacy is a necessity, can feel secure when
discussing confidential information and subject matter. Additionally, overall communication is
increased with STC rated doors in high performing acoustical systems.
VT’s STC doors are laboratory tested in operable state to simulate on-site performance. These
acoustical doors are tested to meet ratings from STC 30 to STC 45. STC 39 and above ratings
require specialized sound retardant core materials. Frame gasket, door bottoms, and accupads
are essential for wood doors to achieve STC ratings. These gasket seal system requirements
vary by VT door type, lite sizes, and fire ratings.
Sustainable Materials
VT Industries is incorporating low-emitting and sustainable materials into their products to meet
“green” building requirements, including LEED building standards, and ever-increasing
environmental policies. A 2009 report from McGraw Hill states, “By 2015, MHC estimates 40%-
48% of new nonresidential construction by value will be green. This would equate to a $120
billion - $145 billion opportunity based on MHC’s five year construction market forecast.” iii
LEED building rating systems are by far the most adopted green building programs, especially for
government projects. According the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) website, “Various
LEED initiatives including legislation, executive orders, resolutions, ordinances, policies, and
incentives are found in 44 states, including 243 localities (168 cities, 42 counties, and 33 towns),
34 state governments (including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico), 14 federal agencies or
departments, and numerous public school jurisdictions and institutions of higher education across
the United States.” iv
FSC ® certified, recycled, rapidly renewable, regional, and no added urea-formaldehyde doors are
readily available by request for door construction with no lost durability and performance. VT
Industries verifies these claims through third party certifications, GREENGUARD Indoor Air
Quality Certification, ® and the Forest Stewardship Council’s Chain of Custody Certification. These

sustainable attributes and certifications contribute to several LEED credits including MR 4:
Recycled Content, MR 5: Regional Materials, MR 6: Rapidly Renewable Materials, MR 7:
Certified Wood, and EQ 4.4: Low-Emitting Materials, Composite Wood and Agrifiber Products.
Lites on Doors
Lites are an additional design element with VT doors. Full, divided, and multiple lite options are
available to create a custom door design. Further customization is available with architectural
glass options that include fire, safety, and specialty finishes, such as stained and textured.
Along with contributing to the building design, lites allow light to be passed into interior spaces.
Natural light can have positive effects on occupants’ moods and mental health, as found in a
report from the California Energy Commission, “Daylight illumination levels were significant and
positive in predicting better performance on one test of mental function and attention.” v
Non-rated doors with lites are available with full glass 6” from the stiles and top rail, and 10” from
the bottom rail. Doors with multiple lites are available requiring 1-1/2” between lites. Lite size
availabilities are affected by STC and fire-ratings. Careful preparation should be taken before
specifying lites for these doors.
Summary
VT Industries Architectural Wood Doors are manufactured to be aesthetically pleasing and
provide life safety, acoustical, and environmental performance. The key to a complete
specification is to have knowledge of these doors’ construction and application requirements and
parameters to achieve your design goals. Utilize VT Industries resources, such as product
representatives, product catalogs, and technical data sheets to ensure availability and
correctness when specifying fire-rated, STC, lite, and sustainable doors.
i "Introduction." AHJ’s Guide: Swinging Fire Doors with Builders Hardware. Chantilly: Foundation for the
Advancement of Life Safety and Security, 2007. 5. Print.
ii "Summary of ANSI S12.60-2002, "Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements and Guidelines
for Schools"." Acoustics.com : Classroom Acoustics : ANSI Standard for Educational Facilities. N.p., n.d.
Web. 17 Nov. 2011. .
iii McGraw-Hill Construction. Green Outlook 2011, Trends Driving Growth.
iv "USGBC: Government Resources." USGBC: U.S. Green Building Council. Web. 20 Sept. 2010.
.
v Windows and Offices: A Study of Worker Performance and the Indoor Environment."
newbuildings.org/sites/default/files/A-9_Windows_Offices_2.6.10.pdf. California Energy Commission, n.d.
Web. 17 Nov. 2003. .