Photo: Multiple components come together to ensure a full door system meets a project’s performance goals. | Photo Credit (all): Courtesy of AD Systems
By Tysen Gannon
According to Gordian’s RSMeans Data, new health care construction costs have risen over 21 percent nationwide between 2020 and 2025. The trend of cost increases is projected to continue through at least the end of 2027.
As a result, ensuring the systems used within a building can withstand the use and abuse typical of a health care setting year after year can be crucial. Building for resilience supports medical professionals’ ability to offer care without interruption in a safe and accessible environment. Long-term resilience also contributes to a higher return on investment by minimizing maintenance and operational costs.
When it comes to health care interiors, doors can represent a significant cost to medical facilities. Not only are these systems frequently used, but they also repeat throughout a building. Further, door systems have multiple component parts that experience different levels of operational strain, which can complicate maintenance schedules.
To support specifiers in selecting long-lasting components and systems, the Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA) and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) have developed standard tests for door components and full door systems. These standards provide data on how door hardware and full doors perform in the field.
When specifiers and facility managers look to these standards as a guide for specifying and maintaining door hardware, they can maximize their return on investment by selecting products that are appropriately certified for their application. These standards also enable a performance-based comparison of systems that might look superficially very similar but perform quite differently.
What data does BHMA certification supply?
BHMA/ANSI develops tests that grade door hardware and systems on progressive levels of performance benchmarks. These tests can range from administering vertical wear tests, friction tests, strength tests, finish tests and more to determine the durability limitations of components. These benchmarks are often classified by grades 1, 2 or 3. Products certified to Grade 3 meet a minimum threshold for performance and durability, and those certified to Grade 1 achieve the highest performance rankings possible through these tests.
To quantify durability and resilience, BHMA/ANSI tests components by recreating their operation for a certain number of cycles—cycle numbers can range from 75,000 to over 2.5 million. These cycles may also include abuse cycles that consist of force and operation beyond what is standard. Likewise, they can include tests that measure when permanent or catastrophic failure occurs.
On the one hand, cycle testing provides information that specifiers can use to estimate lifecycles and predict contributions to sustainability efforts. On the other, failure tests can indicate whether or not a door component is appropriate in an application and in context with the other components that make
up a full door system. For instance, a door closer that meets Grade 2 requirements for certain door weights may not provide the same level of performance for oversized or heavier-than-average doors.
What do BHMA-certified components mean for end-users?
BHMA certification can help designers and specifiers select components and systems that contribute to project goals for resilience, strength and durability. They can also verify these products meet multiple code-driven requirements for functionality and accessibility. But the benefits of BHMA certification go beyond the design and specification phases.
The data that BHMA/ANSI tests provide can help facility managers more effectively predict maintenance routines and full door lifecycles. As a result, these professionals can plan repairs and replacement more efficiently and with less disturbance to a medical center’s operations. In addition, the data provided by BHMA/ANSI standard tests can help health care facilities more accurately estimate operational costs year-to-year to contribute to planning long-term improvement projects while maximizing their return on investment in hardware that is selected according to the building’s needs.
The component-based standards can also be used by management teams for quality assurance when scheduling repairs and replacements. For instance, if a door’s original hardware is no longer available, facility management teams can find comparable parts that provide similar performance capabilities as the original. This can help maintain quality, repair schedules and streamline operation.
These standards can also help health care facilities plan upgrades—specifically if moving from a manually operated door to an automated operating system. Since certified door components will have accompanying data that details their thresholds for failure, project stakeholders can collaborate to ensure any system upgrades will work with all components.
Doors are more than component parts
Components certified to BHMA/ANSI performance standards can offer peace of mind to end-users that they will withstand the use and abuse typical of medical centers and other health care facilities. This supports building design and operation on multiple levels. But door systems are more than component parts.
Depending on multiple factors, from operators to door panel weight and more, the strain a door component undergoes during operation can vary significantly. This can complicate lifecycle assessments. It can also make full door specification more difficult—especially if an opening is larger than standard or a door system’s operation differs from a traditional swing door.
In these instances, integrated door assembly standards, like A156.43 – 2023 Integrated Sliding Door Openings Assemblies, can help streamline the specification process. These standards test an entire door system to gather data that will more accurately detail how the door will perform as a system. This both reduces the work of matching compatible and similarly graded components and provides assurance that the entire system will perform as intended for the duration of its service life.
Tysen Gannon, LEED AP, AD Systems has more than 15 years of experience in the architectural products industry, including roles in sales, product management, research and marketing, with a focus on glass and glazing, fenestration and façade systems. Learn more at www.specadsystems.com.