“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out”:

Door Swings in Laboratories

 Published on November 18, 2018

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Richard Palluzi
Pilot Plant and Laboratory Engineering, Safety, and Design Consultant at Richard P Palluzi LLC
85 articles Following

While I acknowledge usually a specific part of the anatomy is often added to the middle of this
statement, which way a door opens to a laboratory is a consistently contentious issue. NFPA-
45 Fire Protection for Laboratories Using Chemicals is very clear in section
5.4.2 and 3 that the doors must swing in the direction of exit travel (i.e. out of the laboratory) for
Class A and B laboratories Units but may slide or swing against the direction of exit travel in
Class C or D laboratories. The classification of the laboratory depends upon the construction
(Class A laboratories require a 2 hour fire rating, Class D require no fire rating) and allow
different amounts of flammable inventories (Class A being the highest and Class D the lowest).
While one would think which way the door swings has no real cost impact, that is often not the
case.

Look at the example below of two laboratories that share a common door probably to allow easy
access from one to the other.
Lab a has two exits as both door 1A and C open out from the laboratory. Lab B only has one
approved exit, door 1B as door C opens into and not out of the laboratory. So if both labs were
Class A or B only one (Lab A) could be considered to have two exits.

How do you get around this problem?

If you can live with a lower laboratory hazard classification (Class C or D) then the problem
goes away. If not then if you only need one exit from a laboratory, as allowed by NFPA 45, then
you are still OK. If you need a second exit and a Class A or B classification, then you are trapped
into adding a second outward opening door in Lab B. This is both costly, for the door installation
and eats up lab space.

To complicate matters, many organizations and some codes do not allow a door to open into an
aisle, particularly a fire exit aisle, so the door swing must be recessed as shown in the second
figure below.
This requires construction of an alcove around every door into a laboratory. This is both
expensive to construct and effectively consumes some usable space inside the laboratory.

The best way around this problem is to always try and have a corridor into which the lab doors
open. You may need the alcove but at least you won’t end up forced to add a relatively
unnecessary second door for Lab B.

For more information on this subject and many others regarding laboratory safety and design,
you may want to consider one of the university of Wisconsin courses shown below:

Pilot Plant and Laboratory Safety 1: Basic Principles

and Code Compliance, April 8-10, 2019 Houston, TX

Pilot Plant and Laboratory Safety 2: Real Hazards -

Proven Solutions, April 10-12, 2019 Houston, TX

Successful Laboratory Design: Grass Roots,

Renovations, and Relocations, Fall 2019
Further course information can be found at epd.wisc.edu/chem or by contacting me at
rpalluzi@verizon.net.