Egress in domestic doors

[Compleat Amateu]

G'day

I have a vertically staggered house layout (well, 20m rise across 40m of house, more or less) rising up from the front to the back, where the bedrooms mostly are. The house is 3 parallel 'wings' runnning across the contour. The back (top) wing is 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms with a linking corridor parallel to the slope. There is a door leading outside to a back alley in the middle of the corridor. Wing 2 joins wing 3 by a staircase that no longer complies with BCA, just as well it was built in the 70's.

The door in wing 3 has little other purpose except to give an escape in the case of a house fire, since the back leads nowhere but upwards into more bush.

The question is about securing the door against thieves while allowing escape from any potential fire, since any house fire would rise rapidly from the rest of the house to wing 3. No chance of escaping downstairs to wing 2.

My challenge is, how to balance:
a) SWMBO - 'deadlocks everywhere'
b) Insurance - all external accesses at ground level deadlocked
c) Ease of escape in the case of fire.

So .... does anyone know of door locking technologies for domestic applications that comply with a) and b), while allowing c)? I've seen vertical security bolts running the height of the door, with a trip bar in the middle, but only in commercial building firedoors ...so ... what does anyeon know?

Thanks

Compleat Amateur

[julianx]

What about a lockwood 001 double cylinder deadlatch
http://www.locksgalore.com.au/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=18&category=locks_rimlocks_deadlatches

[Compleat Amateu]

Thanks Julianx

That certainly gets me closer, I should've thought of a Lockwood-type website before. I like the look of what's called 'panic bars', on the same website, but ...
a) My door opens inwards
b) The price gave me a nosebleed

But I'll bang something into them and see what I get.

Regards

[thebuildingsurv]

unlock your deadlocks when your at home

[Bloss]

What he said.

Absolutely critical that while anyone is in the house all deadlocks are unlocked. This still stops use of cards etc to get in from the outside, but allows just a turn of a handle to get out.

Even leaving the door deadlocked with a key in is unwise - in fire especially smoke means that visibility can quickly go to zero and even something that seems simple like locating the door and turning a key becomes challenging. Add smoke and heat and seconds become important to survival.

Theft and break-in is about reasonableness - your life and safety is about 'must have'.

As to the question - a Lockwood 001 or similar. Not cheap, but lifesaving devices seldom are. You could go the Fire Bolt with Glass tube etc , but a thief can use that too . . .

[Compleat Amateu]

Thanks gents, your advice about Lockwood is the right solution, and unlocking at night the current fastening is what we do now .... the amusing part is that the door is hollow, not a solid one. Yer average tealeaf could get through it with a pair of old false teeth!

In the meantime I've had a shoulder reconstruction (from delusions of youth and sporting prowess), so I'm not handling any solid doors for a few months ....

Regards and thanks

[totoblue]

We've got Lockwood 001 deadlatches (the ones that automatically undeadlock when you come home).

We usually enter the house from back door so the 001 deadlatches stay locked. If you want to satisfy the insurance company you could just leave the key in the door. If you want a bit more security, hide the key near the door. If you are not sure your family will manage to locate the key and undeadlock the door in a fire, just don't bother deadlocking it. Remembering to unlock the doors every night just sounds too hard and unreliable to me.

BTW the first Lockwood 001 deadlatch we had on the front door decided shortly after installation not to undeadlock upon entry. I swapped it with the one on the side door on garage (where I wanted it to stay deadlocked) - our garage is more of a shed really (no room for a car in there :p). Haven't had a problem with the others.

As an aside, we ordered 4 Lockwood 001 deadlatches keyed alike plus a number of patio door bolts and a 303 deadlock. Two of the 001 locks had the bolt fitted backwards (i.e. the beveled edge pointing inside instead of outside) so we had to take them back. Since we were going on holidays the next day (and I was fitting a solid core back door), I didn't have time to get replacement keyed alike deadlatches so we still have some locks that aren't keyed alike.