Fire Rated Frameless Interior Doors

Are all Frameless Doors fire rated?  No, not all of them but a good portion of them are.  Frameless Interior Doors have at least 4 components and in order to be fire rated, all of them need to have some sort of fire-rating usually described in minutes of fire-resistance.  Here are the 4 components of these types of doors and what you can expect in terms of their fire-rating.

Concealed Door Frame

The frames will either be made of Aluminum or Wood and have different fire ratings.

Concealed Aluminum Frames

Aluminum itself is non-combustible but that does not mean it has an unlimited fire rating.  Residential aluminum door frames usually have a fire rating ranging from 20 minutes up to 90 minutes.  It depends on the thickness and dimensions of the frame and how well it closes off against smoke and blow-outs.

Concealed Wood Frames

Wood is combustible but there are still fire-rated wood door frames available.  These frames have varying degrees of inorganic materials incorporated into their laminated core.  The fire rating times are similar to its aluminum counterpart and ranges from 20 to 90 minutes.

Door Panel (Slab)

The fire-rating times for door slabs can be nonexistent for standard hollow core wood door slabs.  However, special mineral core wood door panels will be certified to have a fire rating of 20 minutes and up to 90 minutes in some cases.  Of course, metal doors will have a better fire rating to begin with and steel doors can have a rating up to 3 hours.

Hidden Hinges for Frameless Doors

 Most door hinges or in this case Hidden Hinges, which are widely used for Frameless Interior Doors, have a fire rating of 30 to 60 minutes with 30 or45 minutes being the average.

Frameless Door Handles and Locks

Frameless Doors can be used with regular door handles (levers and knobs) and those will come in a fire-rated version which is usually 3 hours for commercial grade handles and locks.  So called "invisible" door handles for Frameless Doors will not be fire-rated, however.  These types of handles have wooden cover plates which are combustible.

Extras

Lastly, it should be noted that for a door set to be fire-rated the whole system has to be tested together and that the use of self-closing hinges or a door closer is also necessary to make a fire-rating possible.