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Advertising supplement provided The Window & Door Manufacturers Association

Application-driven specifications

It makes sense that interior architectural products, too, have been recognized in the push for performance and have stepped up to meet the rigors of both normal and extraordinary usage. This re-released standard for architectural doors emulates the importance of the built environment in which interior wood flush doors are used.

Published by the Window & Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA), Des Plaines, Ill., I.S. 1A-2004 Industry Specification for Architectural Wood Flush Doors is a major overhaul and rewrite of an existing industry interior architectural door standard. This standard had in the past always been prescriptive in nature, but the latest revision transforms the document into a truly high-level performance-based document based on scientific criteria and testing.

For the first time, there are distinct performance levels or duties for these doors and anyone who specifies architectural doors must become familiar with the new categories in order to do justice to the product and to the facility. I.S. 1A provides a much-needed guideline for architects and specifiers who determine the nature of wood flush doors in commercial settings. More importantly, it’s a reference guide they will use again and again in the scope of their designs.

For WDMA, the mission is to provide the necessary knowledge to install a superior fenestration product — and much of that drive comes from its standards and certification programs. WDMA as an organization has determined that key to the success of any standard is an emphasis on performance, and the recent release of I.S. 1A in early fall 2004 is a perfect example. With this standard, door construction may vary, as long as the specified duty (performance) level is met or exceeded, says David San Paolo, operations manager for The Maiman Co., Springfield, Mo., and a member of WDMA’s I.S. 1A Task Group, the industry association committee which has worked intensively on revamping and targeting the standard.

At the core of the standard are the newly created Performance Duty Levels and Values, he says. “These requirements are based on engineering studies and not arbitrary numbers. The representative Performance Duty Levels and Values were reached using mathematical models and historical data collected in the course of the 35- to 40-year history of the industry,” he says. And although they are minimum requirements, in many cases manufacturers may certainly exceed those initial parameters, San Paolo adds.