Doors are nearly universal in buildings of all kinds, allowing passage between the inside and outside, and between internal rooms. When open, they admit ventilation and light.
The purpose of a door closure is primarily to give occupants of a space privacy and security by regulating access. For this purpose doors are equipped with a variety of fittings ranging from simple latches to locks.
The door is used to control the physical atmosphere within a space by enclosing it, excluding air drafts, so that interiors may be more effectively heated or cooled. Doors are significant in preventing the spread of fire.
Doors also have an aesthetic role in creating an impression of what lies beyond. They are also used to screen areas of a building for aesthetic purposes, keeping formal and utility areas separate. They act as a barrier to noise.
Doors are often symbolically endowed with ritual purposes, and the guarding or receiving of the keys to a door, or being granted access to a door can have special significance. [1] Similarly, doors and doorways frequently appear in metaphorical or allegorical situations, literature and the arts, often as a portent of change.
When framed in wood for snug fitting of a door, the doorway consists of two vertical jambs on either side, a lintel or head jamb at the top, and perhaps a threshold at the bottom. When a door has more than one movable panel, one of the panels may be called a leaf.
See door furniture for a discussion of attachments to doors such as doorhandles and doorknobs. Doors are also found in cupboards and other furniture, cages, and vehicles.
A flush door is a completely smooth door, having plywood or MDF fixed over a light timber frame, the hollow parts of which are often filled with a cardboard core material. Flush doors are most commonly employed in the interior of a dwelling, although slightly more substantial versions are occasionally used as exterior doors, especially within hotels and other buildings containing many independent dwellings.
A moulded door has the same structure as that of flush door. The only difference is that the surface material is a moulded skin made of HDF / MDF. It is commonly used as interior doors.
A ledge and brace door is a door made from multiple vertical planks fixed together by two horizontal planks (the ledges) and kept square by a diagonal plank (the brace).
A garden door is any door that opens to a garden or backyard. It is often used specifically for double French doors in place of a sliding glass door. In such a configuration, it has the advantage of a very large opening for moving large objects in and out.
A pet door is an opening in a door to allow pets to enter and exit without the main door being opened. It may be simply covered by a rubber flap or it may be an actual door hinged on the top that the pet can push through. Pet doors may be mounted in a sliding glass door as a new (permanent or temporary) panel. Pet doors may be unidirectional, only allowing pets to exit. Pet doors may be electronic, only allowing pets with a special electronic tag to enter.
A bifold door is door unit that has 2 to 4 sections, folding in pairs. The doors can open from either side for one pair, or fold off both sides for two pairs. Wood is the most common material, and doors may also be metal or glass. Bifolds are most commonly made for closets, but may also be used as units between rooms.
A bypass door is a door unit that has 2 or more sections. The doors can slide from each direction on an overhead track, sliding past each other. They are most commonly used in closets, in order to access one side of the closet at a time. The doors in a bypass unit will overlap slightly, in order not to have a gap between them.
A pocket door is a door that slides on rails, rather than swinging on hinges, and, when opened, slides into an open cavity within a wall.
A sliding glass door, sometimes called an Arcadia door, is a door made of glass that slides open and sometimes has a screen. Sliding glass doors are common in many houses, particularly as an entrance to the backyard. Such doors are also popular for use for the entrances to commercial structures.
A false door is a wall decoration that looks like a door. In ancient Egyptian architecture, this was a common element in a tomb, the false door representing a gate to the afterlife. They can also be found in the funerary architecture of the desert tribes (e.g., Libyan Ghirza). It may have influenced the mihrab in a mosque.
A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors (wings/leaves) that hang on a center shaft and rotate one way about a vertical axis. Between the point of access and the point of exit the user walks through an airlock. The door may be motorized, or manually people use pushbars. People can walk out and into the building at the same time. Revolving doors are a good air seal from the outside. Also minimize A/C and Heating Costs climate control from the building. This type of door is also often seen as a mark of prestige and glamour for a building and it not unusual for neighbouring buildings to install their own revolving doors when a rival building gets one.
A Butterfly Door is so-called because of its two "wings". It consists of a double-wide panel with its rotation axle in the centre, effectively creating two separate openings when the door is opened. Butterfly doors are made to rotate open in one direction (usually counterclockwise), and rotate closed in the opposite direction. The door is not equipped with handles, so it is a "push" door. This is for safety, because if it could open in both directions, someone approaching the door might be caught off guard by someone else opening the other side, thus impacting the first person. Such doors are popular in public transit stations, as it has a large capacity, and when the door is opened, traffic passing in both directions keeps the door open. They are particularily popular in underground subway stations, because they are heavy, and when air currents are created by the movement of trains, the force will be applied to both wings of the door, thus equalizing the force on either side, keeping the door shut.
Automatic doors are powered open and closed, a door fitted with a spring to close it is not an automatic door. There are three methods by which an automatic door is activated.
Inward opening doors are doors that can only be opened or forced open from outside a building. Such doors pose a substantial fire risk to occupants of occupied buildings when they are locked. As such doors can only be forced open from the outside, those within buildings are prevented from escape, unless people outside the building can force the doors open and off their hinges as there is no way to lever a door open from inside.
1 - A sensor detects traffic is approaching. Sensors for automatic doors are generally:
- A pressure sensor - a floor mat which reacts to the pressure of someone standing on it.
- An infrared curtain or beam which shines invisible light onto sensors; if someone or something blocks the beam the door can open.
- A motion sensor which uses low-power microwave radar.
- An electronic sensor (e.g. based on infrared or radio waves) can be triggered by something that someone carries, or is installed inside a vehicle. These are popular for garage doors.
2 - A switch is operated manually, perhaps after security checks. This can be a push button switch or a swipe card.
3 - The user pushes, or pulls the door, once the door detects the movement it completes the open and close cycle. These are also known as power-assisted doors.
In addition to activate sensors automatic doors are generally fitted with safety sensors. These are usually an infrared curtain or beam, but can be a pressure mat fitted on the swing side of the door. The purpose of the safety sensor is to prevent the door opening or slow its speed if an object is detected in its path whilst opening and to prevent the door closing or reactivate it if an object is detected in its path whilst closing.
Heron of Alexandria created the earliest known automatic door in the 1st century AD. Later in the 13th century, al-Jazari created more elaborate automatic gates.[2]
Blast-proof doors, nuclear-blast proof doors, etc.
A tambour door is made of narrow horizontal slats and rolls up and down along vertical tracks and is typically found in entertainment centres and cabinets.
A selfbolting door is a door that has special hinges that allows a door leaf to slide into the place of the bolt after complete closing.
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