August 2005

Volume 6 Issue 7 August 2005

WDMA OPENS UP

Garnering Great Interest
Architectural Door Specification Draws a Crowd
by Jeffrey F. Lowinski

Launched as a revised and newly updated standard, I.S. 1A-2004 — Industry Specifica-tion for Architectural Wood Flush Doors celebrates its first year. In that short time, it has grabbed the attention of the industry, especially the architectural and design community.

That’s just what the Window and Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA) intended. The rewrite transformed an existing, outdated document into a real-world specification designed to ultimately boost the performance and application of top-quality interior architectural flush doors.

Standard is Well-Received
David San Paolo, technical director of The Maiman Company in Springfield, Mo., and a member of WDMA’s I.S. 1A Task Force Group, was one of many who worked intensely on targeting the standard so it could be applied successfully in the commercial market.

San Paolo reported the standard has been recognized by architects and specifiers, and added that it has been referenced in the latest edition of MASTERSPEC®, an Arcom product of the American Institute of Architects.

Harry Reichwald, chair of the I.S. 1A Task Force Group and executive vice president and general manager of Eggers Industries, said the specification is already being applied.
“The standard has been well-received. One of the challenges is to educate the architectural community about its availability and its preferred use,” said Reichwald. Specifiers need to understand the duty levels within the standard and when each one should be referenced. This is foreign to them now and is a huge task as we go forward.”

Moving Toward Performance
The standard represents the continuation of a movement by WDMA and the industry away from prescriptive design specifications to performance-based standards that accurately reflect the application in which doors, windows and skylight products are installed.

Integral to I.S. 1A are performance duty levels and values. Previous industry standards had dealt with aesthetic grades (premium or custom) while the new standard now adds standard, heavy duty and extra heavy duty guidelines. While the performance section of the standard is the major new focus, four additional species were added to the veneer grading tables, which were adapted from the Hardwood Plywood and Veneer Association; positive pressure fire door wording was added; the finishing section was completed revised and expanded; and a specification checklist was added.

The eight performance attributes that classify a door and its construction into the various levels include:
• Adhesive Bond: Determines the performance of adhesive bonds in doors under accelerated aging conditions;
• Cycle Slam: Determines the physical endurance of wood doors and associated hardware connections under accelerated operating conditions;
• Hinge Loading: Determines the ability of a door stile to resist the horizontal withdraw of an attached hinge;
• Door Finishes: Determines the effectiveness of door finishes to resist wear due to abrasion under conditions which accelerate actual in-service wear;
• Screwholding: Determines the ability of door components to resist the withdrawal of a screw perpendicular to the component;
• Telegraphing: Determines minimum differential offset of core components that are visible on the face of the door;
• Warp Tolerance: Determines the allowable variation from a flat plane within the door surface; and
• Squareness: Determines the allow-able differential in squareness.

I.S. 1A will stand alongside 101/I.S.2/A440 Specifications for Windows, Doors and Unit Skylights, providing a complete compendium of performance-based specifications for interior and exterior use. In addition, I.S. 1A will soon become part of a groundbreaking new classification program under WDMA’s Hallmark Certification Program.

Jeffrey F. Lowinski serves as acting president of the Window and Door Manufacturers Association based in Des Plaines, Ill.