Door and Ironmongery Schedules: Small Items That Delay Handover

Doors are low value, high count and heavily dependent on other trades. That combination is why they so often become the last thing stopping a project from finishing.

A door is not a product but an assembly: leaf, frame, architrave, hinges, lock, handle, closer, stop, seals and sometimes a fire or acoustic rating that depends on all of them being correct together. Multiply that across twenty or forty openings, give each one a different requirement, and order it late, and you have the most reliable source of handover delay in interior work.

Why these keep happening

Doors sit at the intersection of three trades and two procurement routes. The frame goes in with the partitions, the leaf arrives much later, and the ironmongery often comes from a different supplier again. Nobody owns the assembly. Because each item is individually cheap, doors are treated as a detail and scheduled last, by which point the lead times for anything non-standard have already passed. The consequences are disproportionate: a single missing closer on a fire door can hold an inspection, and a frame set at the wrong width makes every later item in the opening wrong.

1. Scheduling the doors after the partitions are built

Frame type determines partition detail. Concealed frames need the partition to be built around them and cannot be retrofitted; standard frames need the opening dimension to match the frame, not the leaf. When the schedule arrives after the walls are up, openings have been formed to whatever dimension the site assumed, and the remedy is either to accept a door narrower than intended or to rebuild the opening.

• Avoid it by: Issue the door schedule with the partition drawings and state the structural opening size required for each frame type.
• Proof it is closed: Each opening on the partition plan carries a door reference and a stated structural opening dimension.

What it costs you: Reworked openings, narrower doors than designed, and concealed frame details abandoned because the partition cannot now accept them.

2. Describing performance without specifying the tested assembly

Fire and acoustic performance belongs to a complete tested assembly, not to a leaf. A rated door depends on the leaf, the frame, the intumescent seals, the hinges, the closing device and the correct gap tolerances all being as tested. Writing a rating into a schedule and leaving the components to be assembled from whatever is available produces a door that looks compliant and has no evidential basis. The gap appears at inspection, which is the worst moment to discover it.

• Avoid it by: Specify rated openings as a complete assembly with its certification, and require the certification to be submitted before order.
• Proof it is closed: Certification for each rated assembly is on file and the installed hardware matches the tested specification exactly.

What it costs you: Failed inspection, replacement of complete door assemblies late in the programme and a delay to occupation.

3. Ordering ironmongery separately from the doors

Split procurement creates a gap nobody owns. Hinge quantity and type depend on leaf weight and size; lock case dimensions depend on the leaf construction; closer sizes depend on leaf width and the force required. When the leaves come from one supplier and the hardware from another, each assumes the other has confirmed compatibility, and the mismatch is discovered during installation when programme pressure is highest.

• Avoid it by: Issue a combined door and ironmongery schedule and require one supplier to confirm compatibility of every set in writing.
• Proof it is closed: A signed compatibility confirmation exists per opening, referencing leaf weight, lock case and closer size.

What it costs you: Doors that cannot be hung, morticing carried out on site to make items fit, and replacement hardware ordered at short notice.

4. Using multiple ironmongery suites without a reason

Different handle, lock and hinge families across a project multiply the item count, the lead times and the spares you must keep, with no gain unless the areas genuinely differ in use. The cost appears twice: once at procurement, where small quantities of many lines are bought inefficiently, and again in maintenance, where a failed handle in year four cannot be matched and a whole area has to be changed to stay consistent.

• Avoid it by: Standardise on one suite, with a second only where a genuine difference in use or security justifies it.
• Proof it is closed: The schedule shows the number of distinct suites and the stated reason for each one beyond the first.

What it costs you: Higher procurement cost, longer lead times and an inability to match a replacement item within a few years.

5. Ignoring the clearances that doors need to function

A door needs space to open, somewhere to stop, clearance over the finished floor and clearance from switches, radiators and furniture. Plans often show a door swing without showing what it hits. Threshold clearance is a particularly common oversight where a thick floor finish is laid after the frames are set, leaving a leaf that fouls the floor or has to be trimmed, which on a rated door may invalidate its certification.

• Avoid it by: Check every swing against the furniture and services layout, and set frames to the finished floor level rather than the slab.
• Proof it is closed: Finished floor levels are confirmed to the frame installer in writing before frames are fixed.

What it costs you: Doors trimmed on site, leaves fouling floor finishes, handles striking adjacent walls and rated doors compromised by alteration.

6. Leaving seals, stops and closers off the schedule

The small accessories are the ones that make a door usable and are the ones most often omitted. A door without a stop damages the wall within weeks; a door between a noisy and a quiet space without acoustic seals transmits far more than expected; a self-closing door without the right device either slams or fails to latch. Each item is inexpensive, and each is a separate procurement line that has to exist in order to be bought.

• Avoid it by: Make the schedule list every component of every opening, including stop, seals, closer, threshold and signage where required.
• Proof it is closed: A component count per opening is reconciled against the delivered hardware before installation starts.

What it costs you: Damaged walls, doors that do not latch, noise transfer between rooms and a snag list full of small items at handover.

7. Handing over without keys, cylinders and a locking plan

Locking is a system rather than a set of items. Who needs access to what, which doors are master keyed, which are on a restricted suite and how keys are issued and recorded all have to be decided before cylinders are ordered. Projects that defer this end up rekeying after handover, and in a commercial fit-out the absence of a locking plan can delay occupation while access is arranged.

• Avoid it by: Produce a locking and key plan naming every door, its cylinder type and who holds which key, before cylinders are ordered.
• Proof it is closed: A signed key issue register exists at handover, matching the locking plan door by door.

What it costs you: Rekeying after completion, temporary cylinders, and a security arrangement nobody can document or control.

A short check before you sign

• Check that every opening on the partition plan carries a door reference and a structural opening dimension.
• Confirm certification is on file for each rated assembly and that the installed hardware matches the tested specification.
• Verify one supplier has confirmed leaf, lock and closer compatibility for every opening in writing.
• Count the distinct ironmongery suites and require a stated reason for each one beyond the first.
• Confirm finished floor levels were issued to the frame installer before frames were fixed.
• Reconcile the delivered hardware against a component count per opening, including stops, seals and closers.

If it has already happened

If doors are already holding the programme, separate the openings into three groups: those that only need missing accessories, those that need a compatible component substituted, and those where a rated assembly cannot be evidenced. The first group is a procurement exercise and can usually be closed quickly. The second needs the supplier to confirm compatibility before anything is modified, because trimming or morticing a leaf on site can void both a warranty and a performance rating. The third is the serious group: an opening whose fire performance cannot be evidenced should be addressed with a qualified engineer and the relevant civil defence requirements rather than argued about commercially. Requirements for fire-rated openings and means of escape are periodically revised, so confirm the current position for your building with the relevant authority at the time you act, and take any liability question to a licensed legal adviser.

Domira designs and delivers interiors as part of the building, not after it: the finishing schedule, the joinery and the services coordination that decide whether a space looks built or assembled. Share the space and Domira will tell you what it would specify and what it would leave out.