Glossary

Door jamb: The leaf’s hinges are attached to the door jamb, which includes two vertical's and a top horizontal.

Door handing: This term relates to how the door swings open.  There are many confusing ways that this can be explained, but we like to make it easy.

  1. With the door CLOSED, stand (or imagine you are standing) on the side where you will have to PULL THE DOOR TOWARD YOU to open it
  2. Observe (or imagine) which  side of the door is (or will be) hinged
    • If the hinges are on the left, the door is left hung
    • If the hinges are on the right, the door is right hun

You can mark this on our detail sheet where we use the same logic.  

101 hanging

The only time you have to take ‘open in’ or ‘open out’ into consideration is if you want us to supply your prehung door with a fitted sill. Call us on (09) 579-8895 and we’ll help you with that.

Door leaf: The part of a door that swings open and shut.

Fire door: A complete unit made up of the leaf, jamb, seals and hinges that are all appropriate to the door’s fire rating.

Fire window: A complete unit made up of the glass, jamb, and seals that are all appropriate to the window’s  fire rating.

Hung door: The assembled leaf, hinges and frame.

Installation tolerances: Allowed gaps, see installation details

Active vs Passive leaf:  In a double-leaf door the active leaf is the one to which the latching or locking mechanism is attached.  The latching mechanism engages with the passive leaf when the pair of leafs is closed.  When In service the active leaf is the first of the pair to open and the last to close. 

STC rating:  Sound transmission class rating, which identifies how much sound is transmitted by a building element, such as a wall, floor, door or window.

Trim size: Also known as the ‘hole in the wall’ this refers to the dimensions of the prepared opening for a door or window. Our leaf/trim calculator will help you match the leaf and trim sizes.

Trim Opening

Window: A standalone unit not connected to a doorset. When attached to fire rated doors, they are defined as a sidelight or overlight. Because windows have different regulations covering their dimensions and use as compared to sidelights and overlights, they are covered here in a separate section.