What is a slave leaf door?

The slave leaf (also known as a ‘half leaf’ or ‘inactive leaf’) can be defined as the door that is mostly inactive in a set of double doors. Normally found in corridors of hospitals or offices, and kept locked in the closed position. However, this part of the double door may be opened when a large item needs to pass through – hospital beds and large equipment, or for furniture movement of in a office setting.

The problem

The main issue that many hospitals or offices face in regards to slave leaf doors is that doors get left open, and safety notices ignored. Inactive leaf doors must perform just as well as active doors in preventing the spread of fire and smoke, but leaving doors open compromises their ability to do this.

Common practice is to simply sign a door as ‘Fire Door – Keep Locked’, and fit bolts to secure the slave leaf shut in an attempt to keep fire safety measures in place. However, these signs are often left unheard or ignored, with fire doors left open, and lives at risk.

Rutland’s solution

To remove the risk, our recommended solution is to fit a door closer to the slave leaf. Because many people associate door closers with full-size doors, it’s a common misconception that door closers can not be used to keep half-leaf doors shut.

It is, in fact, perfectly possible to fit closers to half-leaf doors. The skill is in knowing which specific closer is best for any situation, given the various sizes of half-leaf doors. The key factors to consider are the available space for closing mechanisms, and the power required to close doors of different sizes.

More information can be found in our whitepaper.

Minimum door widths

This guide demonstrates the minimum width each Rutland door closer is designed to close, on both the pull and push side.