The Door Jamb Area - Back & Front

Door Hinge Guards For Safety Are Required

When we hear of someone who has caught their fingers or hand in a door and has a resulting injury, we generally think that they must have had their hand around the area where the door handle is and that the door has slammed on them. This is an occurrence unfortunately (and yes we do have a product for that problem), but one of the more dangerous causes, and just as common if not more, is the DOOR JAMB HINGE area of the door. We tend to pay less attention to this high risk area when we have our hands hovering around it, and because we are not expecting it the injury can be more nasty. For children and toddlers it is even more dangerous due to the facts that their fingers and hands are much smaller and fragile and also because they would be less aware of the dangers a door can present. WATCH VIDEO BELOW – 

THE DOOR JAMB HINGE area consists of two sides. The wide door jamb gap - normally the push side, and the narrow hinge gap - normally the pull side of the door. These two photos illustrate exactly what I am referring to:

The wide gap of the door jamb on the push side is by far the most common area where fingers become trapped due to the ease of accessibility for digits into this space, particularly when we are least expecting it. But especially for young children who are naturally adventurous and curious, they tend to use their hands and fingers to investigate further and in the case of doors, sometimes with drastic and painful consequences.

However, the narrow gap on the hinge side (pull side of the door) can also present its own danger point. It can sometimes be neglected when it comes to safety proofing the door. Because the gap can be negligible when the door is closed, it suddenly becomes enlarged when the door is open and presents itself more for a toddler or young child who may be positioned behind the door to possibly try and insert their small fingers into it. The injuries caused can be just as bad as the wide gap on the other side. The image (above right) shows what I am referring to when the door is open and the pencil being the approximate size of a child’s finger is able to fit through the gap.

The wide gap of the door jamb would always require a guard cover because of easy access for the hand and finger to slip into it, but what about the narrow gap hinge side? Naturally because cost can be an unwelcome part of our consideration when it comes to safety proofing, a question arises on whether we need to use a Finger Protector Door Hinge Guard strip on the narrow gap hinge side of the door. What may help in assessing this is to look at the position of the door in the room. If the door is opening against another wall i.e. it is in the corner of the room, it may be not too easy for a child to be behind the door to put their finger in the gap, or at least the chances for them to do so are slimmer when the door is being opened or closed – it would be more a case of the child getting bumped by the door when it is being opened.  If the door though is positioned partially along a wall, it is then possible for the child to be behind the door when it is opening and closing and have the opportunity to place their fingers near or into the gap as the door is being opened or closed. My own advice would be to err on the side of caution and also install Finger Protector Door Hinge Guard strips on the hinge side of the door but if it is a case of trying to keep within a budget then it may be that you have to be selective about the doors whose narrow gaps on the pull side of the doors are covered along with the essential covering of the wide door jamb gap. The two images below show what I mean about the position of the door along the wall.

HOW DO I SELECT THE RIGHT PRODUCT FOR MY NEEDS?

The Finger Protection Transparent Door Hinge Safety Guard Strips come in two lengths. 1.2m & 1.8m. The 1.2m length is fine for children in your care under the age of 4 years old.

The transparent Finger Protectors are for standard wooden doors only that open no more than 110 degrees. The doors should be no thicker than 5 cm. They are suitable for small creches & montessories as well as for use at home and are our most economical.

• They are SKG-IKOB® Certified (EN16654 & NEN8654).

• The strips have been tested for over 250,000 openings.

• Transparent so matches any colour interior.

• They are not suitable for PVC or metal doors.

The Finger Protection PRO 180 Door Hinge Safety Guard Strips come in 1.8m length and are white in colour which are available to buy online. We can also acquire for you on special order 1.95m & 2.29m lengths and Anthracite or Silver Grey colour if required. Please contact us for these special lengths and colours.

The PRO strips are more heavy duty and suitable for PVC & metal doors as well as wooden fire doors that open up to 180 degrees.

• SKG-IKOB® certified (EN16654 & NEN8654)

• The strips have been tested for 1.000.000 door openings and closures ( four times more than our more economical transparent strips BUT NOT four times the price )

• Suitable for doors up to 7 cm thick. Maximum opening angle of door may decrease the thicker the door.

• Suitable for doors with a maximum opening no more than 20 cm between the door edge and door frame edge. Maximum opening angle of door may decrease the wider the gap.

• Fire Retardant as per UL94 Norm

• For more door type detail please click here (swing doors, Pivot doors, Automatic swing doors etc)

The Finger Protection EXTREME PRO 180 Door Hinge Safety Guard Strips are like the PRO 180 above but for doors which have an much wider opening gap of more than 20 cm between the door edge and door frame edge.

INSTALLATION

The strips are first attached using the adhesive tape already applied to them. We then recommend the use of small screws spaced approx 30cm apart if they are being used in creches, schools and buildings where the public roam. If being used in the domestic household there is generally no need for screwing them in. We do not supply the screws. You can buy these very cheaply off your local hardware store and they would be only happy to advise which type of screw to use depending on the type of surface they are being used for i.e. aluminium, PVC, wood, etc. The average time for a non DIY enthusiast to install these is 5 to 10 mins per strip. There are videos on each product page that give a broad overview of the installation process. The products are delivered with detailed installation instructions. Please note that we do not carry out installations. These are easy DIY install products.

WHY CHOOSE OUR FINGER PROTECTION PRODUCTS?

Quite simply because it is German TUV and Dutch SKG-IKOB certified and the very best on the market for its price. Durable and an easy DIY installation. The transparent strips have been tested for over 250,000 openings – That’s the equivalent of a door being opened 137 times a day over 5 years. The White PRO strips have been tested for over 1 million opening and closings, 4 x times that of the more economical transparent strips but not 4 x times the price ;-)

Please read our testimonials to see what our genuine happy customers have been saying. Many times we would get orders based on the high recommendations of our previous customers.

Finally, we have a selection guide flowchart that will help direct you to the correct finger protector for your doors. Click below link

https://www.fingerprotection.ie/finger-protection-selection-guide

Happy Fingers

As I mentioned at the beginning, SLAMMING DOORS on the handle side of the door are normally what we think of when we hear of finger injuries from doors. We do have a product for that in our range called Happy Fingers. Besides it’s main purpose of preventing a door slamming completely closed on our hand or fingers, it’s other job is to visually alert us to the risk of this possibility. The white hard foam hand brings our intention (children too) to the danger of getting our hand too close to the edge of a fast moving door. Its advantage over the cheaper door foam hooks that we see on doors is that it is fixed permanently to the door and will not be lost. So as not to be of interference and prevent the door from the ability of ever closing it has a simple twist mechanism that like an on/off switch allows it to be positioned to allow for complete closure of the door when necessary. A very useful safety product when windows and other doors are open around the building and air circulating can cause the doors to unexpectedly slam closed. 

To buy online please click SHOP

We now also sell Corner & Edge Guards, Child Proof Mirrors, Safer Coat Hangers

BEWARE OF INFERIOR SIMILAR PRODUCTS

We offer a professional high quality, EU tested and certified product made in Europe that gives a greater durability compared to other cheaper inferior products on the market. Many of our clients come to us after mistakenly buying these inferior products and having failed in a short time.

For more than 18 years we have been the choice of over 4000 schools and creches in Ireland who have come to us because of our solid reputation for best product and aftersales back-up.