From facility owners to care home administrators and even maintenance staff, everyone involved in the management of senior living environments would agree that wall protection is an important part of keeping interiors fresh and hygienic in the medium to long term.
Visit any care home in Canada and you’ll see wall sheeting, bumper rails and corner guards in place, protecting the walls from scuffs, scrapes and stains and making them easier to keep clean. But what about door frame guards?
As a business, we’re often asked by contractors and designers to collaborate on their interior specialty specifications – and we never cease to be amazed at the tendency to forget about door frame guards when building new care homes, or renovating existing ones.
Perhaps it’s because door frames are considered as a form of wall protection in their own right, or perhaps it’s because they can be repainted or replaced, but a significant proportion of care homes don’t include door frame protection in their interior specialty plans.
The reality is that door frames are even more vulnerable to damage than walls, because doorways are narrow spaces that are tricky to navigate, especially when using wheeled equipment. Like corners, door frames often show wear and tear long before wall surfaces – and while they can be replaced, the frequency of this damage in a busy nursing environment means it’s just not practical to be removing steel frames and repainting on a regular basis.
Why protect door frames?
As well as looking unsightly, damaged door frames can have practical and safety implications for staff and residents. Damaged door frames can be a safety hazard if it’s scraped or sharp, and also because it’s porous and virtually impossible to disinfect. A damaged door frame can also lead to problems with the opening and closing of the door itself, resulting in privacy breaches.
In the absence of door frame guards, a new or recently-refurbished care home is left with a weak spot in its interior surface protection. While walls, corners and even the doors themselves stay fresh and hygienic, the door frames can deteriorate fast – undoing much of the good work and leading to interiors that look tired and run down much more quickly. Installing door frame guards as part of your overall wall protection is a smart, easy and cost-effective way to ensure a seamless interior finish.
So what are the options?
Belroc offers two main types of door frame guards depending on the level of protection required:
Heavy Duty Door Frame Guards
Heavy duty door frame guards are designed for use in locations where door frames are subjected to heavy wear and tear, for example on main internal entrance and exit doors, and doorways into communal or operational areas including washrooms, dining rooms, kitchens, laundries and more. These door frame guards are manufactured from aluminium with a vinyl or PVC-free polymer outer casing that can be matched to suit the wider interior colour scheme. Resembling a corner guard, they wrap around the door jamb right up to the door stop, for heavy duty protection against impacts from through traffic. These guards can be fitted individually to offer customised protection where it’s needed most.
Custom Formed Door Frame Guards
Custom formed door frame guards offer robust protection against everyday wear and tear and are designed to cover the entire door frame profile on both sides, usually from just below the strike plate down to the floor. They’re suitable for all applications and particularly well-adapted for doors that open both ways, since they protect both sides of the frame in one. Custom formed door frame guards are manufactured from vinyl or our eco-friendly, PVC-free BioBlend® polymer and are thermoformed to the exact profile of your door frame for a neat, almost invisible finish.
We’ve been in this business long enough to know how much expense and upheaval care homes can avoid simply by installing door frame guards during new build and renovation projects. If you’re not seeing them specified on your next project, it’s time to ask why! Contact Dan Lawrenson today to find out more about the benefits – email [email protected].
