Architects have designed door openings with safety in mind for generations. Fire ratings, hinges, locks, panic bars, and closers were about as complex as it got. But with the dramatic increase in demand for electronic security systems, card readers, electric strikes, electrified locks, and door position switches make these openings into complex machines. These devices can all show up on the plans and be clearly specified, but with all the various trades involved, these openings are still subject to confusion, errors and omissions. When the scope of each trade is not clear in the documents, overlaps or gaps often occur.
Neither of these scenarios are good for the project, your client, and the architect’s reputation. By the time the installers arrive to wire those devices, interpretations have already been made by upstream trades that can turn a straightforward job into a difficult one. This blog is about giving architects some insights that can dramatically improve installations, save money, and eliminate potential accusations and E and O claims.
The Frame Is Not Ready for What You Specified
Specifying wired hardware does not necessarily mean the hollow metal door frame is actually prepared to receive the wiring for it.
Hollow metal door frames have been in use for over 120 years, and to this day there is no industry standard for how access control wiring should be installed inside them. A device can be fully documented on the plans and still arrive at a frame that has no wiring pathway, no termination point, and no accommodation for the wires it needs. What the architect specified and what the fabricator built end up being two different things, because the wiring pathway was never fully documented. The installers inherit the difference, but with multiple trades involved, they frequently default to their individual techniques, creating gaps, overlaps and conflicts. In today’s world, this is extremely inefficient, expensive, and unnecessary.
The Decisions Deferred to the End Are the Ones That Cause Problems
Some access control devices are handled cleanly because they live in the door hardware schedule. The ones that cause trouble are the ones that do not.
Door position switches and card readers are frequently specified in the electronic safety and security specification, or furnished directly by the owner. Often owners want to make these decisions at the end of construction. When that happens, they may never make it into the hardware sets that the frame fabricator works from. The fabricator has no way to account for a device they were never told about, so the frame gets built without a pathway for it. Back boxes end up in the wrong location, wiring pathways are missing, and the installer is left solving a problem that doesn’t need to happen. Every device that will mount on or near that frame, regardless of which section specifies it, needs to be coordinated into the hardware sets before fabrication begins.
What Proper Specification Actually Looks Like
The fix is straightforward, and it lives entirely at the specification stage. Each access control device should be identified by type and location in the hardware sets, including the devices that fall outside the traditional door hardware scope. When the frame fabricator can see every device that will touch the frame, they can prep for all of them.
Frame Frog makes this coordination clear and specific.. It is a wiring pathway that installs inside the hollow metal frame and serves as the wiring back box, giving every specified device a clean, protected route for its wires. Specified alongside each device in the hardware set, it tells the fabricator exactly where the pathway needs to be. And because Frame Frog accommodates the full range of devices, from electric strikes and electrified locks to card readers, electric power transfers, and door position switches, a single approach covers the entire opening. By tying these boxes together within the frame, the electrician only needs one drop to each frame, connected to one Frame Frog. The pathway is now comprehensive and complete. More importantly, the point of connection defines where the electrician’s work begins, and the frame pathway ends, eliminating 15 feet or more of excessive electrical conduit and wiring home runs up to the ceiling. Frame Frog Kits package everything a frame needs into one unit, which keeps specification and procurement simple.
If access control is not in the project’s current scope but may be added later, Frame Frog can be specified for future use with the location noted in the hardware set, so the frame is ready when the time comes to install the wires, without any need to remove the frame or open the surrounding wall finishes. The How to Specify Frame Frog guide walks through exactly how to write this into construction documents and coordinate it across the relevant spec sections.
A Small Spec Decision That Changes Everything Downstream
When a frame arrives on site with a proper wiring pathway already built in, everything downstream gets easier. The installers do not have to improvise. The general contractor does not have to manage a back-box conflict. Coordination meetings become clear, concise and nonconfrontational. The security integrator terminates at a device that is ready to receive it. The project does not absorb a delay, and nobody has to make the phone call that starts with bad news.
Specifying access control wiring correctly is a small decision at the design stage that eliminates a large and predictable problem at the installation stage. It is also the difference between a set of documents that used to be adequate for a simpler world, and a set of plans that reflect today’s complex reality and prepares for the changing future. Architects can find more detail on the For Architects page, or contact the Frame Frog team or request a demo to see how it fits into your next project.