"Rich Grise" wrote in message
...
Stormin Mormon wrote:

I was at a church building, Friday night. We were
having a quiet moment, and people were coming
in and out. (end of a meeting). Big wood door,
with hydraulic closer. The passage set is a commercial
large rose, probably Yale. I neglected to check the
backset. Half inch throw latch, not deadlatching.
T-strike. Finish is 26d.

When the door closes, the latch makes a loud
clack. If people are trying to be quiet, that is
gosh awful distracting.

Is there a heavy duty commercial passage latch,
that's not noisy?

Is it the kind of latch with a panic bar on the inside?
I've seen them able to retract the latch, so that it acts
like there's no latch at all. Many years ago, I saw the
school janitor do this to one of the doors using an Allen
wrench. It should be legal to leave the door "flapping in
the breeze," so to speak, (the closer would keep it from
actually flapping) as long as there's somebody inside, but
the last person out would have to re-latch it, of course.

And if it does have this feature, obviously you have to
have somebody who knows how to do it. ;-)

Good Luck!
Rich

Panic bars can be "dogged open" with an allen key. Push on the bar, insert
the allen and turn it to engage. Since the door has a hydraulic closer, the
fire marshal will be fine with it. Actually it would be a big improvement
for fire egress. Good panic bars can be very expensive and you have to match
the outside lever set. Ebay might be the way to go.