Door Signs

Door identification plates for commercial buildings

Worth saying plainly: most door signs are not statutory. Reception, office, manager, staff only, private, storeroom, deliveries, enquiries, please ring, keep door closed — no code requires them and no certifier will ask for them. They exist because a building that does not have them is harder to use.

That has one useful consequence. Because the wording is not prescribed, it is free. Everything here is made to order, so a legend that does not appear in the range is no harder to produce than one that does.

The range

Around thirty stock legends covering the usual commercial set: reception, office, manager, employees, staff only, private, no admittance, no entry, no exit, exit, please enter, please ring, ring for service, deliveries, enquiries, storeroom, cleaner, switchboard, quarantine, site office, slide, please close the door, keep door closed, no hawkers, beware of the dog, and amenities — toilet, shower, ladies.

All are supplied at 600 × 100mm horizontal at $35, in satin natural anodised aluminium, composite ACM silver brushed or composite ACM white.

Where the statutory line falls

Two exceptions are worth knowing, because they look like door signs and are not.

The first is accessible sanitary facilities. A toilet that forms part of a building's accessible provision needs tactile characters and braille, which is governed by AS 1428.1 — raised lettering, a defined braille zone and a specified mounting height. A printed or engraved plate does not satisfy it. Those are in the braille and tactile range, not here.

The second is fire and smoke doors. A door forming part of a fire-resisting construction carries its own signage requirements under the National Construction Code, and the plates are specific in wording. Those sit in the fire door range.

Everything else on a commercial door is yours to decide.

Specifying a consistent set

The common mistake is ordering door plates one at a time as rooms get used, which ends in three finishes on one corridor. If the building is new or being refitted, take the set off the door schedule in one go — it reads better, it costs less per sign once bulk pricing applies, and the finish matches.

• SNA aluminium — specified on most commercial door schedules; the safest match for lever hardware and hinges.
• ACM silver brushed — visually similar, lower cost, sensible for back-of-house.
• ACM white — the highest-contrast option, and the easiest to read in a dim corridor.