Jersey City, NJ Building Safety: Door Locking Hardware (2026)

§ 254-38 of Chapter 254, Article VII sets Jersey City's egress-door standards for every dwelling and rooming unit. Subsection A requires a safe, unobstructed primary means of egress from every floor to open space accessible to a street, and Subsection B requires a separate secondary exit by doorway, stairway, protected passageway or openable window. Subsection F, 'Access to exit,' is the operative locking-hardware rule: access to any required exit shall not necessitate passage through any other dwelling unit, and no exit may be subject to locking by any device which impedes or prevents ready egress, meaning deadbolts, chains or other hardware requiring a key or tool to exit are barred on doors in the path of egress.

Subsection G, 'Door in path of egress,' adds physical dimensions: any such door must be at least 30 inches wide with a minimum 6-foot-6-inch height, kept free from obstruction and accessible from common hallways or areaways, and must swing in the direction of travel if it leads to a fire escape or sits in a tenement built after 1904 or any dwelling converted after 1951. Subsection H extends the same no-obstruction principle to egress windows, which must be at least 36 by 34 inches, easy to open, and free of screens or storm windows that can't be readily opened or removed in an emergency.

Article VIII's § 254-46 separately requires self-locking, self-closing entrance doors in buildings of four or more units, but even those systems must be maintained so they don't trap occupants inside, since § 254-38F's ready-egress rule applies chapter-wide.