Wall & Corner Guards
CSI Division 10, Specialties
Protective strips or corner guards, made of stainless steel, PVC, or rubber, mounted on walls and outside corners in high-traffic areas, such as hospital corridors, loading docks, and school hallways, to prevent damage from carts, gurneys, and equipment impacts, distinct from cosmetic trim since their whole purpose is absorbing repeated abuse.
Why it matters
Specifying the right guard for actual traffic, a hospital gurney corridor needs a heavier-duty guard than an office hallway, protects finishes from becoming an ongoing repair cost the owner has to keep paying for after occupancy.
On a real project
A hospital corridor gets stainless steel corner guards and continuous bumper rails rated for repeated gurney impacts, rather than the lighter PVC guards specified for the same building's administrative office wing.
Who this matters most to
A Carpenter installs the guards. A Facilities Manager ends up dealing with ongoing wall damage and repair costs if guards were under-specified for the traffic a corridor actually sees.
Where this goes wrong
A general contractor value-engineers a hospital's specified stainless corner guards down to a lighter PVC option without getting owner sign-off on the change. Gurney traffic dents and cracks the PVC guards within the first year, and the owner ends up paying out of pocket to replace them with the heavier guards originally specified.
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