The 600 x 300mm rectangular panel suits long, shallow service runs, duct branches and narrow openings where a square hatch would waste wall space. Order it hinged on the long or short side to suit the job, with fire rated options available. Check your opening against the fitting tolerance shown below before ordering.
The value of this panel sits in the 300mm dimension. Wherever the space you can give up is tight in one direction and generous in the other, a rectangle gives you a working aperture in a position where a square panel simply will not go.
Situations where it is the obvious shape:
The quieter advantage is how much finished surface you disturb. This opening is half the area of a 600 x 600 access panel, so there is less to make good, less to notice on a decorated wall and less structure to trim around. If the work behind it genuinely needs two hands at depth, take the larger size anyway. If it does not, the smaller aperture is the better result.
A rectangular panel forces a decision a square one never asks you to make: which way round it goes, and which edge the door works from. Both are worth settling at ordering stage rather than on site with the panel out of the box.
Sizes are written as two figures, and 600 x 300 and 300 x 600 describe the same panel turned through ninety degrees. Confirm on the product page which figure the range treats as the width and which as the height, then mark your opening to match. A panel ordered on an assumption is a panel that arrives correct and fits wrong.
The hinged edge decides which way the door falls open and how much clear space it needs in front of it. On a long panel this matters more than on a square one, because a door hinged on a long edge brings a wide leaf out into the room, while one hinged on a short edge swings further to the side. Check the door action and any handing options listed against the product before ordering, and look at what sits next to the opening. A return wall, a pipe, a radiator or a ceiling grid can all take away the swing you assumed you had.
At this size you can have a metal door or a plasterboard faced door, in either frame style, with or without a fire rating. Much of the range at 600 x 300 carries the FlipFix name.
Metal doors arrive finished and are the durable option for plant rooms, cupboards, risers and anywhere the panel is allowed to show, with a budget metal door version for positions that are out of sight. Plasterboard faced doors take a skim coat and paint, so the panel disappears into a decorated wall or ceiling. On frames, a beaded frame keys into the plaster for a flush finish on new work, while a picture frame overlays the existing surface and suits retrofit into a room that is already finished. The wider metal range is at metal door access panels.
Fire rated versions are available at this size in one hour metal door and one hour plasterboard faced form, and in a two hour metal door version with a beaded frame. Where the wall or ceiling is part of a compartment, the panel has to match its rating, and the duration achieved in a wall is not automatically the duration achieved in a ceiling. Confirm both per product, or start from fire rated access panels.
The stated size is the panel, not the hole. The structural opening is cut slightly larger so the frame seats without being forced, and the allowance is not identical across every range or frame type listed here, so take it from the product specification rather than carrying a figure over from another job. Step by step guidance is in the installation instructions.
Measure the length of the aperture as carefully as the height. A long opening is more likely than a square one to run into a stud, a noggin or a hanger somewhere along its length, and it is far easier to slide the panel along the wall while you are marking out than to trim structure afterwards.
If your opening is close to 600 x 300 but not quite it, do not force the fit or oversize the hole to suit the panel. A made to measure access panel is built to your dimensions and usually works out cheaper once you count the making good that a wrong sized panel creates. Send us the opening size, the orientation and whether a fire rating applies.
