Division 08 · Furnish, install and service
Commercial entrances
and automatic doors
Automatic sliding and swing entrances, manual storefront doors and all glass entrances for retail, medical, office and hospitality. Supplied, installed and serviced by one licensed subcontractor.
Florida license
SCC131154568
Counties served
Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade
Commercial bids
From 48 hours
Shop drawings
Produced in house
What we cover
The one part of the envelope that moves
Everything else in a glass wall sits still for thirty years. The entrance opens and closes a few hundred times a day, so it is the part that wears, the part that gets adjusted and the part somebody eventually calls about. What belongs in the opening comes down to how many people come through it, whether the building has to be accessible, and what happens on the day it stops working.
- Automatic sliding entrances, single slide and bi-parting
- Low energy automatic swing doors with an accessible push plate
- Manual aluminum storefront doors, narrow, medium and wide stile
- All glass entrances on patch fittings or a bottom rail
Choosing
Three ways in, and what each one costs you later
This is not a spec sheet. It is the conversation we have standing in the opening, before anything gets priced.
Automatic sliding
Automatic swing
Manual storefront
Suits
Automatic sliding
High traffic retail, grocery and healthcare, where hands are full and the door cannot be a decision.
Automatic swing
Offices and medical suites, and openings too narrow for a slider to stack into.
Manual storefront
Light traffic, back of house, and anywhere the budget decides.
Clear opening
Automatic sliding
The leaf slides completely clear, so you get the widest usable opening of the three.
Automatic swing
Limited by the swing arc, and the arc needs somewhere to go.
Manual storefront
Same limit as the swing, and somebody has to pull it.
Accessible route
Automatic sliding
Nobody has to touch anything, which is the simplest way to satisfy it.
Automatic swing
Satisfied by the operator and the push plate, sited within reach of the approach.
Manual storefront
Depends entirely on the closer being set so the opening force stays low enough.
Power and sensing
Automatic sliding
Operator, an activation sensor and a separate safety sensor covering the opening.
Automatic swing
Operator and push plate, plus safety sensing if it swings into a path of travel.
Manual storefront
None. That is the appeal.
Once a year
Automatic sliding
Safety inspection against the ANSI A156.10 checklist, plus a daily walk through by the owner.
Automatic swing
Same inspection, and the arm needs its adjustment checked.
Manual storefront
Adjust the closer, check the pivots and the threshold.
How it fails
Automatic sliding
Sensors drift out of alignment and the door starts opening at nothing, or worse, closing on somebody.
Automatic swing
The arm loses adjustment and the door either slams or stalls halfway.
Manual storefront
The closer starts to leak and the door stops latching.
Low energy swing
The operator that fits where a slider will not
A slider needs somewhere to stack the leaf. When the opening is too narrow for that, or the door has to keep working as a fire exit, the answer is a low energy swing operator with a push plate sited within reach of the approach. It opens slowly on purpose, which is what lets it live without guide rails around it.
On the record
Plum Market, Palm Beach Gardens
A full storefront package for a grocery in a high traffic plaza: exterior impact rated entrances, interior glazed systems and the automatic sliding doors that carry the customer flow. Exterior and interior were delivered as one package, so there was one subcontractor to call about any of it.
General contractor
Jonna Construction
Storefront
Trulite 3100 aluminum in bronze
Automatic doors
Stanley Dura-Storm 3000, Level D impact rated sliding entrances
Glass
Clear SolarBan 70XL laminated impact
Location
2410 PGA Blvd, Palm Beach Gardens
Contracted range
$150K to $200K for the glazing scope
Code and safety
A powered door is not a door with a motor on it
It has its own standard, its own sensing requirements and its own inspection routine, and it is the one item in a glazing package that an insurer will ask about by name. On top of that, an entrance in the wind borne debris region still needs its product approval like any other glazed opening.
ANSI/BHMA A156.10
The standard for power operated pedestrian doors: activation, sensing zones, opening and closing speeds, breakout, signage on the leaf and the daily safety check the owner runs.
The accessible route
Clear width, maneuvering space and opening force are what make an entrance usable. A manual door that takes too much force to pull fails the same test a missing operator does.
Impact rating still applies
The Plum Market sliders are Level D impact rated for exactly that reason. A powered entrance in the debris region carries an approval number like everything else on the elevation.
In the field
Entrances we have glazed
Provident Jewelry, White House Black Market, Beach Bunny, Orlebar Brown, Lululemon and Victoria’s Secret. Six different fronts and six different answers to the same question about how people get in.
Once a year
What a safety inspection actually checks
An automatic door goes out of adjustment quietly. Nothing breaks and nothing looks wrong, it just starts opening when nobody is there, or closing while somebody still is. This is the list that catches it.
- Activation sensor pattern, range and hold open time
- Safety sensors at the opening and in the swing path
- Opening speed, closing speed and check speed
- Breakout force and the emergency breakout function
- Rollers, carriers, the head track and the guide
- Weatherstripping, sweeps and the threshold
- The decals on the leaf, which are part of the standard
- Wiring, operator belt and the controller settings
How we run the job
Survey the opening, then decide what goes in it
Entrances are the one scope where the right answer changes with the opening. We would rather stand in it once than price the wrong product twice.
01
Survey and traffic
How wide the opening is, what it swings or slides into, and how many people come through on the worst day of the week.
02
Type and budget
Sliding, swing or manual, priced as separate lines so the difference is visible before anyone commits.
03
Shop drawings and approvals
The system, the anchors and the product approval, drawn in house and sent for your stamp.
04
Install and commission
Set, then set up: sensor patterns, speeds, hold open time and breakout, checked against the standard rather than left on factory defaults.
05
Hand over and inspect
The owner gets shown the daily safety check, and the annual inspection goes on the calendar before we leave.
Systems and hardware
Eight manufacturers, one point of contact
We buy direct, so the system on the drawing is the system that arrives. Automatic operators come from the manufacturer the specification names, Stanley included.
The record
Entrances we have built in South Florida
Named jobs, named general contractors, the systems that went in and the contracted range for the glazing scope.
Prequalification
Everything your precon team asks for, in one packet
You should not have to chase a subcontractor for paperwork. Ask once and the whole packet comes back from this office, not from a portal.
- Certificate of insurance, issued to your entity
- W-9 and Florida license SCC131154568
- Project references with general contractor contacts
- Shop drawings and product approvals per opening
- Commercial bids from 48 hours, residential estimates same day
Questions general contractors ask
Entrances and automatic doors, answered
Do you service automatic doors you did not install?
Yes. Most service calls we take are on somebody else’s install. We will tell you honestly whether the operator is worth adjusting or whether it has reached the end of its life.
What is the difference between full energy and low energy?
A full energy door opens at full speed and needs guide rails and sensors to keep people out of the swing. A low energy door opens slowly enough that it does not, which is why the push plate operator you see on an office door is almost always low energy.
Can an automatic sliding door be impact rated?
Yes. The sliders at Plum Market are Stanley Dura-Storm 3000, Level D impact rated, installed alongside the storefront package so the entrance is accessible and still carries its approval.
How often does an automatic door need to be inspected?
The ANSI A156.10 routine is a daily safety check by the owner, which takes a minute, plus an annual inspection. Insurers ask about the annual one.
How fast can you turn a bid around?
Commercial bids go out from 48 hours once we have the elevations and the door schedule. If the package is large we will tell you the date we can hit rather than let it slip.
Do you supply and install, or install only?
Either. Most jobs are supply and install. If the operator is already bought we will install to it, but we will want to see the approval and the cut sheet first.
Send the door schedule
Send plans, get a real number
A door schedule, an elevation or even photos of the opening are enough to start. We price system, operator and labor as separate lines so you can see what moves.
- 7830 Byron Dr Ste 4, West Palm Beach, FL 33404
- (561) 584-8485 · Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm
- [email protected]
- Licensed and insured, FL SCC131154568
Request a bid
Commercial bids from 48 hours. Every request gets a reply from someone who has read the drawings.