A commercial door that is down stops the whole building
Nobody is waiting on a residential door. On a shop, a warehouse or a bay, the door is the route in and out and everything queues behind it.
Steel buildings, shops and bays
A commercial sectional door on a steel building is a different animal from a house door. The openings are wider and taller, the doors are heavier, and the cycle counts are far higher, so springs get specified by cycle rating rather than by whatever comes standard.
Our own job photos include several of these: white commercial sectional doors on a steel building with a personnel door beside them, and a tall bay door on a metal shop. Those are the doors that eat rollers and hinges, because they are opening and closing dozens of times a day rather than twice.
Track and hardware matter more too. Standard residential hardware on a door that cycles fifty times a day is a maintenance bill. Commercial grade rollers, hinges and a high cycle spring cost more once and stop the problem being a monthly conversation.
- Door and springs specified by cycle count, not just by size
- Commercial grade rollers, hinges and track hardware
- Openers sized for the door weight and the duty cycle
- Safety edges, photo eyes and manual release where the building needs them
- Service intervals set to the door's real usage rather than a calendar
Full view aluminum glass doors
Full view doors are the aluminum framed glass doors that open a whole elevation up. Restaurants, breweries, showrooms, car washes and workshops use them because they turn a wall into an opening and they let daylight into a space that would otherwise be a box.
Three of the photos on their Facebook page are exactly this: a run of dark framed glass sectional doors along a commercial elevation with a standing seam roof, photographed from two angles.
They are heavier than they look and they are less forgiving of a track that is out of square, because a bind shows up as glass under stress rather than steel flexing. They are also the door most likely to be judged by a customer standing in front of it, so the install has to be clean.
Service contracts and what breaks first on a commercial door
Cycle count is the whole story. A residential door doing two cycles a day takes fifteen years to reach ten thousand cycles. A busy bay door gets there inside a year. So the parts that wear are the same parts, they just wear on a completely different clock.
Rollers and hinges first, then cables, then springs. A scheduled service that catches a fraying cable during a quiet hour is a very different thing from the same cable letting go with a truck half in the bay.
Bottom seals and weather stripping also matter more on commercial buildings, because a gap at the bottom of a warehouse door is a heating bill, a pest route and a water problem all at once.
Getting a building back working
When a commercial door is down, the first question is whether it can be secured and operated manually while parts come. Often it can, and that turns a shutdown into an inconvenience.
The second question is what actually failed, because a commercial door that fails twice in a year is usually telling you it was specified for lighter use than it is getting. Fixing that properly costs more once and less over three years.
We are Monday to Friday, eight to five, and we say so rather than advertising a response time we have not published anywhere. If your building cannot be down for a day, that is worth talking about before something breaks rather than after.
Commercial door down or due a service?
Call (704) 960-0190. Monday to Friday, eight to five.
What 37 homeowners said
Every quote below is a real review, word for word, from our Google profile.
I have been using Entrance Masters for almost 2 years, and from the first encounter the service has been absolutely fantastic. I had been having the worst issues with my garage since the recent purchase of my home, and they have been there every step of the way working to try to figure out the issue. Ricky tried every cost effective option he could before just saying you need to replace the motor, which most companies would not have. The motor was replaced a week ago along with some other updates and my garage closes and opens as it should and it is so smooth and quiet now.
When our residential gate stopped working I called them for a quote. Ricky was extremely responsive (even though he was out of town). He quickly scheduled his tech to come out and within a couple of hours he had our gate working again. He also replaced sensors on a garage door that had not been working properly for a couple of years. Once Ricky was back in town he scheduled to come back and button up a couple of loose ends and bring us some much needed clickers for the gate. Fantastic experience, excellent communication, skilled workmanship, extremely reasonable pricing.
We interviewed two garage door companies. The prices were very close however we chose Entrance Masters Garage Door and Gate Co. after reading great reviews and because it was important that they are local. We had many questions and they kindly and quickly responded. Also the delivery was on time and install quick. We have planned for a garage door for 20+ years and they helped us make our dream come true.
Tim Johnson repaired our garage door today. He went directly to the problem and fixed it. Then, he serviced moveable parts with lubricant. During all of this he talked with my wife and I explaining the various aspects of good garage door maintenance. His service was beyond expectations. We have been caught before with service people and it makes you wary. Tim Johnson spoke highly of his boss and it means that we are going to mention Entrance Masters to all our neighbors.
Great service and very reasonable! After another company told me I needed things I didn't need, I called Ricky and he came out and not only fixed it but did maintenance too, all for under 200 bucks. Would definitely recommend to all my friends and family!
Our garage door looks amazing and Ricky provided top notch customer service. First he was willing to communicate via calls, text and email. This itself is huge. So many companies today want you calling the office and email only which slows production and communication. Next he really laid out all the options and explained them in great detail. Once we narrowed down to two, Ricky went above and beyond really going over pros and cons of both. The install went quick and on time just as he stated. A few days after install he shoots me a text to confirm we're happy.
Steel building doors, warehouse doors and full view aluminum glass.
Yes. Their own job photos include commercial sectional doors on steel buildings and full view aluminum glass doors on a commercial elevation.
A spring rated for many more open and close cycles than a standard one. On a door that runs all day it is the difference between an annual spring job and one every several years.
Yes, and on commercial work that is most of it.
Often the door can be secured and worked manually while parts come in. Ask on the first call, because it changes what gets ordered and in what order.
Yes. They are heavier and less tolerant of an out of square opening than a steel door, so the frame and the track work get more attention on the install.
It depends entirely on cycles rather than months. A door doing fifty cycles a day needs looking at several times a year. Tell us the usage and we will tell you the interval.
Tell us what the door is doing.
Most garage door problems are one part. Describe the symptom and we will tell you what it usually means.