Accurate Commercial Doors

New Commercial Service Door at Jersey Mike's in Delavan

The work in photographs

The sequence below runs from the door as we found it, through removal and the new frame going in, to the finished door and the hardware on it.

  • Worn dark hollow metal back service door with a peeling decal and a warning notice taped to it, set in a concrete block wall with a step ladder beside it
    Before the work

    The door as we found it. The leaf had rotted and the frame behind it had rusted at the base, which is why the opening would not close without being forced.

  • Two new grey hollow metal door leaves leaning against a brick wall beside a new knock-down steel frame, with a technician working at the opened wall
    During the work

    The new leaf and the new knock-down frame on site. Supplying the frame and the door together is what lets them be set as one assembly instead of being fitted to each other on the day.

  • Technician kneeling at a commercial door opening with a power tool, debris on the ground and a storeroom visible behind
    During the work

    Making the opening good once the old assembly is out. This stage decides whether the new frame sits square, and it is the stage a patch repair skips.

  • New dark blue-grey steel door frame going into the opening in a concrete block wall, with the door leaf not yet hung and buckets inside
    During the work

    Setting the new frame into the blockwork. The frame is levelled and secured before the door goes on, because hardware can only work if the frame is true.

  • Newly installed dark steel door frame squared and set into the concrete block opening with hinge plates visible and the storeroom beyond
    During the work

    The frame set and squared, with the hinge positions ready. Nothing about the adjustment of the finished door is possible unless this stage is right.

  • New grey hollow metal back service door hung in its new dark steel frame with a brushed lever handle and lock, exterior view
    The finished door

    The new door hung and adjusted. It closes on its own and latches without being lifted or forced, which was the original complaint.

  • Interior view of the new grey service door showing an overhead door closer and a heavy duty exit bar, with a fire extinguisher on the wall beside it
    The finished door

    The interior side of the finished door: the heavy duty closer at the head and the heavy duty exit bar across the leaf, so the door closes under control and opens in one movement.

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A back service door at Jersey Mike's in Delavan, Wisconsin had rotted out, and the bottom of its frame had rusted to the point that the door would not open or close without force. We supplied and fitted a new commercial door and frame, with a heavy duty closer, weatherstripping, threshold and exit device.

This was a back-of-house service door on a restaurant unit. It is the door deliveries come through and the door staff use to take waste out, so it is worked hard and it sits out of sight - which is how an opening reaches the point where it will not close at all before anyone acts on it.

The answer here was to replace the assembly rather than patch it. That is the difference between a door that behaves for a few months and one that behaves for the life of the leaf.

What the opening needed

The door had rotted out, and the bottom of the existing frame had rusted through until the door would not open or close without being forced. The frame is what the leaf closes against and what the hinges, the closer and the threshold are fastened to, so once the base of it has gone the opening has lost the thing that makes a door a door.

That is why this was never only a cosmetic complaint. A door that cannot be brought fully home is a door that cannot be relied on, and on a back entrance the result is an opening that will not do the job it exists for.

Why the frame was replaced with the door

Replacing only the leaf is often the right economy, and where the frame is sound it is what we would recommend. It was not the right answer here. The rust was in the frame and not only in the leaf, and a new door hung on a rusted frame simply inherits the fault: it will not line up, it will not seal, and the hardware has nothing solid to work against.

So the old frame and leaf came out as one assembly and went back in as one. That order matters, because it is the only sequence in which the frame can be set true before anything is hung on it.

  • The old door and frame removed complete.
  • The opening made good before the new frame was set.
  • A new commercial frame set, levelled and secured.
  • A new commercial door leaf hung and adjusted.

The door system we fitted

The new door went in with hardware chosen for a door in daily commercial use, rather than the lightest option that would physically fit the opening.

On a service door the hardware is most of the experience. The leaf is a slab; it is the closer, the seals, the threshold and the exit device that decide whether the door closes quietly on its own, keeps the weather out and opens in one movement when it has to.

  • A heavy duty door closer, adjusted so the door closes and latches under its own control.
  • Heavy duty weatherstripping to the perimeter, so the opening seals against weather and drafts.
  • A heavy duty threshold, to carry the traffic and take the wear at the base of the door.
  • A heavy duty exit device, so the door releases in a single movement when it needs to.

Where the work was carried out

The job was at Jersey Mike's Subs, 1823 E Geneva St, Unit J, Delavan, WI 53115.

Delavan sits in the Southern Wisconsin part of our service area. Commercial door work around here is a mix of restaurant and retail units like this one, resort property that closes down for the season, and industrial buildings on the edge of the city - and the seasonal pattern is what breaks a lot of doors, because an opening that sits unused for months then gets cycled hard from the first day the season opens.

Related:Commercial door service in Delavan, WisconsinNFPA codes and standards

Ready to get it sorted?

Call either line and speak to one of our own technicians. We cover Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois, and we attend doors that cannot be secured or made safe around the clock.

Office hours:
Monday to Friday, 8:00am - 5:00pm; Saturday, 9:00am - 5:00pm · Closed Sunday
Emergencies:
24-hour emergency call-out

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Call (224) 833-4828Call (262) 277-9190