Our range of high quality commercial entrance doors suits a wide variety of buildings depending upon their intended use. Each comes with a variety of functions and features designed to provide entrance doors, fire exit doors, security doors, personnel doors, plant room doors and much more. In this guide to commercial entrance doors, we explain the types they come in and how you can use them
What is the difference between a commercial door and a residential door?
Commercial entrance doors are designed for the significantly higher traffic of any public building. Shops, offices, entrance doors to apartment buildings, factory doors and doors in schools are just some examples of doors in constant use during the day. Our doors at home are at best opened and closed around ten times a day. Commercial doors are opened many hundreds of times some even having several thousand opening and closing cycles.
Schools are an excellent example of where you need an entirely different door to the ones we provide to dwellings. Consider break times and the end of the day in a school. Hundreds of pupils stream through the doors, all opening them in different ways.
Simply put, the construction, design and hardware in commercial entrance doors is designed for higher traffic and use. They, therefore, need to be reliable and provide long service life.
Another difference between commercial and residential doors is the hardware used and the function many need to provide.
Public doors need to be accessible and easy to use for disabled users. These doors may also require specific safety or security functions. Fire exit doors must allow occupants to exit the building fast. Access control doors are designed to stay locked and secure at all times, only letting in authorised users.
Main doors to apartment buildings must let in the homeowner or tenant, yet ensure all day long security. Shop doors should make entering the premises easy and welcoming. None of these features is available with residential doors.
What is a commercial grade door?
A commercial grade door is a heavier duty, more robust door, designed for the specific use of a building and one that must withstand a higher amount of traffic. In public buildings especially, not everyone knows how a door works.
Another feature of a commercial grade or commercial entrance door, therefore, is making it simple to understand for building users and first-time visitors to premises, especially in an emergency situation.
What material are commercial doors?
Aluminium is by far the most fit-for-purpose material when buying commercial doors. You’ll see PVCu doors in some shops or offices. These are not recommended for heavy use and many are unsuitable for the range of specialist hardware commercial doors often need.
You’ll also find commercial grade doors in steel when you want the best possible material strength, fire protection or improved acoustics. These are specialist commercial door products.
We do not recommend PVCu doors in anything other than a dwelling.
How do you choose a commercial door?
C&A Window Systems provide numerous options for commercial entrance doors and screens and can help you choose the right type for your project or client. Each of our commercial door types is available opening in, out or even both ways with some models. Here are the typical types of commercial entrance doors available.
Anti finger trap doors
Our range of anti-finger trap commercial entrance doors offers a round hinge stile to protect users from a finger trap situation at the hinge sides. Available with either concealed hold open or non hold open closers or adjustable top centres they are ideal for schools, hospitals or any kind of building.
Additionally, for doors fitted with full-width panic bars, a special panic bar anti-finger trap stile is available allowing the hardware to fit correctly to this alternative door stile.
Whilst anti-finger trap doors are not a legal requirement, they are a best-practice door and recommended for most commercial door installations.
Centre hung doors
Centre hung doors are designed to work with concealed overhead closers and low thresholds. Available as single or double doors they can also open in, out or both ways.
Rebated doors.
Rebated doors are ideal for plant rooms, storage rooms or for where extra weathering on doors may be required.
Rebated doors use generally the same profiles as centre hung doors but come with a rebated frame, face fixed overhead closers and door hinges. These too provide reliable commercial entrance doors but are mostly recommended in other building areas rather than the main entrance.
Automatic Doors
All our commercial doors can be prepared to accept or supplied with automatic operation. Available as automatic swing or sliding doors, they provide access solutions to any building where assistance with door opening is required.
Louvre Doors
Where a reliable heavy-duty door is required with ventilation, our range of rebated or centre hung doors is available with a choice of louvres. Designed for plant rooms, heating and ventilation rooms or any kind of secure room with permanent airflow.
Trade supply commercial entrance doors – get a quote today
All our commercial doors come fully fabricated, with all hardware fitted where applicable. Cills, beads and any other ancillary section is also supplied cut to size. Door closers, panic bars and other hardware comes with full adjustment or fixing instructions where required.
For unglazed doors, we also provide wedge and captive gaskets as well as glass packers and any other accessories required. And don’t forget our entire range of doors is compatible with our full range of framing systems.
Available at competitive prices and lead times, you can choose from any of the many colours available from the leading powder manufacturers. We can provide power coated doors using colour ranges from Akzo Nobel, Interpon Paints, Syntha Pulvin or BS colour ranges. On special order we also offer a range of metallic and specialist colours and dual colour options to our thermally broken commercial doors.
Contact us today for a quotation.
