Why Does It Cost So Much To Fix A Herculite Door?
Herculite doors are beautiful, high-end glass doors that adorn many retail storefronts and office buildings. They're typically taller and wider than standard storefront doors and have a sleek full-glass look. Herculite doors are also called frameless glass doors. While they don't have frames, they do typically have top rails and bottom rails that hold the locking hardware and the door closing mechanisms.
If your Herculite door is in need of repair, you might be getting some costly repair quotes from commercial locksmiths that have you wondering why on earth it costs so much to fix this type of door. The answer to that usually comes down to manpower.
For repair work to be carried out on the pivots or the floor closer on a Herculite door, the door will often need to be dropped. This type of door is very heavy due to the size and thickness of the glass, which is usually quite thick to help provide insulation. At least two men are required to safely take down a heavy frameless glass door. An extra tall door might even need three men with one holding the top to make sure the door stays upright.
Once the door is down, the potential problems don't stop there. On some older models of Herculite doors, the closer is completely sealed in concrete and will need to be jackhammered out if it's going to be replaced. Additionally, a very old floor closer may be obsolete, and the old concrete case that held the closer won't fit a new model floor closer, requiring concrete work to fit in the new equipment.
Even a seemingly simple task like rekeying a Herculite door can cost more than the average rekey because of the position of the set screw that needs to be accessed for the rekeying. Remember, the locking hardware on this type of door is usually located near the floor in the bottom rail. Some doors are designed in such a way that the setscrew can't be accessed when the door is hung. A locksmith will need two men to drop the door to access the locking hardware.
Thankfully, newer frameless glass doors now have bottom rails with locking hardware that can be accessed without the need to drop the door. New frameless glass doors can also be ordered with pull hardware called locking ladder pulls. With locking ladder pulls, the key is built into the pull handle instead of into the bottom rail. Not only does this help with key changes, but it also saves staff from having to stoop down to lock and unlock the door at the beginning and end of each day.
For more information on rekeying a Herculite door, check out a site like http://scscincus.com.
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