Storefront doors are ubiquitous. If you've been to a plaza anywhere in the country in the last 50 years, it's almost a certainty that you've encountered a pivot mounted, aluminum frame door installed in the entry way. The pivots are mounted in pairs, most often. One top and one bottom. This is a picture of the top pivot on a door like I'm telling you about.
These pivots are pretty durable. Most manufacturers of these doors choose pivots for their ease of installation and adequate strength. But, I think that will be changing over the next decade and the continuous hinge will become commonplace. When pivots do degrade, the most common means of discovery is that the door literally falls right out of the frame. This is an obvious problem, because that's not what a door should do. The implications to your liability are more subtle and far worse. What if this happens to a customer? What if it's a customer's child? You could find yourself wrapped up in a lawsuit and have to replace your very expensive door.
The solution is a surface mounted continuous hinge. One long hinge from the top to the bottom of the door. They are lightweight, extremely durable and they have the bonus function of creating a seal on the hinge side of the door. Here is a picture of one that's been installed. It's difficult to see because they are well designed and blend right into the original frame.
The final consideration is cost. Surely, this advanced hardware must be expensive, right? Well, not necessarily. While the parts cost is certainly much higher for the hinge vs a set of pivots, changing pivots is much more labor intensive. By the time it's said and done, you'll spend almost the same amount to replace the pivots as you would to upgrade to a much more durable solution that removes the liability risk in nearly all circumstances.
They are not limited to storefront doors either. They can be installed on steel, wood, fiberglass and even some residential doors. This provides a viable option for commercial doors with damaged frames, broken hinge mounts or sagging hinges that are causing the door not to close smoothly or easily.
If you are considering a continuous hinge for your business, facility or home, we would love the opportunity to quote you for this upgrade.
-Dan Bailey
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