Commercial & Industrial
Commercial Glass & Aluminum Door Systems
The glazed front of your building, from one contractor — aluminum entrances, storefront and curtain-wall glazing, frameless and sliding glass doors, and the fixed and operable aluminum windows around them. Designed, supplied, installed and serviced across Toronto and the GTA since 1979, with 24/7 emergency repair behind all of it.
A commercial glass and aluminum system is the glazed part of the building envelope: an aluminum-framed door, the framing and glass around it, and the windows in the same elevation. It is what a shop, an office lobby, a clinic or a plant entrance is made of, and unlike a house window it is specified per opening — the glass make-up, the thermal break, the hardware and the anchoring are all decisions, not a catalogue number.
Canuck Door Systems has been measuring, supplying, installing and repairing those systems across the GTA since 1979. Most of the names that rank for this work are fabricators and distributors: they sell the aluminum and the glass and leave the opening to you. We do the site measure, the shop drawings, the glass and hardware, the install with our own crews, and the service call three years later — one point of responsibility from the drawing to the door closer.
Glass & aluminum systems we supply, install and service
Doors & entrances
The opening people actually walk through — framed in aluminum, hung on glass, or sliding when there is nowhere to swing.
The workhorse glazed entrance: a 1¾″ aluminum leaf in matching framing, in narrow, medium or wide stile.
All-glass doors with no vertical framing — tempered glass on patch fittings, for lobbies and interior openings that should disappear.
Sliding and telescopic glass doors where a swing door has nowhere to swing, manual or automatic.
Glazed leaves that fold flat and stack at the jamb, opening a whole wall instead of a doorway — restaurants, patios and showrooms.
Glazing & service
The glass around the door, the elevation above it, the partitions inside it — and keeping all of it working once it is in.
Curtain Wall & Glazing Systems
Floor-to-floor structural glazing that carries the building envelope rather than sitting inside an opening.
Office fronts and meeting rooms divided in glass — framed or frameless, with the doors in the same system.
Glass Door Repair & Replacement
Closers, pivots, patch fittings, rollers, locks and broken glass on an existing glass door — including 24/7 emergency.
What makes a glass door a commercial glass door
Use and code, not the glass. A commercial glass door is specified for continuous public traffic, has to satisfy the Ontario Building Code — safety glazing, exit hardware, opening force, barrier-free access — and is built to be repaired rather than replaced. A residential patio or entry door is specified for insulation, appearance and quiet, and comes as a finished unit. That difference decides everything below, and it is why a residential-grade glazed door in a commercial entrance fails early and can fail an inspection.
- Framed in aluminum, not vinyl or wood — slim sightlines carrying large areas of glass, no rust, no warping, and any anodized or powder-coat finish.
- Hardware that is specified, not included — closers, exit devices, pivots or continuous hinges, thresholds and access control, chosen for the traffic.
- Glass chosen per opening — tempered or laminated where the code calls for safety glazing, insulating units on anything exterior.
- Serviceable — every wearing part is a part we can source and change on site, which is why a well-maintained aluminum entrance outlives several buildings' worth of tenants.
Systems & configurations
Eight systems cover almost every glazed opening in a commercial building, and the choice is usually made by the opening rather than by preference: what has to pass through it, how much room a leaf has to swing, whether the glass spans one storey or several, and whether the opening has to ventilate. The table below is the full range we supply and install.
| System | What it is | Where it goes | Operation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aluminum entrance door | 1¾″ aluminum leaf in matching framing; narrow, medium or wide stile | Main and secondary entrances, vestibules | Manual, or prepped for an automatic operator |
| Storefront framing | Non-thermal or thermally broken framing carrying the glass around the door | Shopfronts, ground-floor elevations, interior glazed walls | Fixed |
| Frameless (all-glass) door | Tempered glass leaf on patch fittings — no vertical stiles | Lobbies, showrooms, interior openings that should disappear | Manual, on a floor or overhead closer |
| Sliding & telescopic glass door | Glazed leaves running in an aluminum track | Openings with no room for a leaf to swing | Manual or automatic |
| Bi-folding / folding glass wall | Multiple glazed leaves that fold and stack to one side | Serveries, patios, event and dividable space | Manual or automatic |
| Curtain wall | Structural glazing hung past the slab edges, anchored to the building frame | Multi-storey elevations, atria, institutional façades | Fixed, with vents where required |
| Fixed glass-aluminum window | A sealed glazed unit in aluminum framing | Punched openings and ribbon glazing | Fixed |
| Operable glass-aluminum window | Awning, hopper, casement or slider vent in aluminum framing | Wherever the space needs openable ventilation | Manual crank or latch |
Which glass goes in the opening
The framing is the easy decision; the glass make-up is where the code, the energy performance and the security of the opening are actually settled. Eight glass types cover commercial work, and most openings combine two or three of them — a low-E insulating unit with a tempered outer lite is the ordinary specification for an exterior storefront.
| Glass | What it is | Specified for |
|---|---|---|
| Annealed (float) | Ordinary untreated glass; breaks into shards | Non-safety locations only — rarely used in or beside a door |
| Tempered | Heat-treated to roughly four times the strength of annealed; breaks into small blunt pieces | Doors, sidelites and anywhere the code requires safety glazing (CAN/CGSB-12.1) |
| Laminated | Two lites bonded to a plastic interlayer; stays in the frame when broken | Security and forced-entry delay, sound reduction, overhead glazing |
| Insulating unit (IGU) | Two or three lites sealed around a spacer with an air or argon cavity | Every exterior opening; 1″ is the standard storefront glazing pocket |
| Low-E coating | A microscopically thin metallic coating on one IGU surface | Cutting heat loss and solar heat gain — standard on new exterior glazing |
| Tinted & reflective | Body-tinted or surface-coated glass | Glare and solar control on exposed south and west elevations |
| Spandrel | Opaque glass — ceramic frit or back-painted | Concealing slab edges, insulation and mechanical space between floors |
| Security film | A polyester film applied to glass already in the opening | Holding fragments and delaying entry without replacing the glass |
Glass & aluminum windows
We supply and install the windows in the same elevation as the doors — fixed units, operable vents, and full replacement of an aging aluminum elevation. It is a large part of our glass work: several of the jobs below were window replacements rather than door jobs. Windows on their own, away from an entrance, are covered on commercial windows. Broken glass in an existing window is a different service again — that is window glass replacement and commercial glass repair, including after-hours board-up.
- Fixed glazing — sealed insulating units in aluminum framing, in punched openings or as continuous ribbon glazing.
- Operable vents — awning, hopper, casement and slider units where the space has to ventilate, with commercial-grade hardware and screens.
- Retrofit and full replacement — pulling an old, single-glazed or failed-seal aluminum elevation and rebuilding it thermally broken with low-E insulating units, on an occupied building, usually in phases.
- Interior glazing — glass-aluminum frames and interior glazed walls between offices, corridors and production space.
Storefront, window wall or curtain wall?
Three systems that look similar from the street and are not the same purchase. What separates them is how far the glazing spans and what carries it: a storefront sits inside one storey, a window wall spans slab to slab, and a curtain wall runs continuously past the slab edges over several floors. The framing gets deeper and the anchoring more engineered in that order — which is why the same-looking elevation can arrive at three very different prices.
| Storefront | Window wall | Curtain wall | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spans | Within one storey | Slab to slab, one storey at a time | Continuously over multiple floors |
| Carried by | The opening it is anchored into | The floor slab it sits on | The building structure, at each floor |
| Typical glass height | Up to roughly 10′ before the framing has to get deeper | One storey | Whatever the engineering allows |
| Where you see it | Shopfronts, ground floors, vestibules, interior glazed walls | Condo and office towers, installed from inside | Office towers, atria, institutional façades |
| Doors in it | Yes — the entrance is part of the system | Rarely | At grade only, usually as a storefront infill |
Not sure which one you have? Send a photo of the elevation and the floor it sits on and we will tell you, along with what it takes to repair or replace it.
The codes and standards these openings have to meet
Four rule sets govern a glazed commercial opening in Ontario. Between them they decide the glass, the hardware and whether the entrance is legal — and getting them wrong is expensive twice, once at inspection and again when the elevation is rebuilt.
- Ontario Building Code (OBC) — where safety glazing is required, exit widths and swing direction, opening force, and what an entrance the public uses has to provide.
- CAN/CGSB-12.1 — the Canadian safety-glazing standard that tempered and laminated glass is certified to. Glass in and beside a door is a safety-glazing location.
- AODA accessibility — barrier-free entrances, operating force, and push-plate or automatic operators on the doors the public uses.
- Fire ratings — the honest limit. A standard aluminum entrance cannot carry a fire label; aluminum softens well below the temperature a rated assembly must survive. A rated opening needs a labelled hollow-metal or rated wood assembly instead, with rated vision glazing if it still has to be seen through.
Working from drawings? Send them over. We read the glazing schedule, tell you what is specified, and quote to it — including where the drawings ask for something the code will not allow in that opening.
Systems we install
We install and service the aluminum systems common to Ontario commercial work rather than one manufacturer's line, so the recommendation follows the opening instead of a supply agreement. Recent jobs in our own files were built in Windspec 655 and 5500 HTP series framing; we also install Commdoor and Herd systems and equivalents, and we service systems we did not supply.
- Windspec — including the 655 and 5500 HTP series named in our own project records (windspec.com).
- Commdoor aluminum entrance and storefront systems (commdooraluminum.com).
- Herd aluminum doors and framing (herdaluminum.com) and equivalents.
- Anything already in the building — we repair and reglaze existing storefronts, entrances and windows whoever supplied them, including systems no longer made.
Glass & aluminum work across the GTA
One job from each of eight different kinds of building — property management, construction, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, healthcare, education, hospitality and general commercial. Real clients, real elevations, from our own project files.
Doodle All Daycare Inc
Replacement of exterior windows with all new black anodized aluminum windows and…
Sable Metal Fabrication
Replaced outdated glass-and-aluminum windows with modern, energy-efficient units.
PCI Pharma Services
Replaced the exterior glass-and-aluminum storefront door and the surrounding windows.
Centurion (Dundas) Holdings Limited
Supply, and install, Windspec 5500 HTP series clear anod.
Canada's Wonderland
Clear-anodized aluminum storefront and window systems for the Operations Building — a glazed entrance with matching sidelite, plus awning and fixed units.
Canadian Millwork
Supplied and installed automatic sliding doors and aluminum windows at 51 Centennial Road in Orangeville.
Shelburne Dental
Replaced the exterior glass-and-aluminum storefront doors and windows, plus interior glass-aluminum frames and wood doors.
Toronto Catholic District School Board
Removed and replaced ten aluminum storefront entrances at St. Albert Catholic School in Windspec 655 flush-glaze framing, inside one summer shutdown.
Glazed entrances and elevations for names Ontario knows — Canada’s Wonderland, Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, the LCBO, Metrolinx, Marriott & Hilton hotels, the University of Toronto — plus thousands of businesses, clinics, schools and plants across the GTA. Dependable people, quality products, since 1979.
Glass & aluminum service across Toronto & the GTA
We measure, install and repair commercial glass and aluminum systems right across the core GTA and out into the wider Southern Ontario belt, dispatched from our shop in Mississauga. Emergency repair runs 24/7, every day of the year — including board-up to secure an opening the same night.
Core GTA
- Toronto
- Mississauga
- Brampton
- Vaughan
- Markham
- Scarborough
- North York
- Etobicoke
- Richmond Hill
- Oakville
- Burlington
- Milton
Southern Ontario belt
Not on the list? We run crews from Niagara to Barrie and east to Oshawa — call and ask. See all service areas
What drives the price — and how to get a firm one
A glazed opening has no list price, because almost nothing about it is standard: an aluminum door swapped into existing framing and a rebuilt two-storey elevation are different orders of magnitude. What actually moves the number is short enough to list — and once we have measured, the quote is firm and itemised rather than a range.
- Glazed area, and whether the existing framing is reused or removed
- Glass make-up — monolithic tempered, 1″ insulating unit, low-E, laminated
- Whether the framing has to be thermally broken
- Door count, stile width, and the hardware each leaf carries
- Automatic operators or AODA push-plate operation
- Finish — stock anodized against a custom powder-coat colour
- Access and scheduling: ground floor or upper elevation, and whether the work has to happen after hours
Common questions about commercial glass & aluminum
What is the standard size of a commercial glass door?
The common commercial single leaf is 3′0″ × 7′0″, with pairs made up to 8′0″ wide, and 8′0″-tall leaves where equipment has to pass. Aluminum entrance leaves are 1¾″ thick as standard. Sliding, folding and curtain-wall openings are not standard at all — they are sized to the opening and measured on site.
What is commercial-grade glass?
It is not one product. "Commercial grade" describes glass processed to meet the code and the duty of the opening rather than ordinary window glass: tempered or laminated where the Ontario Building Code calls for safety glazing, certified to CAN/CGSB-12.1, and sealed into an insulating unit for anything exterior. The difference from residential glass is less the glass itself than the fact that the make-up has to be specified and documented per opening.
What kind of glass is used in storefronts?
Exterior storefronts are almost always glazed with a 1″ sealed insulating unit — two lites with a spacer and an argon or air cavity — with a low-E coating on one surface and the outer lite tempered where the code requires safety glazing. Interior storefront and partition glazing is usually monolithic 6 mm (¼″) tempered. Laminated glass replaces tempered where security, sound or fragment retention matters.
How strong is storefront glass?
Tempered glass is roughly four times the strength of the same thickness of ordinary annealed glass, and when it does fail it breaks into small blunt pieces rather than shards. That is a safety property, not a security one: tempered glass still comes out of the frame. Where the concern is forced entry or holding the glass in place after impact, the answer is laminated glass — two lites bonded to a plastic interlayer — or a security film applied to the glass already in the opening.
What is the difference between a storefront, a window wall and a curtain wall?
How far the system spans, and what carries it. A storefront sits inside one storey, anchored into the opening — the ground-floor glazing on a shop or office. A window wall spans slab to slab, one storey at a time, and bears on the floor slab. A curtain wall runs continuously past the slab edges over multiple floors and is hung off the building structure. The framing gets deeper and the anchoring more engineered in that order, which is why the same-looking elevation can be three different products with three different prices.
Can a commercial glass or aluminum entrance be fire-rated?
A standard aluminum entrance cannot carry a fire label — aluminum softens well below the temperature a rated assembly has to survive. Where an opening needs a rating we put a labelled hollow-metal or rated wood assembly in it instead, with rated vision glazing if the opening still has to be seen through. Tell us the rating the drawings call for and we will specify to it rather than glaze around it.
What are the disadvantages of aluminum windows?
Aluminum conducts heat, so an exterior aluminum frame that is not thermally broken will lose heat and condense in a Canadian winter. That is why residential construction largely moved to vinyl — and why commercial construction did not: aluminum carries far larger areas of glass on slim sightlines, does not rust or warp, takes any anodized or powder-coat finish, and survives commercial traffic. The fix for the one real drawback is a thermally broken frame, which we specify on every exterior opening.
How much does a commercial glass door or storefront cost?
There is no useful single number and a "from" price would mislead: a single aluminum entrance door in existing framing and a rebuilt two-storey glazed elevation are different orders of magnitude. What moves the price is the glazed area, the glass make-up, whether the framing is thermally broken, the door count and hardware, whether the existing framing is reused, the finish, and whether the work has to happen after hours. We measure the opening and send a firm, itemised quote at no charge.
Do you repair glass doors and windows you did not install?
Yes, and it is a large share of what we do. We service commercial glass doors, storefronts, aluminum windows and their hardware regardless of who supplied them — closers, pivots, patch fittings, rollers, locks, thresholds and broken glass — and we run emergency service around the clock, including board-up to make an opening safe the same night.
Planning a glazed opening — or is one broken right now?
Send us the opening and we’ll quote it. Glass down, door won’t lock? Call and we dispatch 24/7, board-up included.