Kitchen & Restaurant Traffic Doors

Most often a traffic door, sometimes a swinging door, a café door or a double-acting door — they all describe the same thing: a leaf with no latch and usually no handle that swings both ways and returns to closed on its own. If a supplier's catalogue says "impact door" it is the heavier industrial cousin of the same product, built for forklifts rather than for servers.

There is no single clause we can point to that says so in every case, but treat it as a requirement rather than an option. A door that swings both ways, is pushed without stopping and cannot be seen through is a collision waiting to happen — and in a restaurant, the person coming through is frequently carrying hot plates with both hands. Every kitchen door we supply has a vision panel, and the height is set by who uses it rather than by whatever the catalogue drawing shows.

Something that can be cleaned properly and does not absorb anything. ABS and polyethylene panels are the common choice: smooth, washable, and they do not corrode. Laminated fibreglass suits heavy washdown areas. Stainless cladding on the lower half is worth having wherever carts and feet make contact, both because it survives and because it still looks acceptable after a year. Avoid anything with a laminate edge that can lift, since that is where moisture and inspection findings both start.

The material and the condition are what get looked at, not the door type. Surfaces in a food-preparation area need to be smooth, non-absorbent and cleanable, which is exactly why ABS, polyethylene, fibreglass and stainless dominate this category. What actually fails inspections is a door in poor repair — lifted laminate, a cracked panel that traps soil, perished gaskets, a vision panel so scratched it cannot be seen through. Those are all inexpensive to put right and easy to let slide.

Low enough to see a person before they arrive, which in a restaurant means low enough to see someone bent slightly forward carrying a loaded tray, and in a hotel low enough to see a trolley. There is no universal number because it depends on the traffic, but the common failure mode is a window placed at the drawing's default height in a kitchen where everyone is carrying something and looking down. Tell us who uses the opening and we will position it for them.

Almost always the hinges. Gravity and spring-cassette hinges wear, lose tension and let the leaf hang low or stop returning to centre — and they are replaceable in place without touching the door or the frame. The other possibility is the frame itself, knocked out of square by carts over the years; a door hung in a twisted frame will bind whatever hardware you fit. Diagnosis takes minutes on site.

Usually yes, and it is a common conversion — a latched door between kitchen and floor is a nuisance for staff carrying things and gets propped open, which defeats it entirely. What we check is that the frame is sound and square, that the opening is wide enough for what passes through, and that the opening does not need a fire-rated assembly. That last one matters: if the wall is a fire separation, a traffic door is not permitted there and a <SiteLink url="/commercial/fire-rated-doors/" label="labelled fire-rated door" /> is what belongs in it.

Plan on about 4–6 weeks to manufacture once sizes and materials are confirmed, then 1–2 weeks to schedule installation — so roughly 5–8 weeks in total, since panels are made to your opening. Fitting a single opening is a matter of hours and is normally done overnight or between sittings. Hinges, gaskets and vision glazing are much quicker to obtain, so a repair does not wait on any of that.