Automatic Doors in Kitchener

The industry standard is a daily safety check by the building's own staff and a full inspection once a year by a certified inspector. Our technicians hold AAADM certification for exactly this — the annual inspection of automatic pedestrian doors — and the daily check takes about a minute: watch the door cycle, confirm it does not close on anything, confirm the signage and guide rails are still in place. Skipping the annual inspection is a liability question more than a maintenance one, because an automatic door is a powered machine that the public walks through.

Not as a blanket rule. The requirement comes from the Ontario Building Code's barrier-free provisions, which apply when you build or renovate, and from the AODA's Design of Public Spaces standard, which covers certain new and redeveloped exterior paths and entrances. Existing buildings are not ordered to retrofit every door. In practice most of our operator work is triggered by a permit, a renovation, an accessibility complaint or a tenant requirement rather than by an inspector arriving unannounced — and where the code does apply, the entrance also has to meet clear-width and opening-force limits, not just open by itself.

Yes, and on an egress route it is a requirement rather than a nicety. Sliding doors on an exit route are built with break-out panels: push the leaf hard from inside and it swings out of its track to give a clear opening. Swing doors with a low-energy operator can simply be pushed open manually when the power is off — the operator declutches. What you should not assume is that a given door does this: break-out is a specified feature, and a slider bought without it stays shut. We confirm which behaviour an existing door has as part of an inspection.