Door installation and repair in Milton

For a hollow metal frame with a standard two-inch face, the masonry opening is the nominal pair width plus four inches and the nominal height plus two inches — two inches of frame face at each jamb, one at the head. A 6'0" by 7'0" pair therefore needs roughly a 6'4" by 7'2" masonry opening. Crews working to a field-shimmed tolerance add about another half inch of width and a quarter inch of height so the frame can be plumbed rather than forced into place. The arithmetic uses the pair width, not the width of one leaf, and it should be confirmed against the frame schedule before the wall is built.

Yes. A low-energy operator declutches, so the door pushes open manually as an ordinary door does — with the closer doing what it always did. That is one of the practical advantages of a swing operator over a slider: a power failure is an inconvenience rather than a blocked opening. Where the door is electrically locked, what happens on power loss is a separate decision driven by the fire code and by security, and it is specified with the lock rather than the operator.

The label belongs to the whole assembly, so a rated opening needs a labelled frame as well as a labelled door, plus rated hinges, closer, latch and glazing. A rated door in an unlabelled frame is not a rated opening, and it is one of the things a fire door inspection writes up. Rated frames also carry anchoring and clearance requirements that a standard frame does not.

Fire-rated glazed assemblies exist and are a different product: specific tested glass in specific tested framing, with a label, and they cost several times what a standard partition does. What matters is not to assume one is the other. If the partition is enclosing an exit corridor or forming a required separation, the rating is a code requirement and the whole assembly has to be listed for it. We will tell you which case you are in before quoting.

Adjusting spring tension is a normal part of servicing a door, and a correctly adjusted spring is what "balanced" means — the door should stay put when stopped half-open rather than drifting up or down. But retensioning is a remedy for drift and settling, not for a spring at the end of its cycle life. A spring that has been wound tighter to compensate for fatigue is being asked to work harder in exactly the state where it is most likely to break. Adjustment is maintenance; a fatigued or broken spring is a replacement.

It is driven by the size of the lite, the make-up (monolithic tempered, laminated, or a sealed insulating unit), the access, and whether the opening has to be secured first. Two visits cost more than one — a board-up tonight plus glazing when the unit arrives is a different number from a single planned reglaze. We give the board-up cost before we roll and the glass cost once we have measured, and we do not price the glass differently because you called at midnight.