Automatic Doors in Niagara Falls

In rough order of how often we are called for them: sensors that have drifted, been knocked or been blinded by sunlight or a new floor finish; dirty or worn rollers and tracks on a slider, which show up as a door that shudders or stalls; failed or misadjusted safety beams that leave the door stuck open or reversing at random; belts, motors and control boards at the end of their life; and damage from something that hit the door. The single most common underlying cause is not the operator at all — it is a building change nobody connected to the entrance, like a new mat, a new sign or a re-tiled floor.

Typically 4–6 weeks to produce the door once shop drawings are approved, then 1–2 weeks to schedule the job and install it — so around 5–8 weeks in total, depending on the size of the project. An automatic slider runs to the longer end because the operator, the framing and the glass all have to arrive together. A standard automatic door operator is a different matter entirely: those are stock items, so fitting one to a door that already hangs correctly is usually 2–3 days rather than weeks. Emergency repairs are a different clock again and are dispatched 24/7. On site, a single automatic entrance is usually installed in a day; a full package on a general contractor's build runs over several weeks.

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.