Frameless glass doors

These are the beautiful doors you might see inside a mall. Typically, these will be found using 1/2" tempered glass. Holes are pre-drilled, while the glass is still raw, for hardware.

Tubular handles, architectural panic hardware, and mag-lock armitures (a steel plate used for magnetic lock adhesion), can be secured to the glass. The vertical sides of the glass are exposed.

Shoes, which retain the glass at top and bottom, can be full width. These doors can also use corner patches, which leave a majority of the top & bottom glass edges exposed. These shoes are most always found with polished cladding (i.e. polished brass, stainless, or chrome, exteriors).

Lock hardware

Manual lock functions can be achieved by use of manual deadbolts, secured at the bottom of the shoe. There are tubular bar exit devices available, that are very pleasing on the eye. These bars plunge by single action of the user, and a header-mounted roller strike will disengage. The strike for these can be electrified. Vertical face mag-locks are also used, as well as electro-magnetic shear locks. Egress is achieved, using motion detection, touch-sensor bars, or with mechanical panic exit devices.

Access control

Lobbies need to lock at specific times of day. Access control is inherently suited for this application. Access control can be managed thru stand alone systems, by use of a control box, or managed thru software. Time settings, for locked mode, unlocked mode, holiday mode, or daylight savings time mode, can be easily managed by use of software. Access control can make use of card readers, retinal scanners, remote switch control, hand scanners, intercom / cctv communication, with new options always coming available.

Closing method

Frameless glass doors are typically pivoted at the jamb side corner. A hydraulic floor closer can serve both pivot, and closing, function. The bottom, can also be a pivot, by itself. Top pivots can make use of walking beam pivots, patch fittings, and concealed overhead closers. Floor closers can be costly, but should be expected to last for years. You can replace existing floor closers with newly manufactured, or rebuilt replacements. The rebuilt floor closers will only be as good as the mechanic. Some older, obsolete models, require a retrofit to a new model floor closer. Floor closers are typically housed inside coffins (cement cases), which are set into the concrete floor. Floor closers can also be de-activated, by use of center pivots, or offset arm pivots. This allows for use of more economical surface mounted, concealed overhead closers. While the initial retrofit may, or may not cost more, future benefits can be realized by easier replacement, and less costly closer replacements.

Balanced doors

Balanced doors are frameless glass doors which pivot both at the jamb (using a torsion tube), and also, by means of pivot arms, which extend into the opening, when the door is closed.

The glass itself

The face of the tempered glass, on these doors, is remarkably strong. With the edges being a vulnerable point. Chipped edges, will compromise the tensile strength of the glass. Is is the safest bet to replace the glass, if the edges are chipped. Try to limit errant damage by delivery personnel, or toted suitcases. Simply taking a door down, in this condition, brings a risk of the glass breaking. Through communication, the customer, should be made aware of this. Precautions should also be made. Existing door shoes, and hardware, can be transferred to new glass.

Maintenance and upkeep

Another thing to watch out for, is door mis-alignment, causing center glass edges, or jamb side edges meeting side-lites, to rub on each other. This can be caused by worn out pivots, improper alignment, or slipping door shoes. The pivots can be replaced. Proper alignments can be made, and shoes can be re-shoed.

There are times when a frameless glass door may no longer have sufficient clearance to fit within the frame, or to swing open. Sometimes an old floor closer will raise the door by cause of the floor closer becoming corroded within it's case, threaholds and closer covers can also raise. Other times newly installed tile or flooring can take away from the available clearance, or the building itself can move. There is sometimes the option of making the door shorter, by re-shoeing the top and bottom rails.

It doesn't take much to reduce available clearance, as under normal set-up, the door should have 1/4" clearance above the threshold, and 1/8" clearance below the header.

Herculite door

A herculite door was a particular manufacturer of a frameless glass door. This would normally consist of 1/2" tempered glass with the exposed edges polished. Tops and bottoms are pivoted by either patch fittings or full width shoes, often with polished metal cladding. These are hi profile doors you might see at a lobby, or mall entrance, or perhaps an executive office. People often recognize frameless glass doors as the age old term herculite door.

Doorsmith, Inc. is a commercial repair, and installation, service that proudly serves Orange County, California.

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updated: 11/01/11