methods to secure a commercial door partially open

[Akrollmark]

Hi all,

My partner and I own a commercial cleaning company. We are looking into purchasing a truck mount carpet and tile cleaning machine in order to more efficiently service our customers' periodic carpet and heavy tile cleaning needs. This requires that we run a two inch vacuum home and a hot water line into the buildings. The work has to be done after hours.

As such, if there a tool or system that allows you to secure a commercial door while having it be open about 3 inches? We would very much like to avoid the added labor cost of having someone watch the door while the cleaning is taking place.

Any information is greatly appreciated. I hope you and your families are all well.

[Squelchtone]

That's a tough problem to solve. Please help us better understand what a commercial door is to you?

is it like this one:


or like these:



or please share a link to a google search image that matches the style that you are working with.

Honestly, other than some homebrew MacGyver solution, doors are meant to be shut all the way and locked into the door frame, so other than a chain and padlock, which may totally break fire code, I'm not sure you want to partially lock a door x inches open. I know it costs money per hour, but a person standing outside guarding is cheaper than a wrongful death lawsuit because someone couldn't get out during a fire.. just sayin..

So if you were to find something or come up with some solution to this unique problem, it needs to be hard to get *into*the building, but very easy to disable in order to *exit* the building.

I'm sure others who reply will have their own ideas and opinions about your question.

my 2 cents
Squelchtone

[Akrollmark]

Thank you for your reply. You have some good points. In light of the safety issue you properly point out, these buildings are generally large and empty, often we would be able to utilize a set of doors thereby leaving at least one for easy access to exit in an emergency, or we will be able to know the building is fully empty.

Both the photos you included are what I’m thinking about. We ideally need to be able to access both main entry doors and service/security doors.

It’s a difficult problem but one that I’m surprised there’s not a solution to. Again, thank you very much for your response, I appreciate it.

[billdeserthills]

You could easily wrap a cable around those double door handles and use a padlock to secure it or even use a bicycle lock

[Akrollmark]

Ha, well sometimes it’s easy to overthink things. Thank you for your help. That makes perfect sense. I appreciate it. And I’d love to hear any other thoughts as well, but that’s probably the most obvious answer. Appreciate all of you guys.

[Raymond]

Also consider a portable motion sensing alarm to warn if someone approaches the door. This way you can leave it propped open and know if someone tries to get in. That will warn outsiders that the door is being monitored.

[demux]

For a single leaf door with a panic device or cylindrical lockset, it may be possible to build some sort of frame extension that doesn't go all the way down to the ground/floor, with a new strike for the deadlatch to secure into. The trick might be getting it attached to the existing frame without damaging it, perhaps you could secure it where the normal strike attaches. The same could probably also work on double doors with vertical rod panic hardware, just attach your extension at the top of the frame instead of the side. Storefront doors might be a bit trickier, you may need to figure some way to clamp the extension to the inactive leaf without damaging it.

It wouldn't be perfect, as someone sufficiently motivated could probably pry it off or deform it enough to get the door open, but it may be enough to deter the casual tourist. Couple it with a motion sensor alarm as Raymond suggested, and you can probably get most of the way there.

As Squelch suggested, you'll probably also want to run whatever you come up with past your AHJ, though if the building is truly unoccupied some of the normal safety rules may be a bit relaxed...

[Akrollmark]

All great ideas, thank you all.

[cledry]

A few restaurants in our area have the oil in the kitchens pumped out by a contractor. There is a little flap in the door itself to run the hoses through while still leaving the door secured.

Google "door port" for examples.

[GWiens2001]

A few restaurants in our area have the oil in the kitchens pumped out by a contractor. There is a little flap in the door itself to run the hoses through while still leaving the door secured.

Google "door port" for examples.

or Small Dog Door. Woof!

Gordon