Key Storage Inc., in Vancouver Washington. Features Boxes and Moving Supplies – Truck and Trailer Rentals – RV / Boat / Vehicle Storage – Individually Alarmed Rooms –

Fenced/Walled Perimeter – Electronic Gate Access – Lighted Units – Resident Manager – Ground Level Units – Drive-up Access – Open 7 days – No Admin Fee.
They are apparently affiliated with Emove & U-Haul.

Fire egress code requires most all commercial exterior doors to be out-swinging. The problem with hollow-metal doors is that if the top of the door doesn’t have a “TOP-CAP” properly installed and sealed, and/or if in this case, if the “Lite-Kit” (window)…

…isn’t sealed well, then water has a means for accessing into the door, as evidenced by the corroded door-skin near the bottom. If you click on this or the previous photo, you may get a better view of what we’re describing.

So we were contracted to replace three of these single-entry commercial-grade steel doors. The door jambs were fine, so we were able to acquire correctly sized doors with the proper hinge-locations and lock-locations…

…that matched the original door-jambs. Note that we were also able to reuse the “Lite-Kits.” We took them out of the original doors…

…and installed them into the new doors.

One of the door-jambs was discovered to have come loose from the rough-opening, so our technician Brandon provided and…

…installed some fairly heavy-duty after-market bracketing to properly re-secure it.

We contracted Sundeleaf Painting (www.sundeleafpainting.com) to have the doors pre-painted on this project per our clients request. So when we were done, the door replacement was complete!

As many folks know, Vertical-Rod Panic Devices are locks that allow double-entry doors to lock and to open independently of each other by means of locking at the top and the bottom each door.

As many folks who have held maintenance positions in a commercial building likely know, the “vertical-rod” versions of these locking mechanisms are more than a little temperamental and easily misaligned or jarred out of adjustment.

So it rarely pays to use the economy models or the economy brands of panic devices, even though the bid amount might look good when comparing bids. Thus the old axiom, “a penny-wise and a dollar-foolish.”

This is another, different set of double-entry steel doors that we replaced for a different client. This is the before shot. Please note that these double-entry doors do not use vertical-rod panic devices. These are NON-vertical-rod panic devices. If you look closely at the photo, you can see what is called “a vertical-mull-post” at the center of the opening. This is a steel post into which the panic devices latch, instead of latching at the top & bottom of the opening.

The after shot. Sometimes the post is removable, allowing for big items to be brought through the door opening. And sometimes the posts are non-removable. You can order the steel-jamb assembly to be made with a third jamb-leg that runs down between the doors, which serves as a permanent mull-post, common in schools. Either way, removable or not, this type of locking hardware configuration with a mull-post, is much less problematic, more durable and dependable.

Childrens Intensive Therapy NW @ 72nd and Southeast Raymond Street. For children who need more than your standard fare physical therapy.

There is a very interesting story on their website regarding the founders own daughter that led them to develop a business that now caters to others with similar needs.

Apparently some of these needs extend beyond some of the conventional therapy practices offered by mainstream practitioners.

We were contracted to spruce up the entry door on this commercial building. No doubt for both cosmetic reasons, as well as long term durable utility.

The wall on this building was a mishmash of what looked like past do-it-yourself construction by previous owners or tenants.

A hollow-metal steel door with what is often called a full-length lite-kit (or FULL-LITE) with obscure glass.

This obscure glass affords privacy while still gaining the benefit of light for the interior area.

The interior & exterior finish trim is installed. A mail-slot is installed at the bottom, similar to what the original door had. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

And then a little finish paint, a new light fixture above the doorway, and it is a considerably more inviting entryway.

Spruced up indeed!

The back door for the Nice Rice Asian Eatery on N.W. 188th in Hillsboro. Your one stop shop for great Pan Asian cuisines apparently left something cooking a little too long.

It is pretty clean by the time we first arrive to measure for a new door, but the place was apparently gutted by fire.

Actually, we have no idea what the cause of the fire was, but you can see one example of why we have fire-rated steel doors. To keep the flames contained.

By the time we returned with the new door and jamb assembly, the general contractor had the new drywall on the interior.

Tony Getz finishes peeling off the remnants of the original steel jamb from the masonry wall.

With the original door & jamb assembly removed, we can turn to the task of setting the new door and jamb assembly into place.

The new jamb is secured and braced as we fill in behind it with grout. Yes, the weight of the new door is being used to hold a board against the jamb so the grout does not pour back out.

Later that same day, the new door, jamb, hydraulic door closer and the panic device are installed and ready for use.

All that remains is a coat of paint.

Hollow Metal Steel Doors. They are probably not like the doors found on spaceships, submarines or nuclear reactor facilities, but they are probably your strongest general use commercial door available.

An old commercial property on Southeast Main Street in Portland.

The first of two old wood single-entry doors to be replaced with Hollow-Metal Steel Doors. Remember, you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

One of the byproducts of the economic downturn still being substantially felt in 2012 was a marked increase in the competition amongst commercial property landlords to attract tenants.

The need to spruce up these properties translated into a considerable boost in demand for our services. This opening required a custom-faced steel jamb to fit into the masonry opening.

The finished product. A 32-inch wide door is unusual for an exterior commercial opening. Probably something like 98-99% or more of all commercial doors are at least 36-inch wide.

The second door opening allowed us to install a more conventionally sized door and jamb assembly.

A 39-inch wide door, although unusual, translated into a rough-opening that was 41-inch wide, which is nearly perfect for a steel door jamb made for a 36-inch wide door.

This is because stock commercial steel jambs have 2-inch wide jamb-faces, as they are called.

41-inches in rough-opening width is about one-half-inch wider than necessary, but a little extra room is easier to deal with than not enough room.

The finished product. Fastening to these ancient masonry-brick walls was more than a little challenging, but that is frequently why folks employ our services.

An old wood veneer door on the back of a convenience store in Vancouver. Even with the unusually elaborate overhead drip-cap someone installed, this door remained quite exposed to the elements. Time for an upgrade.

As it would happen, and it’s rare…the wood door panel itself was an odd width. It was the exact dimension needed for a stock sized Steel Door Jamb. So as you can see, we were able to install the new Steel Door Jamb in-between the original wood jamb.

If you knew the difficulties of sometimes fastening to these concrete block walls, you might appreciate how fortuitous this was for us. We reinstalled the original exit only panic device and a new aluminum threshold.

Pacific Power facility in Warrenton, Oregon

A circuit breaker room with a weathered steel door assembly.

Oregon coast weather and the salt laden air are pretty hard on the hardiest of products.

And as you can tell by the bent hydraulic door closer arm, the winds can also be a bit stiff.

So we pull the entire original steel door & jamb assembly.

Now the new steel jamb assembly is set in place…

…and the masonry wall is prepped to receive the Dynabolt-Anchors that will hold the new door jamb to the wall.

The exterior perimeter of the newly installed steel door jamb is masked and caulked.

After installing the Louvered-Vent-Assembly that came with the door, we reinstall the overhead drip-cap.

The finished product from the exterior. As you will note, we made arrangements to have the exterior of the door and jamb assembly pre-painted.

Hollow Metal Steel Doors used to enclose the dumpsters at a strip-mall on Northwest Burnside.

They no doubt help to diminish the aesthetic liabilities related to having garbage bins looming near a handful of high-end retail businesses, as well as…

…keeping the uninvited from using the dumpsters. And speaking of high-end retail accouterments…the rusting steel doors and jambs are clearly failing to meet the…

…requirements of those who pay the landlord those high-end monthly payments. And so it is that our services are contracted to replace both the doors and the jambs.

Field technicians Rubin Sanders and Nate Velazquez are shown just finishing-up the project when I stop-by to take a couple after-shots.

Ordering these doors and jambs was a little trickier than normal, in that the bottom of the openings are set on a slope, so if you look closely, you can see that each door…

…and each jamb-leg is of necessity, a slightly different length. And the bottoms of the doors were manufactured at an angle to match the slope.

Another door project for a church in N.E. Portland. We did a number of exterior door openings, but we’re only showing photos for a couple of them.

This opening off the kitchen with a “mail-slot” in the door. We are frequently asked by our residential clients what is the strongest door available. And this is it.

A commercial-grade hollow-metal steel door. The jamb-assembly on this opening necessitated replacement of both the door and the jamb. This photo is showing the custom steel jamb set in the opening before the trim is installed. Stock steel jambs like this come with 2″ jamb-faces that necessitate larger rough-openings than do wood door jamb assemblies.

Fortunately, we are able to acquire customized steel jambs that dimensionally simulate wood jambs for use in pre-existing rough-openings, such as these very old masonry openings. Shake-moldings are fastened to the steel jambs by means of cabinet screws.

And then the door is readied for installation with a new mail-slot trim-set and a new panic device.

The combination of an 18-gauge hollow-metal steel door like this installed into a 16-guage steel jamb makes for a formidable security barrier.

The hinges have what are called NRP (non-removable-pins), and even if there were no security gate…there would be no kicking-in an outswing door.

Here’s another opening that, as you can see, was due for a new door. But the jamb was deemed reusable, so we matched the existing hinge locations…

…and installed the door into the original wood door-jamb, which you can see in the last photo if you look close (click to enlarge?).

The panic-device on this door is what they call an “exit-only” panic device. As the name suggests, there is no access from the exterior. This is a security consideration for openings that really have no serious need for exterior access.

Portland State University Campus Storage Room Doors.

Dumpster storage to be exact.

Between the direct exposure to the weather and the squirrely nature of those dumpster caster-wheels, these doors take a beating.

Both the doors and the jamb assembly to which they are attached get hammered, and thus the jamb has broken loose from the masonry wall.

Aftermarket measures such as the oversized kickplates and this Markar reinforcement pivot-hinge have done all they can do to squeeze as much life as possible out of these doors.

It is time for a replacement.

Eric Lewis and Jared Anderson go about the task of removing the original and then installing the new steel door-jamb assembly into the masonry wall.

We do not know how many folks know of or remember what an ERECTOR-SET is, but we tend to call much of the commercial work we do erector-set work, because of all the parts that simply need to be fastened together as with the erector set many of us played with in our youth.

We say this as compared to some of the craft and finesse needed to do some of the other niche work we do with wood doors and windows.
Which is not to say that there is not great need for strong problem-solving skills in the commercial end of our trade, because indeed there are many expensive mistakes that can be made.

And probably no more serious mistakes exist as those found in the correct measuring and ordering of commercial doors and windows.
One might think that after over three decades of measuring for doors and windows, that mistakes would be hard to make, which is of course exactly the very type of attitude that leads to expensive mistakes.