How to Choose an Industrial Door That Can Withstand the Weather

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UK weather is becoming more extreme. From the blizzards of the Beast from the East in March, to the hottest London Marathon on record in April, temperatures in the south of England went from -3.7°C to 24.1°C in just a few weeks. A good industrial door can cope with these changes in temperature and being battered with snow, ice or sun, keeping the weather out, and your building secure.

Changes in temperature

Low temperatures can make your doors and frames contract (thermal contraction), making them susceptible to being brittle and cracking over time. Wood is the prime example of this, as moisture also affects it.

 

Conversely, hot weather can make the same material swell (thermal expansion), making a door a poor fit in the frame. In addition, thermal bow can occur when the sun’s rays heats a metal door and the interior air is much cooler – causing the door to bow towards the sun.

The effect of weather

Temperature’s not the only consideration – these doors need to constantly stand up to rain, hail, ice, snow, and sun. It would be rare for one of these to affect your door straight away, but weeks of the same weather, or consistently extreme changes can.

The sun can make a finish fade or bubble; humidity, which isn’t season-dependent, is another element that can put materials like wood under the stress of expansion and contraction, and the weather can be especially corrosive in coastal regions.

What are my options?

A robust door or shutter made of a reinforced or coated steel will stand up to the weather, meaning it lasts much longer. Weather seals add protection from the elements.

 

Choose a robust finish. We can coat all of our steel doors in polyester powder-coated paint, which provides excellent durability and weather resistance. Opting for a lighter shade combats thermal bow and it takes longer for any fading over time to be noticeable.

The best doors for extreme weather

Although all of our doors are weather resistant, these are our top picks for when the weather is really hitting hard.

 

Roller shutters

Many of our roller shutters are made of pre-galvanised steel, which makes them strong and hard-wearing. However, our insulated roller shutter has the added protection of weather seals and vertical brushes which means it not only protects your building from the outside environment, but it also provides insulation to reduce energy and heat loss.

 

Our pneumatic doors have been developed for extreme conditions where electric motors aren’t suitable, and for a short period, they can even run without electrical power, making them uniquely suited to stand up to harsh weather.

 

Steel doors

Steel doors are highly weather-resistant and suit a huge range of businesses and applications. Our marine grade steel doors are manufactured from zinc coated and galvanised stainless steel. These can handle harsh, wet conditions like that corrosive coastal weather and are sealed to ensure no water can enter.

 

If you’d like to talk to us about the ways our doors are weather resistant, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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