Two buildings, one wrong assumption

An Aged Care Automatic Doors operator in the Hills and a boutique hotel in Surry Hills asked for “the same door we saw on a shop”. The shop door was fine for the shop. It was the wrong brief for both of them.

We have already written about hospitals, pharmacies and supermarkets. Aged care and hotels get grouped with those and then specified like retail. The traffic is different, the night use is different, and the person using the door is often slower, or carrying a bag, or arriving with a wheelchair. This is the separate note.

Aged care entrances

The main door of an aged care home is a front door and a safety door at the same time. Families visit. Residents go out to a courtyard. Ambulances and transport chairs use the same leaf. A door that snaps shut, or that needs a fast walker to clear the sensor, is the wrong door.

What we look for:

·       A clear opening that takes a wheelchair and a person beside it, without the leaf clipping the chair.

·       Sensors with a longer hold-open. Residents do not cross at retail speed.

·       Touchless where it can be done cleanly, without a sensor so wide that the door stands open all afternoon.

·       A controlled after-hours mode. Many homes want the door on exit-only or on a fob after a set time, so residents are not walking onto the street at night. That is an access conversation with the clinical team, not only a locksmith conversation.

·       Low opening force on any swing door. A heavy leaf with a fierce closer is a fall risk.

·       Glass marked so it is visible. Reflections in late sun hide a closed leaf.

Courtyard doors are the ones that get forgotten. They are used all day, they take weather, and they are often a lighter domestic unit asked to behave like a commercial door. If residents use it, specify it as a commercial door and service it. A seized courtyard door becomes a manual door, and then it becomes a door people prop with a chair.

We do not set ourselves up as the clinical experts. The home knows its elopement risk and its lockdown procedure. Our job is to make the door do the mode they have already chosen: open for visitors at 2pm, controlled at 8pm, safe in both.

Hotel lobbies and side entrances

A hotel door has two lives. From 7am to 10am it is a luggage door. From 10pm it is a quiet door that still has to work for a late check-in who has never used it before.

The lobby slider wants a wide clear opening, a sensor that sees a person with a suitcase in front of them, and a hold-open long enough for the second guest. It also wants a night mode that does not leave the lobby open to the street. Many small hotels in Sydney use the same leaf all night and rely on staff. That works until the night manager is on the phone. An electric lock tied to reception, or a fob for guests, is the grown-up version.

Side doors and carpark doors fail differently. They are used less, so they are serviced less, and the first guest to use them after a month finds a sensor full of dust or a lock that has stuck. Put them on the same plan as the lobby. They are still a guest entrance.

Wind in a double-height lobby will hold a light leaf open. If the air conditioning bill has jumped and the door is the suspect, it often is. A lobby that was designed with a short airlock and then value-managed down to a single leaf will leak air. We can commission the door. We cannot invent the airlock that was deleted. Say that early if you are still in design.

What both buildings share

Both need a person on site who knows the mode switch. Both need the service number on the header, not in a folder at head office. Both need glass that is marked, speeds that are calm, and a record of the last visit.

Both also get refits that move the sensor. A new concierge desk, a new flower plinth, a Christmas tree in December. The door starts holding open and everyone blames the operator. Walk the sensor zone after any furniture change. It is a ten-minute job and it saves the call-out.

Specifying before the joinery is ordered

If you are the project manager, ask for these in the door schedule:

·       Clear opening width, written as a number.

·       Hold-open time, longer than a retail default.

·       Night mode: lock, exit only, or fob.

·       Who can override it, and from where.

·       Wind or lobby height, if the opening is exposed.

·       Service interval, written into the handover, not left as “builder to commission”.

Commissioning is the visit where speeds, sensors and the night mode are set with someone from the home or the hotel watching. If that visit is skipped, the door is only installed. It is not finished.

If the door is already in

We can usually improve a tired entrance without a full replacement: longer hold-open, sensor re-aim, marked glass, a night lock that reception can actually use, a service sheet that names the door. Replacement is for leaves that are hit, headers that are wet, or openings that were never wide enough.

Aged care and hotel work sits across Sydney and NSW. If you have a courtyard door that residents prop open, or a lobby door that will not settle at night, send a short video of one cycle. It tells us more than a long email. 1300 829 998, sales@theautodoorexperts.com.au for a new opening, service@theautodoorexperts.com.au if it is already failing.

A note on families and late arrivals

In aged care the person who struggles with the door is often a visitor, not a resident: a son with a pram, a daughter carrying bags, someone who has not been to the building before. A sensor that only catches a fast walker will make that visit awkward and, on a bad day, unsafe. Set the hold-open with a slow walk, not with the technician jogging the threshold to get to the next job.

In a hotel the same test is a guest with a suitcase in front of them and a second guest behind. If the door starts to close between the two, the hold-open is short. Night staff should be able to put the door into a known mode without calling a technician. Label the switch. A switch that only the installer understands will be left on auto forever.

Refits, Christmas, and the sensor zone

December is when hotel lobbies gain trees, plinths and queues. Aged care gains extra chairs for family days. Both land in the sensor zone. Walk the opening after the furniture moves. If the door holds open, move the object before you book a call-out. If the path is clear and it still holds, then book. Say it is since the tree went in. We will look at aim first.

Glass marking fades and gets cleaned off. On a west-facing lobby in late sun a closed leaf can disappear. Fresh markers are a small job with a real effect. Put them on the service sheet so they are not treated as a one-off.

If you are comparing quotes

Ask each quote to name the clear opening, the night mode, and the hold-open. A lower number that is silent on those three is a shopfront door with a different title. We are happy to be compared on the same brief. We are not trying to be the cheapest leaf on a drawing that has not decided how the building works at 8pm.

After the door is in use

Give the entrance a month, then walk it with the person who actually works beside it. In a home that is the receptionist or the nurse who meets families. In a hotel it is the night manager. Ask if anyone has been caught by the close, if the door stands open in the wind, and if the night mode is being used or bypassed. A bypassed night mode means the mode is awkward, not that staff are careless. Fix the awkward part.

Service from that point is ordinary. Twice a year on a quiet boutique hotel. Quarterly on a busy aged care entrance and on any courtyard door residents use. The record stays on site. When the manager changes, the door should not have to introduce itself again.

If you are still in design, send the door schedule before the joinery is ordered. Changing a clear opening after the steel is in costs more than specifying the hold-open and the night mode now. If the door is already in and misbehaving, the video of one slow cycle is enough to tell us whether this is a setting or a replacement.