Rolling Steel and Warehouse Roll Up Doors in Las Vegas

Signs you need this

• The door is heavy to lift by hand or the motor strains to raise it
• Slats are bent, punctured or the curtain has come out of its guides
• The door drops the last few feet instead of lowering under control
• The bottom bar or its seal is torn and the bay lets in dust and heat
• A forklift or truck has struck the door and the bay is out of use

How a rolling steel door works, and where it fails

The curtain hangs from a barrel that houses the counterbalance springs. As the door rises the curtain coils around the barrel and the springs unwind; as it lowers they wind back up. The springs are the wear item, and because they live inside the barrel a failing spring shows up as a door that is suddenly heavy rather than as a visible break. Slats fail from impact. Guides fail from being struck or from the curtain running out of true. The bottom bar and its rubber astragal fail from years of landing on rough concrete and from sun on the rubber.

Roll up door repair by the part, not by the door

Rolling steel doors are built to be repaired in place. Individual slats and end locks are replaced without dropping the curtain in most cases, springs are re-tensioned or replaced inside the barrel, guides are straightened or swapped, and a torn bottom bar is a bolt on part. A door whose curtain is bent across most of its width, or whose barrel is damaged, is the one that gets a replacement quote instead.

Rated in cycles: when a rolling steel door is due

Rolling steel door springs, barrel bearings and operators are rated for a number of cycles rather than a number of years, and a dock door that opens for every delivery can use up a rating in a fraction of the time a quiet bay does. A door serviced on its cycle count is the one that does not fail on a delivery day. We will tell you where each door on the site sits in its life once we have seen it, and if the operator is the part that is due, that has a page of its own.

Warehouse doors in Las Vegas heat and dust

Steel doors on a south or west wall in the Valley reach temperatures that drive the lubricant out of the guides and bearings, and blowing dust packs the bottom of the guides and the barrel hood. Both show up as a door that squeals, drags and then binds. A seasonal clean and lubrication of the guides, the barrel bearings and the bottom bar is cheap insurance against a door stuck half open in July.

The parts, by name

Curtain

The door itself: a sheet of interlocking steel slats that coils onto the barrel above the opening.

Barrel

The steel tube the curtain coils around. The counterbalance springs are housed inside it.

Guides

The vertical steel channels on each side of the opening that hold the edges of the curtain.

Hood

The sheet metal cover over the coiled curtain that keeps rain, dust and birds out of the barrel.

Bottom bar

The reinforced bottom edge of the curtain, usually carrying a rubber astragal that seals against the floor.

Sheet door

A lighter cousin used on self storage units: a single sheet of corrugated steel rather than slats.

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