Rolling steel and roll up doors in Miami: supply and installation

A rolling steel door coils into a barrel above the opening. A sectional door runs back along the ceiling on horizontal tracks. That one difference decides most commercial specifications: a rolling door needs headroom but almost no depth behind the header, so it suits storefronts and loading bays where sprinklers, ductwork or a mezzanine already occupy the ceiling.

It depends on the opening, not the county. Miami-Dade is a High Velocity Hurricane Zone, so a commercial door needs a Notice of Acceptance and the pressure is written by the engineer against the building's exposure, height and opening size. In practice most South Florida service openings are covered by a door rated to 65 psf in both directions, while wider or more exposed openings move up to 70 or 100 psf.

Troubleshooting on an existing rolling door is $495, and slat repair is $1,095 minimum. On a new door the price follows the opening. A galvanised steel service door rated to 65 psf starts at $4,550 installed, runs about $5,400 at an opening 8 ft by 8 ft and about $6,550 at 10 ft by 10 ft. A 70 psf perforated model starts at $5,550 and a 100 psf model at $5,900. Aluminium grilles start at $5,250, counter shutters at $5,300, stainless 304 at $13,300. Fire doors are quoted in writing within 24 hours, because the release, the closing hardware and the acceptance drop test are priced with the door to your opening and wall rating. The operator is quoted separately. The permit fee varies by city and is passed through at cost, see permit costs by city. Every figure is a starting point from our catalogue and not a firm quote: the exact number depends on the width, the height and the design pressure your opening has to meet.

A counter shutter starts at $5,300 installed, with any operator quoted on top. It is the short wide door over a service counter, a concession window, a pharmacy hatch or a bar, and it is priced differently from a service door because almost all of them are made to the opening rather than picked off a size chart. Width, whether it is face or between-jamb mounted, and the finish are what move the number.

It is a rolling door engineered and approved to hold a stated pressure in both directions, in and out, rather than one that merely looks solid. In Miami-Dade and Broward you need one on any exterior opening, because both counties are a High Velocity Hurricane Zone and the inspector checks the door against the design pressure the engineer wrote for that opening. Most South Florida service openings are covered by a door rated to 65 psf, from $4,550 installed; wider or more exposed openings move up to 70 or 100 psf, from $5,550 and $5,900. An unrated door on an exterior opening will not pass, whatever it costs.

Yes. NFPA 80 requires a rolling fire door to be drop tested when it is installed and then inspected and drop tested at least once a year, with a written record kept for the fire inspector. The test releases the door the way a fire would, through the fusible link or the alarm release, and proves it closes fully on its own at a controlled speed and can be reset. The label also only holds if the door, hood, guides and release stay the listed parts. We run the acceptance test on doors we install and the annual test on existing doors, which is part of our commercial maintenance plan at $349 a year for the first door, and leave you the signed record.

Usually yes. A curtain out of its guides is normally the result of an impact or a worn guide. The repair is to straighten or replace the affected slats, true the guides and re-tension the barrel spring. If the curtain is badly deformed we replace the damaged slats rather than the whole door, which is most of the cost.

A chain hoist is a hand chain and gear reduction that lets one person raise a curtain far too heavy to push up. The deeper the reduction, the heavier the door it lifts and the more chain you pull. Ratios run from a direct drive on light curtains up to 25:1 for the heaviest. It is also the fallback when a motorised door loses power.

A jackshaft operator mounted on the barrel shaft, not the trolley opener you would put on a house. We fit Manaras and LiftMaster commercial units in 115, 208, 240 and 480 volt, single and three phase, from half to two horsepower. Curtain weight, cycles per day and the power actually available at the opening decide which one.

Yes, and most of our commercial work is exactly that. We service rolling doors from any manufacturer, including doors the original installer no longer supports, and the trucks carry the common slats, guides, springs and operator parts.