The GAP at Tanasbourne.

If you enlarge the photo by clicking upon it, you may be able to make out that one of these two Hurculite Glass Doors is not closing all the way.

The photo collage above evidences one of the reasons why the door is not closing. The door is sagging down and rubbing upon the aluminum threshold.

These photos show some of the consequential damage to the door.

The culprit is a worn-out walking beam-pivot and the associated bronze bushing in the top of the door.

One of the doors was literally on the verge of falling over because the bracketing for one of the walking-beam-pivots had broken.

And thus it was that we proposed a hardware upgrade to the Jackson J580 Center-Hung Heavy-Duty Top Pivot hinging system.

This did of course, require some modifications to both the doors…

…and the header-jamb cavity that houses the Jackson Pivot Hinge.

This actually appears to be a substantial improvement over the walking-beam pivot.

Downtown Vancouver, Washington.

A couple very old double-acting center-hung single-entry aluminum storefront doors. Note the concave shaped jamb-stop with the corresponding convex edges of the door.

That’s a relatively interesting way to hide the gaps between the doors and their respective vertical jamb-legs, but one of the biggest tenant complaints was the cold-air blowing in around these doors. So our proposal was to pull the floor-hidden hydraulic door closers, as seen above…

…and reinstall the doors as strictly out-swing versions, which necessitated moving the doors from the center of the jamb, out to the exterior most edge of the jamb.

Continuous hinges are one of the high-traffic commercial door products of the century.

The floor-hidden hydraulic door closers that we removed, where replaced with surface-mount Hager 5100 series hydraulic door closers installed in a “parallel-arm configuration.” Much more adjustable and dependable, with the added benefit of what they call “Back-Check,” which is almost an absolute necessity for commercial outswing doors. Back check helps cushion the door when it gets caught by the wind.

The new weather-stripping products of choice were the Pemko 2815 perimeter gasketing, which we chose because we needed a product that could double as a jamb-stop of sorts, with its 7/16″ overlap, which we shimmed out with aluminum flat-bar to acquire the needed dimensional relationship to the door-faces on the top and side. Pemko 18061 brush-type door-bottom weather-strip for the door sweep.

Some needed reinforcement for the deadbolt.

These two storefront doors with their single-pane glass and related storefront structure have many miles on them, in a manner of speaking.

The owner indicated that this commercial building had been in their family since it was built, and keeping the original doors was important to them. Not only did they save some money over having to purchase new doors, but they will also likely have many more years of trouble-free use.

General Tree Service in Beaverton. Serving Portland & S.W. Washington since 1924.

The request had to do with a door that wouldn’t let in so much light on sunny days. Also note the horizontal pull-bar that originally existed when we first showed up. Also note the sunny July day when we first showed up to perform our preliminary inspection.

Eventually, the project included a hardware upgrade, going from a door with a deadbolt to a door with a panic device, which usually means keeping the door locked during business hours for extra security.

Eventually, we convinced the powers that be, that we could save them money by modify the original door via upgrading the glass to “Solar Cooled Bronze” glass that has a mirror-glass effect in the daytime that is also extremely efficient at deflecting the unpopular effects of ultraviolet rays, as the name suggests.

If you enlarge this photo by clicking upon it, you can see the mirror effect of the new glass we installed. You will also be able to see the icicles hanging on the awning on this February day upon which we did this project.

These photos show our technician Brandon Todd laying out the preps to install the Adams-Rite 8800 Series Rim Mounted Starwheel Bolt Panic Device.

Adams-Rite provides a self-adhesive clear template to affix to the door & jamb for drilling the necessary screw and hardware preps. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge and you’ll see it better.

Illustrations from Adams-Rite on the 8800 Series Panic Device.

After shots. Note the new off-set pull handle on the exterior, and the new Adams-Rite Model 8800 Series panic device shown from the interior photo. Also the new mirror-like solar-cooled-bronze glass we installed.

Specifications achieved. Client’s expenditures minimized.

Southeast Hawthorne, circa 1927

The front of the building is not much wider than the double-entry set of aluminum-glass storefront doors.

The miles on these doors show. You can see the many attempts to keep the door panels and jamb assembly pieced together. Note the door-bottom sweep affixed to the top of the door.

Now that is one beefy anti-pry plate. But someone is going to get hurt on that thing trying to walk in or out of the building, so it has got to go.

Our client, the property owner is looking to attract a new tenant, so we have been contracted to redeem the doors as much as is reasonably possible, so we pull the old threshold and the floor-hidden hydraulic door closers upon which the door sat.

Brandon cuts the shaft off the two closer mechanisms and then drops them back into their respective pans.

David Castro preps the new aluminum threshold.

Corey and Brandon install the new continuous hinges, also known by some as piano hinges.

The new Pemko 2548A aluminum commercial threshold is fastened in place and masked-off for a professional finish caulking job.

If you enlarge the photo, you may be able to make out the two surface-mount hydraulic door closers. We also updated all the weatherstripping (Pemko 306AV & 315CN)and tuned up the Adams Rite 4015/4085 Threshold/Header Bolt locking mechanism.

Paul Schatz Furniture (shown) apparently owns the building that the BedMart store is in, because his firm hired us to fix some store front doors on the BedMart Store.

Storefront Doors made by Vistawal Architectural Products – Entrances and Storefronts in Texas to be exact. (http://www.vistawall.ae/qualification/25)

We would not be inclined to associate the problem we’re here to remedy, with the quality of the storefront assembly. Vistawall products seem no more problematic than any of the other brands of aluminum storefronts.

One of the symptoms was that one of the doors was hitting the header jamb above it.
At a glance, you could see the closer-arm connection pin hitting the jamb, as shown in the photos above.

If you enlarge the photo by clicking on it, you may be able to make out how the horizontal component called the header-jamb has seemingly dropped and begun to walk towards the exterior when compared with the other adjoining components.

Again, if you look closely, you can see the same thing when inspected from the exterior.

And so it was that our technicians pulled the cover off the header-hidden Jackson Hydraulic Door Closer compartment…

…and removed the closer to allow us access to the bracket that serves to hold the jamb components together, as well as a mounting-bracket for the closer. For some reason, the fasteners had broken off.

Our guess? Settling.
After removing the insulated glass in the transom above, the header-jamb was clamped back into proper position and held there with shims and then refastened.

Technician Phil McNair puts the finishing touches on the project, and the project comes to a satisfying completion, given that no transom glass fell on any BedMart clients.

Pinnacle Condos on N.W. 9th

An Innotech Vinyl Out-swing Door. When you consider that an out-swing door can be almost maybe two thirds the square footage as a Cessna 150 Airplane wing…

(www.innotech-windows.com)

…it’s no surprise that every time a wind storm blows through the Willamette Valley, it brings us our firm a crop of hyperextended and damaged doors. Without the use of a “Wind-Check,” or a “Door-Stop,”…

…it should be no surprise that when the wind blew this door back against the brick corner, it resulted in irreparable damage. Although the condo owner tried at least a temporary fix it with this L-Bracket.

According to our contact at Innotech in Canada, we were fortunate that they found a spare door this size leaning up against a wall in one of their warehouses.
Apparently, Innotech has…

…ceased manufacturing this series of doors with no thought about what the many property owners are going to do when it comes time to replace some more of these doors into what are completely unique vinyl door jambs.

Not to mention that these original uniquely sized and uniquely profiled vinyl jambs are all tied into the equally unique adjoining vinyl window frames, and that there are skyscrapers full of them in Portland.

We can only speculate that perhaps we’ll be called upon to come up with some sort of custom solution when this problem becomes more apparent to the various property management companies that oversee the maintenance on these buildings.

So anyway, with regard to this door, we removed the original door, and re-installed the original glass and the original multipoint locking mechanism into the new Innotech Vinyl door sash we acquired.
We haven’t taken the opportunity to photograph…

…many of the hardware adjustment projects we are called upon to provide for these Innotech, as well as the Euroline Vinyl doors on the numerous condos around town…but we are beginning to see a marked increase in the demand as the wear and tear is brought to bear.

The South Tabor Neighborhood on Powell Blvd. on snowy day in February…

…when we were asked to come out and inspect these double-entry storefront aluminum doors.

The complaint…was that this wintery weather was finding its way into the interior of the building. And the above photos illustrate the reason why.

This photo is showing that one of the doors is setting considerably more towards the interior than the other door.

And this photo further illustrates how askew this same door (yellow-lines) is sitting as related to the threshold (red-line).

And the yellow-lines in this photo identifies the reason why. The door has somehow been bent. If you enlarge the photo, you might gain a slightly better view of the bent door-stile.

Unfortunately, our technician failed to acquire photo documentation of the process whereby we restored the bent door, but suffice to say we have devised a process to effect that type of repair on-site.

After which we provided and installed some Pemko 18041DP Meeting Stile Weather-Stripping on the interior side of the doors. Usually, meeting stile weather-stripping would be…

…installed on the exterior (shown above), for reasons we won’t delve into here. But as the above photo shows, the proximity of the exterior pull-handles made an exterior application somewhat untenable.

But the “soft-brush” version of the 18041DP product makes the interior application possible. Note: The absence of light between the doors.
Oh yes, we also provided & installed (2) new surface-mount hydraulic door-closers.

The Henry Condos in Northwest Portland.

Suite #200. Commercial Aluminum-Glass deck door…

…with a Hoppe Multi-Point Lock that had broken in the closed position…

…due to a part that had broken, and had to be drilled-out.

After acquiring a replacement lock from Hoppe…

…the original multi-point lock was replaced.

One of several types of multi-point locks. This is known as an active tongue system.

There is also the Shootbolt , Swinghook, Tongue & Shootbolt and Rod-Lock Systems.

For more information on Hoppe brand multi-point locks, go to www.us.hoppe.com

The Hawthorn Farm Athletic Club in Northeast Hillsboro.

Four sets of double-entry glass edged entry doors. These are also sometimes known as Herculite Doors or frameless glass doors.

Due to some apparent settling of the building, the openings or both, the glass-edged doors are rubbing on the aluminum header-jambs.
Nobody probably needs to be told that glass hitting metal is not a good thing.

As this photo shows, the spacing between the bottoms of the doors and the aluminum thresholds is quite minimal. If the exact context of this photo is a little hard to resolve, it’s probably the bright-chrome bottom-rail of the door reflecting the camera in my hand as I take the photo.

So gaining some room for the top of the doors is not going to be a cakewalk, which may be why our client told us that other door companies told them they would have to replace their doors. If you enlarge the photos by clicking on them, you may be able to make out better what we trying to show in these photos.

By adjusting the pivot-hinge brackets in the bottoms of the doors we may be able to gain from a sixteenth to an eighth of an inch before we risk hitting the thresholds.

Tolerances are tight. Raising the bottom bracket into the bottom of the door to lower the doors in the jamb…

…creates concern about the bottom-bracket fasteners hitting the glass, so the screws are modified with a grinder.

We also sought a means by which to raise the header-jambs by modifying the bracketing that holds the header-jambs to the mull-posts.

Accessing this area required temporary removal of the walking beam top pivot that holds the top of the door to the jamb assembly.
Obviously, our mission was a success.

The Veritable Quandary…what has no doubt become a Portland Icon and landmark.

In fact, V.Q. has been a mainstay of the Downtown Eatery and Refreshment scene for so long that some of the surrounding terrain has begun to show its age. You might gain a better view of the damage on the tree and the size of the limb that detached itself, if you enlarge the photo.

Resulting in the four broken panes of glass and the need for a new gutter.

The laminated wire glass pretty much held together despite the damage, as per design.

As is the idea behind safety glass.

Fortuitously, the event occurred after hours, and no one was hurt.

After removing the damaged glass, our technician Phil prepares the aluminum structure for glazing in the new glass…

…while Brandon carefully oversees the process from his lofty and floral-laden perch.

The replacement glass is carefully lifted up to Steve Hilt for installation. You might enlarge the photo to get a better view of the “wire-glass,” if you so desire.

The pre-lunch-hour, early morning project is completed; the site cleaned-up and all evidence of our little covert endeavors are removed before the civilians begin to show up, as was the plan.