How Much Does an Industrial Door cost?

What Is the Real Cost of Buying, Owning, and Using an Industrial Door?

This is an exceptionally well-maintained 1977 Toyota Land Cruiser.

The owner is asking 5,900 EUR for it, which might seem affordable. But nowhere in the ad does it mention that it consumes 25 liters of petrol per 100 km and that the engine, body, chassis—well, most of it—will probably need to be replaced soon due to severe wear and tear.

In summary, it’s a fairly cheap car to buy but insanely expensive to use.

It’s exactly the same with industrial doors. You have a purchase price that’s easy to compare, but then there are hidden costs that depend on how well-designed, insulated, and sealed the door is.

Some doors last for 30 years, while others need to be replaced after five. If you’re unlucky, you might need to buy six cheap doors to get the same lifespan as a good one.

In this way, the purchase cost and capital cost are linked to the lifespan of your door.

Buying the right door is therefore an investment that can provide future returns.

Purchase Cost Is Just a Small Part of the Total Cost

If a door lasts for 30 years, the cost of the door and installation is only a small part of its total operating cost.

Lastbilsverkstad

Heat Losses Are the Biggest Expense

The biggest expense goes toward paying for all the heat that escapes through the door when it’s closed. How large that cost is depends on how well-insulated the door is.

We have replaced poorly insulated old doors that let through 15,000 kWh of heat energy per year. A new 4×4 meter Torverk door lets through less than 3,000 kWh annually.

Reduced Energy Consumption by 9,000 EUR per Year

Consider the truck workshop we helped in 2019 to replace seven of their old doors with Torverk doors. There was nothing wrong with the old ones, but since trucks had become slightly taller since the doors were installed in the ’80s, they needed higher folding doors.

For us, it was a completely ordinary assignment. We did the job and went home.

Years went by, and the truck workshop carried on as usual. But in December 2023, the property manager reviewed the company’s district heating consumption.

Before the company replaced the doors, their district heating consumption was steadily around 640,000 kWh per year. After the replacement, consumption dropped to 550,000 kWh.

The seven Torverk doors reduced the workshop’s district heating cost by about 9,000 EUR per year. Since the doors cost 31,820 EUR including installation, they paid for themselves in just three years.

There are three types of heat losses that affect your heating cost:

Heat Loss Through a Closed Door

When heat energy travels through the material from the warm to the cold side, it’s called transmission. The measure of how much heat a door lets through is called the U-value. A high U-value means you lose a lot of heat energy through the door’s construction.

The tricky part is that different door manufacturers measure U-value in different ways. “Best average” is, for example, a “feel-good measure” calculated by looking at how much heat energy can pass through the most well-insulated part of the door panel.

But “best average” has nothing to do with reality, since the real U-value occurs when the door is installed—including seals, windows, pedestrian doors, and frame connections—all of which contribute to lowering the actual U-value. Therefore, you should always ask for the U-value of an installed door.

Air Leakage Through a Closed Door

All closed doors also have air leakage.

How much air a door lets through depends on the quality of the sealing system and the pressure difference between indoor and outdoor environments.

The measure of air leakage is called the T-value, and it’s measured in a laboratory environment.

Air Exchange When the Door Is Open

Every time the door opens, heat escapes and cold enters.

The difference between different door brands and types is almost negligible, but you can minimize air exchange with flow-optimized automation, which brings us to logistics.

Passage Cost

A major expense associated with your door is all the working time lost waiting for the door to open and close. If a forklift has to wait ten seconds, ten times a day, seven days a week, 47 weeks a year, that’s almost ten hours of lost working time.

The equation to calculate passage cost is:

Passage Cost = Number of Passages × Passage Time × Time Cost

By automating opening and closing with sensors and motors, you can reduce the waiting time every time someone enters or exits the building.

“En ports roll är att inte vara i vägen”

Bruno Bergmar på Bjälbo Trädgård i Skänninge uttrycker det på ett enklare sätt: ”En ports roll är att inte vara i vägen”.

Varje år producerar Bruno tio tusen ton potatis. Han förvarar skörden i klimatstyrda lagerhus, innan han tvättar, sorterar och packar dem i lösviktslådor som levereras direkt till matvarubutiker.

Lagerlokalerna är en kritisk punkt i Brunos logistikkedja. Vattnet i potatisen dunstar och därför krävs välisolerade lagerhus för att slippa kondens och rost på utrustning och byggnader.

Bruno föredrar vikportar före takskjutportar, för ”när du kör lastmaskin är problemet att takskjutportar ofta går ner innan du hunnit komma ut. De är också ganska långsamma att öppna och stänga och är dyra i underhåll och inköp. Vikportar däremot har du alltid koll på med ögonen, och eftersom de öppnar sig åt både vänster och höger samtidigt, så går de fortare att öppna och stänga”.

Brunos lagerlokaler har 15 vikportar från Torverk. ”De tål faktiskt lite stryk utan att de slutar fungera och är konstruerade så man får många stängningscykler utan krångel”.

Summan av kardemumman är att portar helst ska öppnas och stängas så snabbt som möjligt för att inte generera passagekostnader. Samtidigt behöver de vara enkla att se, och ska helst tåla en kyss eller två utan att sluta fungera.

Bruno Bergmar chose folding doors from Torverk
Bruno Bergmar at Bjälbo Trädgård believes that "the role of a door is not to be in the way." Therefore, he chooses folding doors instead of overhead sectional doors. Because the water in his potatoes evaporates, he needs extra well-insulated doors to minimize condensation and rust.

Costs for Maintenance and Service

24 år year old folding door in Antarctica
This door has guarded a boathouse in one of the planet's most inhospitable places since the year 2000. After 22 years in operation, the floor seals had become worn. Otherwise, the doors were working as they should, despite constant hurricane winds, severe cold, and saltwater.

Servicing and maintaining a door can be expensive. The materials need to withstand large temperature fluctuations and brutal wear on moving parts and rubber seals; otherwise, extensive maintenance work and spare parts are required.

In the year 2000, we delivered two folding doors to a research station on the small island of South Georgia in Antarctica. There, in one of the planet’s most inhospitable places, about twenty researchers study how to protect the ocean’s biodiversity.

During the long, icy winters, sea winds reach up to 120 km/h and shower the entire coastline with saltwater. It’s an extreme environment for anything that can rust.

In their order, the British Antarctic Survey required that the doors withstand a wind load of 1.5 kilopascals. That means they should handle a pressure of 153 kg per square meter. To ensure the door’s electronics could withstand the cold, we installed a heating element in the control cabinet.

“After 22 years in operation, the floor seals had become worn”.

One day in 2022, the research station’s facility engineer got in touch to order new floor seals. After 22 years in operation, they had become worn, allowing water to seep in. Otherwise, the doors were working as they should, despite constant hurricane winds, severe cold, and saltwater.

This shows how a door with thoughtful design and construction minimizes the cost of service and repairs.

In Swedish industries, the most common problem is that someone accidentally drives into a door. If you’re unlucky, you might need to replace a door panel, which is the most expensive part to repair. After that comes replacing worn sealing systems and springs.

Rust is most common for frame-built steel doors, while doors with sandwich construction generally fare better.

vertikal-horizontal illusion
Which of the lines is longer? Most people perceive the vertical line as longer than the horizontal one, even though both are the same length.

Reduce Your Maintenance Costs with a Side-Opening Door

Mattias Reinhard at Nybetong in Kumla was just going into the factory to make a turn. But someone had pressed the button to close the overhead sectional door.

“I didn’t see that the door was coming down and clipped the bottom door panel with the forklift. Then the factory was left open for three days while the door was being repaired.”

An incident like that can cost around 1,000 EUR to fix.

At the same time, it’s not so surprising that it happens, because we humans are worse at judging distances in the vertical plane than in the horizontal plane. Johan Joseph Oppel demonstrated this back in 1855 in an experiment where he asked people which of the lines on the left was longer.

Most people perceive the vertical line as longer than the horizontal one, even though both are the same length.

Needs Analysis Helps You Choose the Right Door

To ensure that your door lasts as long as possible and withstands the stresses present in your operation, we recommend a needs analysis to determine:

  • Where the door will be placed
  • In which direction it should move
  • What size it should be
  • Climate and environment
  • Number of passages per day
  • Etc.

All this and more gives us clues as to how your door should be constructed to become as good an investment as possible.

For example, if your door only opens a few times per day, it’s unnecessary to invest in motorized operation. But if it opens once an hour, then motors and automation will save money through reduced waiting times and heat losses.

If the door is to be installed in an aggressive environment, you may need stronger rust protection. And if you have high-value assets in the building, then a security-rated door may be the best choice to keep thieves out and meet insurance requirements.

Talk to us, and we’ll help you with a needs analysis.