Installed UK-wide
Industrial shutters
Steel and insulated roller shutters for warehouses, factories, workshops and loading bays, manual or motorised, installed across the UK. They suit openings that vehicles pass through and doors that run many times a day. Each one is sized to its opening and to the wind on that site, surveyed first and quoted in writing.
Consents this work tends to involve
- Planning permissionOccasionally
A replacement shutter in an existing opening on an industrial building seldom needs permission. Forming a new opening, or a unit next to homes or in a conservation area, can.
- Building regulationsSometimes
Where the building is heated, or the shutter sits in a fire-separating wall, the new door has to meet the energy or fire rules for that opening.
An installer’s general guide; your council decides.
Why does an industrial door need a wind rating?
A curtain several metres wide behaves like a sail. It has to take the wind pressure on that particular site — far more on an exposed estate near the coast than in a sheltered yard — without bowing and pulling out of its guides. Doors are classified for this under BS EN 12424, and wind locks on the ends of the laths are what keep a wide curtain in its tracks.
Insulated or single-skin?
Single-skin steel is right for an unheated store, or an opening that only needs locking up. In a heated building an insulated lath — two steel skins with a foam core — cuts heat loss and condensation, and Approved Document L sets a limit on how much heat large vehicle doors in heated buildings may let through.
What keeps a powered industrial door safe?
The hazard is a heavy curtain coming down on a person or a vehicle. BS EN 12453 sets out the protection a powered door needs: limits on closing force, safety edges or photo-cells, and a way to free someone who is trapped. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require doors in a workplace to have those features and to be maintained so they keep working, which in practice means regular servicing with a written record.
Standards and regulations
| Reference | What it covers |
|---|---|
| BS EN 13241 | Product standard for industrial and commercial doors, under which the shutter’s performance is declared. |
| BS EN 12424 | Classification of a door’s resistance to wind load. |
| BS EN 12453 | Powered doors: closing forces, safety edges, photo-cells and release. |
| BS EN 16034 | Fire-resisting performance, where the shutter is also a fire shutter. |
Questions
Can you motorise an existing manual industrial shutter?
Related
- Roller shutters and grilles — Internal, lattice and vision shutters chosen for the street they face, not just the risk.
- Shutter repairs — Stuck, noisy and off-track shutters repaired within 100 road miles of Birmingham.
- Fire doors — Certified doorsets for stairs, plant rooms and escape routes, fitted so the rating holds.