Case study · Alcester, Warwickshire B49
Retail door, industrial building — the same closer either way
Factory shops, trade counters and unit-front showrooms all share a quirk: the door gets retail traffic but was specified as part of an industrial build, and it tends to be forgotten until it fails. The Hamiltons entrance is a textbook example — a well-kept black aluminium screen with a concealed transom closer that had simply been left to run since 1991. When a closer that old loses its hydraulic damping the door either drifts and fails to latch, or drops shut hard against the frame; either way the glazing and the lock take the punishment.
Because the original was a Dorma RTS 85, the replacement decision was straightforward. Dorma’s RTS 88 is the current unit in the same series and is built to the same body length, width and fixing centres, so it goes into the same transom box with the same spindle position and the leaf hangs exactly where it did before. We fitted a new arm with it — a worn arm pivot on a new closer is a false economy — and set the unit for closing speed and final latching action so the door pulls itself onto the keep from any opening angle.
Why we date the closer we take out
The photographs on this page show the two units side by side, and the month and year cast into the old one. We photograph this on every job because it gives the client a plain answer to the question “why did it fail?” — and, just as usefully, a plain answer for any other doors on the site. If one 1991 closer has failed, the others on the same building are on the same clock. For a business with a public entrance, planning that replacement is far cheaper than an emergency call-out on a Saturday afternoon with the shop full.
Work completed at Hamiltons Chocolates
- Survey — closer identified as an original Dorma RTS 85 (1991); like-for-like Dorma RTS 88 specified.
- Transom closer — leaf removed; old closer and arm stripped from the transom; new RTS 88 and arm fitted.
- Commissioning — leaf re-hung on its pivot; closing speed and latching action set; door tested through its full cycle.
- Trading — shop remained open through the adjacent leaf for the duration.
Commercial door repairs across Alcester, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Vale of Evesham
Alcester sits between our Worcestershire base and the Coventry and Warwickshire run, so it is well inside our regular coverage along with Stratford-upon-Avon, Evesham, Redditch, Studley, Bidford-on-Avon and Henley-in-Arden. Factory shops, trade counters and unit showrooms on the estates around these towns get the same service as a high-street shopfront: transom closers, floor springs and pivots, aluminium door repairs, locks and panic hardware, quoted from a photograph and fixed in one visit wherever the parts allow.
