Selecting the Best Doors for Your Loading Dock or Warehouse
Operating a business with a warehouse and loading dock that houses materials or products may mean you are regularly loading and unloading freight from different vehicles. The building may need specialty warehouse doors to make moving things in and out more manageable, but choosing and installing these doors can be challenging and often requires a door contractor.
1. Door Size
One of the most critical parts of selecting doors for your warehouse operation is ensuring the doors are large enough to move freight, lift trucks, and semi-trucks through. Some warehouses use loading docks, so moving a truck into the building might not be relevant, but some circumstances make it easier to deal with a load from inside the building.
The door size needs to fit your needs, so try and imagine any operation that might happen in the warehouse before choosing the doors you are going to use. The door company or warehouse door installer can help by going over the sizes available and what will work on your building.
2. Garage Style Dock Doors
Garage style panel doors are lightweight and can be a good option on warehouse docks because they often do not require electric openers, and the cost of the doors is affordable in large volumes.
If you have a warehouse with twenty doors on the dock, saving some cost when installing the doors could be essential. The panels are also replaceable, so if the door is damaged, you most likely will not need to replace the entire door, making upkeep significantly lower for these doors. These doors are light enough that opening and closing them several times a day is not a concern, and dockworkers can handle the door on their own.
3. Steel Roll Up Doors
Steel roll-up doors offer superior strength and durability, but these doors are often reserved for entry points to the warehouse that is not opened as often and provide a secure point in the building. These warehouse doors are typically opened with a steel chain and gear system, so they are not difficult to open. When they are closed, they are extremely difficult to penetrate from the outside, making them a good security door.
Installing these doors is more expensive, so they are often reserved for specific areas that require an entry of this quality. Talk to your door installer about steel roll-up doors if you consider using them because they do need framing that will support the weight and might not work in every situation.
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