Equal Door Industries of Calgary, Alberta, Canada bills itself as Canada's Premier Garage Door Company. Some would say Fairfax, MN-based Schweiss Doors enjoys that same kind of reputation in the United States, as it pertains to Bifold and Hydraulic doors. So with the involvement of both companies in the manufacture and installation of four exceptionally tall doors for a Calgary-based modular building manufacturer, smooth sailing was practically guaranteed.
Equal Door Industries received the order for Schweiss Bifold Liftstrap industrial-grade doors from Alberta E-House Inc. Two of the doors for the customer's new 60,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility needed to be 40' wide by 34' tall. The other two doors were just as tall, but only 30' wide.
Alberta E-House, Inc. manufactures electrical buildings for the petro-chemical, industrial and utility sectors, shipped to the job site with necessary electrical and instrumentation pre-installed at the factory in a clean, controlled environment…or at least that's how it's supposed to be. Prior to the construction of the new manufacturing building, E-Houses were typically fabricated outside in a muddy, cold fabrication yard. Moving that production indoors was the impetus behind the construction of the new facility.
Handling the installation of the Schweiss doors on the new plant was General Door Services, an Equal Door Industries service company with 20 years of install experience. According to Equal Door's Dan Walkeden, it was not their first experience with Schweiss Doors, making for an easy installation of the doors at the Alberta E-House factory, despite their obvious size.
“Everything on the installation went well,” said Walkeden. “Last year we installed eight 14' x 16' Schweiss bifold doors for a commercial truck maintenance facility. We've also done some cable-to-liftstrap conversions. The liftstraps run nice and are easy to level out; they look very professional. The owner said he loved the doors.”
Walkeden said Alberta E-House, Inc. specified the strap-lift doors. Apparently the owner has used them on his airplane hangars and liked the bifold door style. Walkeden was pleased that the doors came tarped and were delivered on time and in good condition.
An attractive standard house window design is located just above the exterior truss of each of the four doors, about halfway up, enabling a sufficient amount of daylight into the building. The windows were pre-framed by Schweiss so a local contractor could install the windows of choice. The design allows for the vertical cladding to come right up to the windows and gives a nice finished look. A local contractor also lined on the inside of the doors and insulated them.
“A gentleman who used to work here introduced me to Schweiss Doors. We have a lot of agricultural customers around here who have them on their farm buildings. The people at Schweiss Doors were very helpful. I think the doors are great — a nice clean looking product and the safety covers are all clearly marked,” noted Walkeden.
Building construction for Alberta E-House, Inc. was by Opus Corporation of Calgary. OPUS is a full service commercial real estate developer that has been operating in Western Canada for almost 30 years. They have emerged as a leader in commercial real estate, developing over 20 million square feet of attractive and functional buildings. OPUS projects span the country from British Columbia to Ontario where they have delivered quality spaces for mixed use, commercial, office, industrial and retail clients across Canada. They were chosen as the 2013 and 2014 Consumers Choice Award Winner for General Contractors.