Aluminium Doors

Aluminium doors are the standard entrance solution for commercial buildings across the UK, from high-street retail units and office reception areas to warehouses, schools, and healthcare facilities. When correctly specified, an aluminium entrance door delivers the combination of structural strength, slim sightlines, weather resistance, and design versatility that commercial environments demand — at a price point that makes economic sense over a 25-year service life.

Urban Shopfronts supplies and installs commercial aluminium doors as standalone entrance systems and as integrated elements within larger shopfront, curtain walling, and glazed screen installations. We work with hinged, pivot, and double-leaf configurations, using profile systems from leading European fabricators that are independently tested and CE-marked to BS EN 14351-1.

Door Configurations

Single-leaf hinged doors are the most common commercial entrance configuration, suitable for offices, individual retail units, and service entrances. Standard commercial door leaf sizes range from 900 mm to 1200 mm in width, with heights up to 2400 mm. For wider openings or premises with high footfall requiring simultaneous two-way traffic, double-leaf (French door) configurations provide a clear opening of 1600 mm to 2400 mm.

Pivot doors — where the leaf rotates on a top-and-bottom pivot rather than side-hung hinges — are specified for large, heavy door leaves (typically over 100 kg) or for architectural effect. Pivot doors require a floor socket and overhead pivot bearing, and the door leaf must be precisely balanced to ensure smooth, effortless operation.

Thermal Performance

For commercial buildings subject to Building Regulations Part L (Conservation of Fuel and Power), thermally broken aluminium door frames are required. Our thermally broken profiles incorporate a continuous polyamide insulating strip within the aluminium section, reducing heat transfer through the frame and eliminating the cold-bridging and internal condensation that non-broken frames produce.

Complete door assembly U-values for our thermally broken systems typically range from 1.2 to 1.8 W/m²K depending on the glazing specification, comfortably meeting the elemental U-value targets set out in Approved Document L2 for non-domestic buildings.

Security Specification

Commercial entrance doors are frequently a target for forced entry. We offer door sets tested and certified to PAS 24:2022 (Enhanced Security Performance Requirements for Doorsets and Windows), the standard most commonly referenced by commercial insurers. PAS 24 door sets are tested as a complete assembly — frame, leaf, glazing, and hardware together — against a defined series of manual and mechanical attack tests.

Multi-point locking is standard on our commercial aluminium doors, engaging the frame at a minimum of three points. Anti-drill, anti-pick, and anti-bump euro profile cylinders rated to TS 007 three-star are specified as standard, and we can accommodate master-keying and restricted keyway requirements for multi-tenanted buildings.

Glazing Options

Aluminium door leaves can be fully glazed, partially glazed with a solid lower panel, or solid with a vision panel. Glazing is typically toughened safety glass to BS EN 12150-1 as a minimum, with laminated or security-rated glass specified for PAS 24 assemblies. For energy performance, double-glazed units with low-emissivity coatings are standard.

DDA Compliance

The Equality Act 2010 requires that commercial premises provide accessible entrances. Our aluminium doors are designed with low thresholds (maximum 15 mm upstand), minimum 775 mm clear opening width as standard (extendable to 900 mm or beyond), and lever handle furniture at accessible heights in accordance with BS 8300. Where automatic operation is required, our doors can be fitted with swing-door operators to provide powered opening — see our automatic doors service for details.

Powder Coating and Finish

All aluminium door sections are powder-coated to BS EN 12206-1 in any RAL Classic or RAL Design colour. Our standard guarantee covers colour retention and adhesion for 10 years under normal UK exposure conditions. Dual-colour finishes — a different colour on the internal and external faces — are available for premises where the interior colour scheme differs from the external branding.