What Counts as a Commercial Door Emergency?
If a door protects your building, your people or your exit routes and it has stopped doing that job, it is an emergency. In practice, our emergency calls fall into four groups:
- Security failures: a storefront or rear door that cannot be locked after a break-in, a sheared bolt or a failed pivot
- Egress failures: a fire exit door that will not close, latch or open freely
- Glass failures: shattered tempered glass or a cracked laminated pane on a public entrance
- Impact damage: a vehicle, forklift or vandal that has bent a frame, rod or stile
Any of these can happen at 2am on a Sunday. That is why live dispatch answers 24/7 and why every emergency truck carries the materials to secure an opening the same night.
How Our Emergency Response Works
Live dispatch and triage
A person answers the phone, not a recording. Dispatch asks what happened, what kind of door it is and whether anyone is at risk. Fire exits, storefronts and automatic doors are moved to the front of the queue because they carry egress, security and accessibility risk.
Arrival and temp-secure
Emergency calls go to the same live dispatch that runs all of our commercial door repair across Toronto. Typical arrival is 2 hours in Toronto and about 4 hours across the 905. The crew clears broken glass and hazards first, then secures the opening. That might be a plywood board-up, a steel security bar or a temporary lock. Required exits stay usable so the building remains compliant.
Documentation for police and insurer
Before anything is moved, the crew photographs the damage. You get a written CAD scope for the permanent repair on site, and we provide photos and documentation for your adjuster. We direct-bill major commercial property insurance claims.
Permanent repair within 72 hours
Glass, locks, pivots, frames or full doors are replaced, typically within 72 hours. Specialty glass and fire-rated assemblies can take longer. When they do, the opening stays secured and you get the schedule in writing.
Emergency Repair Costs
| Item | Typical range (CAD) |
|---|---|
| Emergency callout | About $350 |
| Board-up or steel bar temp-secure | Quoted on site |
| Lock, pivot or closer repair | $450 - $1,200 |
| Glass door replacement | $2,200 - $6,800 |
| Steel door replacement | $1,600 - $4,500 |
The callout covers getting a crew to you at any hour. The repair is quoted in writing on site before work begins. If insurance applies, we bill the insurer directly.
Break-In Repair for Storefronts and Plazas
Break-ins usually hit the weakest point: the glass, the lock stile or a rear door with old hardware. After securing the opening, we often recommend upgrading to laminated glass on street-level doors because it resists forced entry far better than tempered glass. Stronger deadlocks and reinforced strikes are part of the same conversation.
On one Scarborough plaza, the owner called at 1:40am after a break-in shattered a full-lite door and bent the lock stile. The crew boarded the opening by 3:30am, photographed everything for the police report and insurer, and ordered laminated glass and a new Adams Rite deadlock. The permanent repair went in two days later and the claim was direct-billed. Trading resumed by 9am.
Fire Exit Emergencies
A fire exit door that will not latch or open freely is a life-safety issue and an inspection failure under the Ontario Fire Code and, on rated doors, NFPA 80. Toronto Fire Services can issue orders for exits that do not work. We treat these calls as priority, restore egress first and never chain or padlock an exit as a temporary fix.
For damaged exit doors that cannot be repaired, see our fire exit door replacement page. For bent rods and broken panic bars, see commercial door push bar repair.
Automatic Door Emergencies
An automatic entrance stuck open in January lets the heat out and the building wide open. A door stuck closed traps traffic and blocks accessible entry. We set the operator to a safe mode on arrival, then repair or order parts. Details are on our automatic door repair page.
Prevent the Next Emergency
Many emergencies start as a small fault nobody fixed: a leaking closer that let a door blow open, a worn pivot that let a lock misalign, a frame rusted at grade that finally let go. A commercial door maintenance contract catches those issues on a schedule and gives contract clients priority dispatch when something does go wrong.
For glass-specific emergencies, see commercial glass door replacement. For bent or pried frames, see commercial door frame replacement.
