Storefront glass, aluminum entrances and glazed frontages

What a storefront system is made of

Most glazed commercial frontages are assembled from a small number of repeating parts. Aluminum framing members form the grid: sill at the bottom, head at the top, vertical mullions dividing the bays, and horizontals splitting a bay into a lower lite and an upper transom. Glass is captured in the framing pockets with gaskets or wet sealant. Where people enter, a door leaf sits in its own frame with a closer, hinges or pivots, a lock and a pull.

Understanding that anatomy matters because it determines what a repair actually involves. A cracked lite is a glass problem. A door that drags on the threshold is a hardware and alignment problem. A frame that no longer holds its line, or a sill that has been letting water into the slab, is a framing problem, and reglazing it without addressing the frame simply resets the clock on the same failure.

Work we take on

Glass replacement in existing framing

Single or multiple lites replaced in framing that stays in place. We verify the pocket dimensions, bite and glass thickness on site, confirm the required makeup for the location, and install once the fabricated glass arrives. Where the original makeup cannot be identified with confidence, we say so rather than guessing at a substitution.

Entrance doors and hardware

All-glass doors and framed aluminum entrance leaves, with the hardware set the opening needs: closers, pivots or hinges, thresholds, locks, pulls and stops. Door openings are where a frontage takes the most punishment, so squareness of the frame, floor level across the swing, and closer adjustment usually matter more to the finished result than the glass specification does.

Fixed panels, transoms and sidelites

Large fixed lites that carry the daylight and the display, plus the smaller transoms and sidelites that frame the entrance. Panel size is limited by what can be fabricated, transported, carried through the site and lifted safely into the opening — a constraint worth resolving early, because a panel that cannot reach its opening is an expensive discovery.

Interior glazed frontages

Tenant frontages inside malls, lobbies and mixed-use buildings follow similar detailing without the weather exposure, and often sit alongside interior glass partitions in the same fit-out package.

Planning a replacement without closing for a week

The sequence that keeps disruption short is deliberate: verify first, fabricate second, install last. Field verification establishes the exact opening sizes, framing condition, glass makeup and access constraints. Fabrication happens off site while the frontage stays in service. Installation is then a defined window rather than an open-ended project, because the panels arrive ready to fit.

Retail and hospitality tenants frequently ask about out-of-hours installation. We schedule around trading patterns where the work and site access reasonably allow it, and we will tell you plainly when a condition — hoisting, curing time, a required inspection — makes an overnight swap unrealistic. What we will not do is agree to a schedule we do not believe is achievable.

Field verification in detail

Storefront openings are rarely square, rarely plumb and rarely the dimension on the drawing. A field-verified survey records daylight opening at multiple points, frame depth and pocket bite, out-of-square across each bay, floor slope in door openings, sill and flashing condition, existing sealant condition, and how the framing meets the surrounding wall. Photographs of every junction go with the notes.

That record is what allows the fabricated glass to fit the opening that exists rather than the opening someone drew. It also surfaces the conditions that change scope — water damage below a sill, a bent mullion, an unsupported header — while there is still time to price them properly.

Glass selection considerations

Exterior storefront glazing is normally insulated for thermal performance, and the lites in and near doors are safety glazing. Beyond that, the choices are project specific: laminated makeups add retention and reduce sound transmission, coatings influence solar heat gain and glare, and tint affects both appearance and what a display reads like from the sidewalk. Colorado's altitude and temperature swings are a real input into insulated unit specification, and the fabricator will advise on it for the actual unit being made.

If you want the background before you choose, our guide to laminated versus tempered glass explains how each product behaves, and the repair-versus-replacement guide walks through when reglazing stops being the sensible answer.

Where our scope ends

We fabricate and install glass and glazing assemblies. Structural alterations to the opening, permitting, code interpretation, engineering, waterproofing design, electrical work for automatic operators, and general construction are handled by the relevant contractor or design professional. On leased premises, landlord approval and any building or centre design criteria are the tenant's to secure. We will tell you which of those apply as soon as we see the condition — before, not after, an estimate is issued.

What we need for an accurate estimate

• Address and whether the space is currently trading
• How many lites and doors are affected
• Approximate width and height of each opening
• Photographs of the frontage, the framing edge and any damage
• Interior or exterior, and ground floor or above
• Whether the existing framing is staying or being replaced
• Any landlord, centre or tenant design criteria that apply
• Access constraints: sidewalk, loading, hours, lift requirements