Repairs in Sector 18 are retail repairs, and they have a different urgency from anywhere else. A broken front or a failed door is not an inconvenience here, it stops trade. So the first thing we do is separate what can be fixed today from what genuinely cannot, and be straight about which is which.
What happens in the first hour
For a broken shopfront the first visit is not a glazing visit, it is a make-safe visit.
The broken glass is cleared properly. Toughened glass breaks into a great many small pieces and on a hard retail floor they travel much further than anyone expects, which matters when the public walks on it.
Then the opening is boarded so the shop can secure itself and, in many cases, keep trading behind it. Only after that do we measure for the replacement, because measuring an opening that still has glass hanging in it produces a number that changes.
Why nobody can give you toughened glass this afternoon
This is the most important thing to understand when you are ringing round in a hurry.
Toughened glass is made to size. It is cut, its fixing holes are drilled, and then it is heated and rapidly cooled. The holes cannot be added afterwards - drilling toughened glass shatters it. So a made-to-size toughened panel is three to five working days, and no amount of paying more compresses that.
If somebody offers you a toughened shopfront the same afternoon, they are either fitting plain glass - which does not belong in a public entrance and will not survive an insurance question - or they have not measured it. A stock size we hold can be quick. Anything else cannot.
The floor spring, and why shop doors fail
A shop entrance is opened hundreds of times a day, and its floor spring is a wear item rated in cycles, not years.
So a door that slams, drifts open, sits crooked or catches on the floor almost always has a worn spring rather than a fault in the door. The glass does not warp and the patch fittings rarely fail outright.
We check the spring, the fittings and the alignment before quoting a door. And when we do fit a new spring we fit a commercial-rated one, because the lighter alternative looks identical on the day, costs less, and puts you back in the same position by month eight.
How the job works
- Tell us about the jobSend a few photos, rough sizes and what you need. Use WhatsApp or the form. For a repair, a short video of the door moving helps a lot.
- We call you backUsually the same day. Where we can, we give you a rough price on the call. Then you know if a visit is worth your time.
- We come and measureWe measure the opening. We also check the walls, floor, ceiling and the way in. Your glass is made to these final sizes, so they must be right.
- You get a written priceIt shows the glass, the fittings and the fitting work as separate lines. If anything about the job changes, we tell you before we go ahead.
- We make it and fit itYou approve the price and pay the advance. Then we make your glass. Our team delivers it, fits it, checks the doors line up and clears the site.
