Request an automatic door quote
Four things let us quote accurately: the clear opening width and height, a photograph of the opening and what sits above it, the traffic the entrance carries at its busiest hour, and the building type. With those we can specify the right operator and put a firm price against it. Without them any number is a guess. Send what you have below — where the opening needs a survey, we will say so.
Automatic door quote
How to get an automatic door quote that is actually accurate
An automatic door quote is only as good as the information behind it. Send us four things and we can price the opening properly, rather than giving you a range that changes the moment we arrive on site.
Most enquiries we receive are for a single commercial entrance — a shopfront, a reception, a hospital corridor or a warehouse personnel door. We quote all of them from the same starting point: the size of the opening, what the building does, and how many people move through it. Everything else follows from that.
Cost
What actually changes an automatic door price
Four variables move the number far more than anything else. If you know these, you can sanity-check any automatic door quote you receive, including ours.
Two openings of the same width can differ substantially once glass specification and access control are added. A retail entrance on a mall walkway and a theatre door in a hospital are both “automatic doors”, but almost nothing about their specification is shared. That is why we do not publish a single headline price — it would be wrong for most buildings.
If you want indicative figures before you enquire, the automatic door price guide sets out what a commercial entrance costs in South Africa and what pushes it up or down.
Specification
Which system usually suits which opening
You do not need to know which system you want before you ask for an automatic door quote — but if you already have a view, this is roughly how the range maps onto openings.
The full range covers automatic sliding doors, telescopic sliding doors, automatic swing doors, revolving doors and hermetically sealed doors, driven by the MC-125 and MCW-100 operators.
What happens next
After you send the form
A quotation is the first step, not the whole job. This is the sequence from your enquiry to a commissioned entrance with support behind it.
We also quote for work on doors we did not install. If you have an existing entrance from another supplier that needs repair, an operator swap or a service agreement, say so in the form and we will quote that instead — see service and modernisation.
Common questions
Automatic door quote, answered
How long does an automatic door quote take?
Most quotations go out within two working days of us receiving the opening size and a photograph. If the building needs a site survey first — usually because the reveal is tight or the power position is unclear — add a few days for the visit.
Do you quote for doors you did not install?
Yes. We service and repair all major automatic door brands, and we quote for operator replacements, sensor upgrades and service agreements on entrances installed by somebody else. Say so in the form and we will quote the takeover rather than a new door.
Is the quotation binding?
A written quotation holds for the period stated on it. Where we have quoted from photographs rather than a site survey, we confirm the figure after measuring, because the structural opening occasionally differs from what a photograph suggests.
Do you quote outside Gauteng?
Yes. We supply and install nationwide from Johannesburg, and we quote for projects across all nine provinces. Delivery and travel are shown as separate lines so you can see what the distance costs.
What if I only need a price range?
Our automatic door price guide sets out indicative costs for commercial entrances in South Africa. For a figure you can budget against, send the opening size.
Does the quotation include compliance documentation?
Safety files and the documentation principal contractors ask for are available for site-based work — see compliance and downloads. Automatic pedestrian doors are covered by SABS-referenced standards, and we specify to the requirement stated for the building.
Do you charge for a site visit?
Sometimes, depending on what the visit is for, and we will tell you before we attend. We do not price revolving or hermetic entrances without seeing them.
Can you give me a ballpark figure over the phone?
We would rather not, because a figure given without the opening is a guess and it anchors expectations unhelpfully. Send photographs and dimensions and you will get a real number instead.
Why do you need to know the traffic?
Because it changes the specification and the maintenance interval. An entrance completing thousands of cycles a day is a different job to a side door, even at identical dimensions.
Why two automatic door quotes for the same doorway can differ so much
When a building collects three prices for the same entrance and they arrive hundreds of percent apart, the usual explanation is not that one supplier is greedy. It is that the three quotations are describing different jobs. A quotation covers more than an operator, and the items that vary are rarely the ones being compared.
The largest variable is almost always builders work. Where an existing header is sound, level and fixed to something structural, installation is straightforward. Where it has to be formed, strengthened or replaced, that work can approach the cost of the door itself — and it is the item most often excluded from the cheapest quotation. If one price includes making the opening ready and another assumes it already is, the two numbers are not comparable.
What to check before you compare
- Is the clear opening the same? It is surprisingly common for one supplier to quietly reduce the opening so a standard sliding door fits where a telescopic arrangement was actually needed.
- Are the safety devices the same? Activation and presence detection are not optional, but the extent of coverage varies. A quotation with minimal sensing is cheaper and worse.
- Is builders work included or excluded? The single biggest source of apparent price difference.
- Is commissioning included? Speeds, hold-open time and sensor coverage are set on site. A door that is installed but not properly commissioned will generate callouts within weeks.
- What warranty applies, and to what? The operator, the installation, or both.
- Is there an accessible alternative where one is needed? On a revolving entrance this is part of the entrance, not an extra.
Photographs are worth more than descriptions
The fastest way to get an accuratequotation is to send pictures. A photograph of the opening from a few metres back, one of the header and how it meets the structure, and one along the wall showing what space exists beside the doorway will usually tell us more than a page of text. Where a door already exists, a photograph of the existing operator often identifies it immediately.
This matters because the alternative is assumption. A quotation built on assumptions has to carry contingency for the things that were not visible, and that contingency is money the building pays for information it could have supplied for free.
When we will ask to visit
Some jobs can be quoted from photographs and dimensions. Others cannot, and we would rather say so than issue a number we will have to revise. We will normally ask to attend where the header condition is uncertain or clearly non-standard, where the opening is being altered rather than fitted out, where a revolving or hermetic entrance is involved (both are specified per project rather than from a table), or where the entrance forms part of an escape route.
Where a visit is chargeable we will tell you before we attend rather than afterwards. We do not price work of that kind without seeing it.
What an automatic door quote from us contains
A quotation should be specific enough that you can hold somebody to it. Ours sets out the system proposed and why it suits the opening, the configuration including clear opening and leaf arrangement, the activation and safety devices included, what installation work is covered and what is excluded, commissioning, and the warranty that applies. Where a figure is not something we hold in writing, we say so rather than estimating it.
We do not publish a price list on this site, and we would be misleading you if we did. The same nominal doorway in two buildings can be two genuinely different jobs once the header, the floor level and the traffic are known.
Quoting an estate rather than a door
If you are pricing more than one entrance, tell us that at the outset. A quotation for fourteen doors across three sites is not fourteen separate quotations added together — survey time consolidates, spares strategy changes, and it usually makes sense to look at whether some of those doors should be modernised rather than repeatedly repaired.
It is also the point at which a maintenance agreement becomes worth discussing, because an estate priced door-by-door and maintained reactively tends to cost more over three years than the same estate under a single agreement. Our service level agreement page covers what such an agreement should define.
Getting an automatic door quote for a refurbishment
Refurbishments are the most common reason we are asked for a quotation, and they are the ones where information matters most. An existing entrance carries history: a header built for a different door, a floor level that has been screeded over twice, cabling that was run for equipment nobody has records of. All of it affects the price, and none of it is visible from a drawing.
Where an entrance is being widened, say so explicitly. It changes the conversation from an operator selection into a structural one, and it is frequently the point at which a telescopic arrangement becomes the answer, because it can deliver a wider clear opening without altering the facade.
What we cannot tell you from a photograph
Photographs answer a great deal, but they have limits, and being honest about those limits is part of giving you a quotation you can rely on. A picture will not tell us what a header is fixed to, whether a floor is level across the opening, or whether the electrical supply is adequate and dedicated. Those three items account for most of the variation between a smooth installation and a difficult one.
Where they are unknown, we will either attend or price on stated assumptions and identify them clearly, so that you know which parts of the number are firm and which are conditional. A quotation that hides its assumptions is not cheaper — it simply moves the risk to you.
Timing, and why we will not invent a lead time
We are frequently asked for a delivery date before the specification is settled, and we will not manufacture one. Lead time depends on the configuration, on whether the items are held locally, and on what builders work has to happen before installation can start. Because the MC-125 and MCW-100 are imported and assembled locally at our Laser Park premises, spares and common configurations sit in Johannesburg rather than on a container — but that is a statement about spares, not a promise about every project.
What we will do is tell you the position honestly once we know what is being ordered, and tell you which parts of the programme are within our control and which are not. A quotation with a confident date attached and nothing behind it helps nobody.
After the quote is accepted
Once a quotation is accepted, the useful next step is usually a short conversation about access and timing rather than more paperwork. Entrances cannot be closed the way an office can, so the work is planned around the building: outside trading hours on retail, in coordination with the department on healthcare, around arrival peaks on an office reception.
Commissioning is the part worth protecting in that plan. Speeds, hold-open time and sensor coverage are all set on site against how the entrance is actually used, and an installation that is rushed at that stage produces a door that technically works and annoys everybody who uses it.
Automatic door quote: a checklist before you send the form
You will get a faster and firmerquotation if these are settled before you write. None of them needs a specialist — a tape measure and a phone camera cover most of it.
- The structural opening, measured as built. Not the figure from the drawing. This single item causes morequotation revisions than anything else.
- The clear opening you actually need. The gap people and equipment must pass through.
- Wall space beside the opening. It decides whether a standard sliding door works or a telescopic arrangement is required.
- Height to the underside of the structure, which determines the header arrangement.
- What the header is built of and fixed to. The largest hidden variable in anyquotation.
- Traffic. It changes both the specification and the maintenance interval.
- Internal or exposed. Weather exposure rules some options out entirely.
- Photographs. Three pictures shorten a quotation more than three paragraphs of description.
Send those and your quotation will be built on what is actually there rather than on assumptions carrying contingency. Where something genuinely cannot be established until the opening is exposed, we identify it up front rather than discovering it later. A quotation of that kind is one you can hold us to.
Automatic door quote questions, answered
How long does an automatic door quote take?
Once we have the photographs and the opening measurement, a written automatic door quote normally follows within two working days. Where a site survey is needed first, the automatic door quote follows the survey visit.
Is a site survey needed before an automatic door quote?
For a replacement entrance, usually yes. For a new opening on a drawing, an automatic door quote can be built from the drawing and confirmed on site before installation.
What makes one automatic door quote cheaper than another?
Usually the sensors, the operator size and what has been excluded. An automatic door quote that omits presence sensing, or sizes the operator below the leaf weight, will always look cheaper until the entrance is in service.
Does the automatic door quote include installation?
Yes. Our automatic door quote separates the equipment, the installation and the commissioning so you can see what each part costs.
Is servicing included in the automatic door quote?
No. Servicing is quoted separately so the automatic door quote covers only what you are ordering now, and the service interval can be set once the entrance is running.
What is the warranty stated on an automatic door quote?
Every automatic door quote states 24 months on the operator. Wear parts and glass are quoted and warranted separately.
Can an automatic door quote cover more than one entrance?
Yes, and it should. A multi-door automatic door quote is priced per opening so a building owner can stage the work over more than one budget year.
What if the opening differs from the drawing?
We say so before ordering. The automatic door quote states what was assumed, so any difference is visible rather than absorbed into a variation later.