One of the primary concerns about securing a warehouse is protecting the large openings, like massive loading bays that could be four to five metres wide by three metres tall. Large Shutter Doors vs Roller Shutter Systems: what is best for your site? Answering this question involves reviewing how you use the space, what you are storing, and what your insurance might require.
Large industrial shutter doors (sectional overhead doors like you see on most large warehouses) open by lifting vertically, then running into the ceiling space on overhead tracks. The doors are divided into horizontal panels that are each hinged to a neighbouring panel. When the doors open, the entire vertical panel disappears into the ceiling space. These doors are standard for loading bays and other large access doors, and for good reason.
The main benefit of these doors is how large of an opening you get. You can get sectional doors up to 8 or 9 metres wide with no centre post or centre support, which is extremely important when you are moving large equipment, like forklifts and loaded pallets. The doors also don’t require any additional space in front of the opening when they are fully opened, unlike roller shutters which require clearance to roll down.
With insulation, sectional doors are the easiest to insulate. Large areas are expensive to heat, so insulated sectional doors can provide a moderate level of heat retention. Panels are usually filled with foam insulation, which prevents substantial heat loss in what would otherwise be a massive opening in a building. Some even achieve U-values good enough to meet building regulation criteria for heated warehouses.
Roller shutters for warehouses function differently. Interlocking slat curtains roll up into a barrel above the opening. They require less headroom than sectional doors, which is beneficial if you have limited space above the door for pipes, ducting or other annoyances. The barrel and guides can be installed inside or outside the building, depending on what works best for your situation.
From a security perspective, both can satisfy the required criteria, although to different extents. When it comes to the roller shutters that insurance companies require for LPS 1175 ratings for high-value warehouse contents, you are looking at heavy-duty steel construction. We’re talking thick slats, reinforced guide rails, and heavy-duty locking systems. Unlike the lightweight aluminum shutters you might install on a shopfront, these are heavy-duty pieces of equipment.
Sectional doors that satisfy the Secure by Design standards also provide very good physical security. The panels of these doors interlock and, when locked, the door essentially becomes a solid unified piece. A good quality sectional door has a locking system that offers multiple locking mechanisms on the door’s width, making it difficult to force it open without specialized equipment and a commitment of time. As long as either type meets the necessary certifications, insurance companies tend to accept both.
More than other places, the speed at which warehouses operate matters. When loading bays are busy, waiting vehicles cannot be kept waiting as time is wasted. For this reason, high speed roller shutters are great, as they open at the speed of 1 meter per second. Others, such as standard fast action sectional doors, can also be quite costly, but open at the same speed.
Needs when it comes to maintenance can be different. Between hinged sectional doors, there are always more moving parts. More features means more components needing regular maintenance. One moving section are tracks, which should be clean, as the rollers need to be lubricated. Springs can fail, cables can fray, and panels can be damaged.
Roller shutters are built with fewer components, but damageable components, particularly the slats. Forklifts hit slats, the bottom bar makes contact with the surface, and the guide rails are constantly hit by trucks. In busy loading bays, the primary issue is physical damage and not malfunction. Fortunately, with roller shutters, when one slat is damaged, you can almost always change that one slat without needing to change the entire door. For sectional doors, if one panel is damaged, you are very likely going to need to replace the whole panel.
The EN 13241 standard is a safety guideline for all industrial doors that include the power a door can close with, safety edges, and the capacity for doors to close and automatically release. All doors fitted are required to follow this legislation, especially for safety sake. Doors in a warehouse are of great concern if the door is operationally unsafe, as the doors can injure personnel. This is an area that does not contain room for leniency.
Each door type has different requirements for how much room the invalid space around the doors takes up. Sectional doors need a space above the door for the door panels and the track. This is an issue for low ceilings where obstructions above the door are present. Roller shutters do not require much headroom, however, you do need room for the overhead housing barrel that can be very big for large doors.
People often neglect the issues that come and go along with wind loading, and often wind loading is a problem that is not thought about until it is too late. Large doors that are exposed are an issue in costal areas that are elevated. Because of lightweight slats, wind can damage roller shutters. Curtans can billow and slats can be pushed out of the guide rails. Sectional doors can handle wind loading better, but still need proper fixing.
For warehouses that operate constantly, simplicity and reliability are required above everything else. During night shifts, a broken door could mean losing access to your main loading bay. Both options are reliable, but roller shutters have a way simpler mechanism, meaning less can go wrong. When roller shutters fail, however, they tend to fail completely, meaning the door will be unusable until repairs have been completed. With sectional doors, you still run the risk of a partial failure, however they can still be manually operated in an emergency situation.
With regards to doors, there is a huge difference in price, based on size and options. For the same size opening, sectional doors will always cost more than roller shutters, but that changes when insulated rolling doors, fast acting, and high security rated doors come into play, you get to a similar price on both. For large openings, around six meters or more, sectional doors tend to be the more economical option, because the roller doors require a more expensive mechanism than the sectional doors, leading to higher prices.
There are still insurance requirements that need to be verified before making a decision. Specific insurers will require certain security ratings based on what you are storing. Compliance to BS 5054 is standard for both grades, but for high-value stock, you will need to achieve higher LPS 1175 ratings. Make sure you understand what your policy mandates before settling on a specific type of door, as getting it right after will cost much more than getting it right in the first place.
The pragmatic reality for most warehouses is that sectional doors are best for the main loading bays where size, insulation, and significant daily usage are considerations. Roller shutters are best for secondary access points, areas with height restrictions, or where you need external protection for existing doors. A mix of both types is what most warehouses end up with, where each is fitted in the location that makes the most sense rather than trying to use a single solution everywhere.