Commercial door closers, fire doors and floor springs

People search “door closer repair” and send a photo of a hinge. The closer is the hydraulic body and arm at the head of the door, or, on many glass shop doors, a spring in a box in the floor. The hinge only swings the leaf. The residential closer page on this site already says a house closer is quote on inspection. This page is the commercial door: an office suite, a shop, a stair, a clinic, a coworking floor, a warehouse exit.

Four published sentences already exist, and they are easy to mix up. An MCST fire-rated riser or stairwell door closer and lock is S$140 to S$280. An F&B washroom closer, written together with a chiller gasket, sits in S$280 to S$650. An industrial SS 332 panic bar with a heavy-duty closer and a lever lock is S$380 to S$780. A concealed floor spring, including Dormakaba BTS 75V and BTS 80, Bonco, Newstar or Geze, is S$450 to S$850. A closer that is none of those is quote on inspection. We will not invent “S$90 for any closer” because a catalogue site overseas printed one.

Search also asks whether a closer can be repaired, what it costs to replace, why a commercial door will not close, and what usually goes wrong. The useful answer is the diagnosis below, not a single dollar.

Curtains, blinds and roller shades are not part of this booking.

Look at the door before touching the valves. A surface closer has a body on the frame or the leaf and an arm to the other. Two regulating valves, on closers that have them, set sweep speed and latch speed. Backcheck, if the model has it, stops the door being thrown open into a wall. Those screws are quarter-turns. Opening them until fluid runs out is how a repairable closer becomes a replacement. If the body is leaking, adjustment is finished. A leaking closer is replaced, and on a fire door the replacement has to be a closer that belongs on that door.

SCDF Fire Code 2023 clause 3.9 says fire doors are fitted with an automatic self-closing device that can close the door from any angle and against any latch, that the device is not a rising butt, and that a faulty device is repaired immediately so the door is not left open. The illustration text on SCDF’s clause page also notes that both leaves of a pair used as an exit get closers and a sequential closer, with a limited exception for the bolted leaf of a residential-unit entrance. Table 11A lists a door closer to EN 1154 or SS 332 clause 6 annex C. We do not issue that certificate. We do not fit a bedroom closer onto a labelled fire door and call it maintenance. If the label and the closer do not match, the visit stops at quote on inspection.

A glass door with oil at the pivot is not this surface-closer diagnosis. The spring is in the floor. Alignment of the patches, when the door only scrapes, is S$250 to S$420. Replacement of the spring is S$450 to S$850. An electromagnetic lock that stays locked, or a green break-glass release, is S$280 to S$580 on that same glass page, which this site ties to SCDF clause 2.3.9k hardware. Do not bypass the release because the closer is the job you called about.

A door that will not latch is often the arm geometry, a dropped leaf, or a strike that has moved, not a dead spring. Hinge alignment on a timber door is S$60 to S$120 when that is the fault. A closer that slams has too much latch speed or a spring that is too strong for the leaf. A closer that does not close from a small angle has lost fluid or has the sweep valve shut. Squeaks can be the arm joints. We do not publish a lifespan in years. Anyone who quotes “closers last seven years” is not quoting this catalogue.

Photograph the closer body so any stamp can be read, the arm, the latch, and the floor under a glass door. Say office room, shopfront, stair, washroom, or warehouse exit. A stair door in a condo is often the MCST’s door. We will not change it because a resident finds it noisy. That is a managing-agent instruction, and the S$140 to S$280 row is the one written for that fire door and lock.

A pair of leaves needs a note on which leaf is the active one. Sequential closing is part of the fire-door description when both leaves are the exit. We do not publish a separate sequential-closer price. If the photo is that pair, expect quote on inspection unless one of the four rows above truly matches.

Use the row that names the door you have. A closer price from another country is not a fifth row.

Questions a business should ask

Ask a contractor these before they take the arm off.

1. Is this a surface closer, a floor spring, or a hinge?
2. Is the door a fire door, and will the closer remain one that suits that leaf?
3. Which printed band is the quote using, and what does the band include?
4. If there is no band, is the reply the words quote on inspection?
5. Will the door latch from 10 degrees and from fully open before you leave?
6. On a pair, is a sequential closer required, and is that inside the price?
7. Who owns the door if it is a stair or a riser?
8. Are you removing the closer from the leaf at any point on a fire door?

The same closer body is a different job in a stair and in a meeting room.

The clause to read is SCDF Fire Code 2023 clause 3.9 on protection of openings, and Table 11A item 20.2 for the closer standard EN 1154 or SS 332 clause 6 annex C. Maintenance is part of the clause: a faulty self-closer is repaired so the door is not left open. Homes have a narrow exception for the bolted leaf of a residential entrance. A shop, an office stair and a warehouse exit are not that exception.

MOM still applies on an occupied floor. Adjusting a closer is light work. Replacing a floor spring means the entrance may be open while the box is changed, so the occupier has to keep a safe route. We do not publish a time by which someone will arrive. The mall overnight row applies only when that entrance is inside a mall that requires the night slot.

The residential closer page remains in force for a home. This page does not silently create a house price. Finger-pinch guards in an ECDA classroom are S$85 to S$150 a door on the preschool page. A guard is not a closer.

Official pages

• SCDF Fire Code 2023 clause 3.9: fire doors and self-closers
• SCDF Table 11A: door closers to EN 1154 or SS 332
• MOM: WSH duties of employers, principals and occupiers

Homey Furnishing Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 202018148K), 27 Mandai Estate, #06-10 Innovation Place, Singapore 729931, invoices the permit-exempt visit. V On Construction Pte. Ltd. (ACRA UEN 201611708H), on the HDB Directory of Renovation Contractors, invoices hacking, a new layout, and an HDB renovation permit. Homey Furnishing is not a property agency, not a CEA practice, and not a MOM-licensed employment agency.

How you're charged

A job that already has a sentence on HomeySG uses that sentence. The hour is not added on top of a band unless the written scope says so. There is no fuel surcharge and no published night premium except the mall overnight row.

You pay the row that names the door. A stair closer at S$140 to S$280 does not also collect S$45 an hour unless the written scope adds time for a second task.

Ways to keep the bill smaller

• Photograph the floor at a glass door. Oil versus no oil is the whole diagnosis.
• Do not buy a generic closer online for a labelled fire door. The wrong closer is wasted money and a door that may not be allowed to wear it.
• Group the stair doors the MCST actually owns into one instruction. Four resident call-outs are four arguments.
• A squeak is not automatically a new closer. Ask for the valve and the arm to be checked first, and accept quote on inspection if no row matches.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630.

Only these closer-related rows are printed.

Anything not in that table is quote on inspection.

WhatsApp the photos to +65 8561 0630. The reply uses a band already printed on HomeySG, or it says quote on inspection.

• Home closers, which stay quote on inspection
• Floor springs
• MCST stair closers
• Warehouse exit hardware
• Door hinges