Think about how many times the automatic door at a school reception, a GP surgery or a care home opens in a single day. Or the electric gate and barrier at a business park entrance. These systems work hard, often for the people who rely on them most: children, patients, elderly residents and visitors with limited mobility.
When they work, nobody notices. When they don’t, you have an entrance that won’t open, a door that won’t close, or worse, a safety device that has stopped doing its job. Regular servicing keeps you ahead of that.
Your Legal Duty to Keep Doors and Gates Maintained
If you run a workplace, the law expects you to keep its equipment in good order. Regular servicing helps you meet your legal duty under PUWER 1998 (the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations) and the Workplace Regulations 1992 to keep automatic doors and gates maintained, in line with BS EN 16005.
In plain terms, both sets of regulations require equipment to be kept “in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair”. The Workplace Regulations also say that powered doors and gates must have suitable and effective features to stop them trapping anyone. BS EN 16005 is the British Standard for the safety in use of power operated pedestrian doors, and for powered gates the safety standard is BS EN 12453. The standards set out how; the regulations are where the legal duty comes from.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is clear that powered gates are machines, and that they need to be checked regularly and maintained to remain safe in use, by competent contractors. HSE also advises keeping a log of maintenance, so you can show what has been checked and when. For more on the regulatory framework, see our guide to electric gate safety regulations and best practices.
Why It Matters for Your Type of Building
Schools and nurseries
School entrances are busy at the same times every day, with children, parents and staff all passing through. Doors and gates may also be part of how the site is kept secure. A safety sensor that has drifted out of adjustment, or a gate that no longer reverses when it should, is a risk you want found on a planned visit, not reported by a parent.
GP surgeries and health centres
Patients arriving on crutches, with walking frames, in wheelchairs or with pushchairs depend on the entrance door opening reliably and staying open long enough. The Equality Act 2010 places a duty on service providers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, and a well-maintained automatic door can be part of how a surgery does that. A broken one can mean staff propping the door open or helping patients in by hand.
Care homes
In a care home, doors and gates do two jobs at once: they need to be easy for residents and visitors to use, and secure for the people living there. In England, care homes and GP surgeries registered with the Care Quality Commission must also make sure their premises and equipment are “properly maintained” under Regulation 15 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Service records help show that.
Offices, retail and industrial sites
For businesses, a failed entrance door or a stuck barrier costs time and goodwill. Staff can’t get in, deliveries back up and customers walk away. Planned servicing lets you choose when the work happens, rather than waiting for a breakdown on a busy morning. See our guide to automatic barrier installation for more on keeping commercial entrances running.
What a Service from ADG Covers
Our engineers work on gates and barriers every day, and we service automatic doors across Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk too. Depending on your equipment, a service visit includes:
- Automatic doors: safety sensor testing, operator calibration and door alignment, with full compliance documentation.
- Gates and barriers: inspection and lubrication of hinges, rollers and tracks, checks on control boards, wiring and motors, and verification of every safety device, including photocells, safety edges and force limiting.
- Cleaning and adjustment: photocell lenses cleaned, limit switches adjusted and gate travel fine-tuned.
If we find a fault, we’ll explain it and quote before any further work is done. How often you need a visit depends on how busy your entrance is and the manufacturer’s instructions, and we’ll advise on the right interval for your site.
We are Gate Safe accredited and certified BFT installers, and we maintain and repair systems from other manufacturers too. Find out more about our automatic door servicing and repairs, electric gate and barrier repairs, gate automation, automatic barriers and access control systems.
Related Reading
- Gate and Barrier Maintenance Plans: Protect Your Investment
- Electric Gate Safety: Regulations and Best Practices
- Electric Gate Repair: 5 Signs Your Gate Needs Attention
- Clocks Go Back on 25 October: Your Autumn Checklist for Automatic Gates
Book a Service with ADG
Whether you manage a school in Colchester or Chelmsford, a surgery in Ipswich or Bury St Edmunds, or a care home near Norwich, we cover Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk from our base in Lawford, near Manningtree.
Planning a new or replacement door? We offer free site surveys for new automatic door installations.
If your doors or gates haven’t been serviced in the last year, or you’re not sure when they last were, get in touch:
- Call: 01206 591001
- Email: service@a-d-g.co.uk
- Visit: 1 Riverside Ave West, Lawford, Manningtree, Essex CO11 1UN
- Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5pm
Or send us an enquiry online and our team will get back to you.