# Frameless Doors — Patch Fitted and Automatic Sliding

> Frameless doors are single toughened glass leaves with no surrounding frame, either patch-fitted on a floor spring or run as automatic sliding entrances. The floor spring pocket and installation accuracy decide whether a patch-fitted door keeps working, and cut-outs for hardware must be made before the glass is toughened.

## What we deliver

**Patch-fitted frameless glass doors and automatic sliding doors** for
entrances, lobbies, showrooms and internal glazed partitions — supplied,
installed and set up as part of the facade and fenestration package.

Frameless doors carry a lot of weight on very little hardware. The glass is a
single toughened panel, the patches are its only structure, and everything about
whether the door still works in five years is decided by the floor spring pocket
and the accuracy of the installation.

## Scope of works

| Stage | What we deliver |
| --- | --- |
| Selection | Door type, hardware set, operation, fire strategy alignment |
| Design | Glass thickness, patch and cut-out positions, floor spring pocket |
| Coordination | Pocket setting-out issued to civil before slab finishing |
| Fabrication | Cut-outs formed pre-toughening, glass toughened |
| Installation | Spring setting, patch fitting, alignment, closing speed |
| Handover | Operation check, adjustment, warranty documentation |

## What drives the cost

Manual patch-fitted versus automatic sliding · door size and glass weight ·
hardware grade and origin · floor spring specification · sensor and controller
package on automatic doors · break-out requirement on escape routes · finish on
patches and rails.

## Where projects go wrong

- **Hardware chosen after the glass is ordered.** Cut-outs are made before
  toughening. Late hardware changes mean new glass.
- **Floor spring pocket formed badly.** The single most common cause of doors
  that sag, bind or stop self-closing.
- **Automatic doors specified without the fire strategy.** Escape route doors
  need defined fail-safe behaviour on alarm and power loss.
- **Ignoring alignment tolerance.** Frameless doors have no frame to hide a gap.
  Adjacent panels and the floor must be set out to match.
- **Under-specified closing control.** A heavy glass leaf closing too fast is a
  safety issue in a public lobby.

## Why Hagerstone

**Coordinated with the facade, not bolted on afterwards.** Entrance doors sit at
the junction of the glazing, the flooring and the fire strategy — we detail all
three rather than arriving after the opening is built.

**100% in-house execution** with a dedicated 20-member facade team, under ISO
9001 / 14001 / 45001 certification and 79+ quality checkpoints.

## Standards referenced

Architectural safety glass under **IS 2553 (Part 1)** — toughened, with cut-outs
formed before toughening. Means of egress, door width and automatic door
behaviour on escape routes under **NBC 2016, Part 4**.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can a frameless glass door be on an escape route?

It depends on the door and the route. Means of egress under NBC 2016 Part 4 governs door width, opening direction and, for automatic doors, fail-safe behaviour on power loss and fire alarm. Automatic sliding doors on escape routes typically need break-out panels or fail-open operation. This has to be resolved with the fire strategy at design stage, not chosen from a catalogue afterwards.

### Why do patch-fitted doors drop or bind over time?

Almost always the floor spring and the substrate around it. The spring takes the entire weight of a heavy toughened panel through a small floor recess, so the pocket must be formed accurately in sound concrete and the spring set level. Doors that sag, bind or fail to self-close usually trace back to that pocket, not to the glass or the patches.

### What glass thickness is needed?

Typically 12mm toughened for standard door leaves, moving up with panel size and weight. Holes and cut-outs for patches are made before toughening and cannot be altered afterwards, so hardware selection must be finalised before glass is ordered — a sequencing point that catches out projects where hardware is chosen late.

## Sources

- [IS 2553 (Part 1)](https://standards.bis.gov.in/website/published-standards/department-wise) — Safety glass — architectural
- [NBC 2016, Part 4](https://www.bis.gov.in/standards/national-building-code/?lang=en) — Fire and life safety — means of egress

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Source: https://hagerstone.com/services/facade-glazing/frameless-doors