Access Control Installer for Energy Corridor Glass Suites and Occupied Floors

Locking a door that is mostly glass

Tempered glass cannot be drilled, notched or cut once it has been tempered. That single fact drives almost every decision on a frameless suite door.

Because nothing can be bored through the leaf, the locking hardware has to clamp onto the glass or live in the fixed surroundings: the header above, the floor below, or a sidelite beside the door. The common approaches are:

• Header maglock with a glass-door bracket. The magnet mounts on the header and a U-shaped bracket clamps the steel armature plate to the top edge of the glass. Wire runs entirely in the header, which makes this the most frequent choice in Corridor suites.
• Electrified glass-door strike. Some patch-lock systems accept a strike in the header or sidelite that catches a bolt thrown from a clamp-on lock body.
• Electrified top-rail or bottom-rail lock. Where the door has metal rails rather than bare glass, a lock can sit in the rail, with power carried through the pivot or a concealed transfer.
• Battery-powered clamp-on lock. Useful where no wire can reach the header, at the cost of battery changes and a wireless link to the controller.

A maglock holds only as well as its face contact. The rated holding force assumes the armature sits flat against the magnet across its whole surface. A glass door that droops on a worn floor closer, or a bracket that is slightly twisted, can cut the real holding force to a fraction of the label figure.

Glass pairs, sliding panels and power openers

Double glass doors with no center post take a two-magnet lock on the header, one magnet per leaf, and both armatures need to align with each other and with the magnets. Sliding glass panels, increasingly common in newer fit-outs, lock with a hook bolt at the track or in the header rather than a latch. Automatic sliding doors are a separate case again: the door operator controls locking, and the reader simply tells the operator when to open.

Swinging doors with an accessible power opener need careful sequencing. When someone presents a badge or presses the wall plate, the lock must release first, and only then may the operator push the door. If the operator fires into a door that is still locked, it strains the motor and arm, and eventually the operator fails. We wire the reader, lock and operator so that the push plate on the outside only works while the door is unlocked, and the inside plate always works.

Egress requirements for a maglocked suite entry

A maglock has no mechanical latch, so building codes treat it as a sensor-release electric lock and attach conditions to it. In general terms, the model code most Texas cities adopt expects:

1. A sensor on the inside that unlocks the door when someone approaches to leave.
2. Loss of power to the sensor or lock unlocks the door.
3. A separate manual push-to-exit button near the door that cuts lock power independently of the sensor and keeps it off for at least 30 seconds.
4. Release when the building fire alarm activates.

Your suite’s fire alarm release has to come from the base building system, which belongs to the landlord and is serviced by the building’s fire alarm contractor. We provide the relay point and power supply; they connect and test it. Delayed-egress hardware, which holds a door for several seconds while an alarm sounds, is a different listed product and needs approval from the fire authority first. Stair doors and their re-entry arrangements belong to the building, not the tenant, and we do not touch them without the landlord’s instruction.

Working inside a managed tower: the logistics that set the schedule

Most of the effort on a Corridor installation is not at the door. It is in getting into the building the right way.

• Certificate of insurance naming the owner and property manager, delivered before the first visit.
• Submittals. Many buildings want product data sheets for every lock, reader and power supply before approving the work.
• Freight elevator and dock reservations for ladders and material, often only outside business hours.
• Noise and dust rules. Core drilling and ceiling work near occupied desks usually has to happen at night or on weekends.
• Garage clearance. Service vans with ladder racks can exceed structured-garage height limits, so loading may happen at the dock.
• Escorts and keys. Some floors, electrical rooms and ceiling spaces require the building engineer present.

We price the job knowing these rules exist, rather than discovering them after the tenant has told staff the new doors will be live on Monday.

Making the suite reader accept the lobby badge

Tenants often want the badge that already opens the lobby turnstile and garage to open their own suite. Whether that works is a technical question we can answer with a sample card. Badges differ in radio frequency, in encryption, and in the data format they carry, including the bit length and the facility code. We read a sample badge with a test reader, confirm what it contains, and specify suite readers that can read the same technology and format. If the building uses an encrypted credential tied to its own platform, the landlord’s vendor may need to release keys or issue compatible cards, and we coordinate with them rather than working around them.

Signs your office needs a professional installer, not a facilities work order

• The entry is frameless glass, a glass pair or a slider.
• The door has an automatic opener that must keep working for visitors with disabilities.
• A maglock is on the table, which brings the egress conditions above.
• The fire alarm release must connect to a base building system you do not control.
• Your IT or corporate security team needs door events in their own platform or wants the controller on a segmented network.
• The building requires submittals, insurance and after-hours scheduling.

A building engineer can reset a stuck closer or swap a lever. Designing and installing an electrified glass entry that satisfies the code, the landlord and your security team is specialist work.

An EVOTECH Corridor installation, night by night

1. Daytime walk with your office manager and, ideally, the building engineer: doors, ceiling access, the IDF, and where the fire alarm interface will land.
2. Submittal package to property management: hardware data sheets, a door-by-door scope, insurance, and the proposed work hours.
3. First night: cabling and power. Cable above the ceiling to each door and to the controller in your IT room, plus a lock power supply with standby batteries. Ceiling tiles go back each morning.
4. Second night: hardware. Maglock or glass lock, exit sensor, push-to-exit button, door position switch, reader, and opener sequencing.
5. Fire alarm tie-in scheduled with the building’s fire alarm contractor, then tested together.
6. Morning verification with staff arriving, so problems surface while we are still on site.
7. Enrollment and handover: badges loaded, schedules set, administrators trained, and all accounts in your company’s name.

Smaller suites may compress this into one night; larger floors may take several. Either way, you get a schedule before we start.

Line items that change a Corridor installer’s quote

Every item appears separately on the quote so you can see what the landlord’s rules cost compared with the doors themselves.

Glass-door installations that come back, and why

• Armature out of line. The door looks locked but pulls open with a firm tug, because the plate touches only one edge of the magnet.
• Floor closer never serviced. A worn floor closer lets the glass leaf drift, and the lock alignment drifts with it. We check the closer before mounting anything.
• Exit sensor watching a desk. A sensor aimed at a reception desk or a walkway inside the suite unlocks the door whenever someone moves nearby.
• Opener fighting the lock. Without sequencing, the opener pushes against a locked door until its arm or motor gives out.
• Surface wire on a sidelite. Visible cable taped to glass is a quick way to fail a landlord’s final inspection.
• Fire alarm release never tested. If nobody coordinated with the building’s fire alarm contractor, the door may not release in an alarm, which is the one test that matters most.

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