Custom Access Door Under Stairwell — Manufacturing Facility Equipment Maintenance
The Challenge
A GTA manufacturing facility had a recurring and expensive problem: annual maintenance on critical equipment required removing a section of wall to gain access, then rebuilding it afterward. Every maintenance cycle meant significant downtime, labour cost for the wall removal and restoration, and disruption to surrounding operations. The company had reached out to multiple vendors to find a door solution — something that could be permanently installed to provide routine access without demolishing the wall each time — but none had been able to deliver.
The catch was location. The only viable access point was tucked under a stairwell, with severe clearance constraints on all sides. The available space for a door system was genuinely tight, and no standard product fit the opening dimensions or the overhead clearance requirements of that location.
The Solution
Wilcox Door Service took the site survey and designed a custom door solution specifically for the under-stairwell opening. Working within the exact available dimensions — width, height, and the clearance envelope imposed by the stairwell structure above — we engineered a door system that opened and closed within the constrained space without interfering with the stairs or adjacent structure.
The custom door provided permanent, repeatable access to the equipment without any wall removal. Annual maintenance could now be completed by simply opening a door — saving the hours of demolition and rebuild work that had been factored into every previous maintenance cycle as a standard cost of operations.
Outcomes
The annual maintenance process was transformed. What had previously required wall removal, associated labour, and extended downtime was reduced to opening a door. The custom installation fit perfectly within the stairwell constraints and has operated without issue through multiple maintenance cycles. The customer recouped the cost of the installation within the first year through savings on the wall demolition and rebuild that was no longer needed.
Why Wilcox
When multiple vendors say no, the answer isn’t that the problem can’t be solved — it’s that the right contractor hasn’t looked at it yet. Wilcox Door Service takes on the projects that require real problem-solving: custom fabrication, tight clearances, non-standard openings. We do the site survey, we design the solution, and we make it work. That’s exactly what this customer needed, and it’s what we delivered.
Products & Equipment
- Custom-Fabricated Access Door (under-stairwell application)
The Solution
Our Senior Technical Manager Tony Wong went to site to see if a custom solution would suit their needs. Tony recommended a custom door with special mounting requirements to accommodate to the existing wall construction. Wilcox supplied and installed a new door with custom mounting angles and reduced the height of the opening with a false header; if you see the images below, there are sectional door panels being used as a false header to close the opening.
Opening of the Door
Issues with Stairwell
Completed product with Rolling Steel and False Header
Products and solutions used for this project
Related Products
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