Walk out to your main entrance and look at the glass. If you cannot find the caution decal, or what is left of it is a sun-bleached ghost that peeled off the last time the windows were cleaned, you have an open item on your door. Inspectors write it up. Insurers ask about it after somebody gets hurt. And it is the least expensive part on the entire opening.
Decals are part of the door, not decoration
An automatic door is powered equipment that moves toward the public without being touched. The industry standard for power-operated pedestrian doors treats the signage the same way it treats the operator, the sensors, and the header: it is part of a complete, compliant installation. The decal tells a person walking up what the door is about to do and where they should not stand. When it is gone, the equipment is incomplete no matter how smoothly the door is running.
This is also why signage shows up on every AAADM safety inspection. A certified technician cannot sign a door off as passing when the required decals are missing or unreadable. The item lands on the report as a deficiency and stays there until it is corrected.
What belongs on a sliding automatic door
The exact set depends on the door type and which way traffic flows, but on a typical retail or healthcare slider your technician is checking for:
- A caution decal on each moving panel, readable from the side people approach from
- Matching signage on the opposite face, so the door is marked in both directions
- Directional decals where traffic is one-way, so nobody walks into an exit-only lane
- Markings at the guide rails and sidelites where the panel slides past a fixed surface
- Breakout identification on doors that swing open in an emergency
What belongs on a swing door
Swing doors are the ones we find bare most often, especially low-energy doors on a push plate at a clinic, office, or restroom corridor.
- Caution signage on the door itself, sized and placed so it is seen before the door starts to move
- Signage on the reverse face, since the person on the other side gets no warning otherwise
- A push-to-open marking at the actuator, so the plate is recognized as the way in
- Directional wording where a pair is set up as one in, one out
- Approach-side markings on doors that swing toward the person standing there
The size, wording, and mounting height are all specified. That is why a hand-lettered sign or a leftover decal from a different door does not close the finding.
Why inspectors and insurers look for them first
Signage is the easiest thing on the door to verify. An inspector does not need a force gauge or a ladder to see that a decal is missing, so it is checked in the first ten seconds of the walk-up. The same is true after an incident. Photographs of your entrance get taken, and a bare or faded decal is plainly visible in them.
That is the part facility owners underestimate. A missing decal changes the conversation from what the door did to what the owner did. It is no longer only a question about equipment behavior; it becomes a question about whether the entrance was maintained and marked. A ten-dollar sticker and a dated inspection record answer that question before it is asked.
How decals disappear
Nobody removes them on purpose. They go away during window cleaning with the wrong chemical, when a panel of glass is replaced after a break-in, during a remodel or rebrand, when new film or vinyl graphics go on, or when a pressure washer gets too close. The door keeps working, so nothing looks wrong, and the decal is not missed until an inspection or an incident.
Replace the decal, but do not stop there
A missing decal is usually a symptom that the door has not been formally inspected in a while. Correct signage is inexpensive and quick, and it should be placed by the technician who is also checking the things you should never adjust yourself: opening and closing force, hold-open timing, sensor coverage and blanking, breakout, and the operator itself. That is AAADM-certified work, not a maintenance-closet job, and it ends with a dated inspection record you can hand to an inspector or an adjuster.
Commercial Service Company has served central Arkansas businesses since 1976, and our automatic door division covers Conway, Little Rock, North Little Rock, Benton, Bryant, Maumelle, Jacksonville, Sherwood, Cabot, Searcy, Russellville, and Hot Springs. If you are not sure your entrances are marked correctly, call us at 501-548-2374 and we will come look at every door on the property.
Frequently asked questions
Can I just order safety decals online and stick them on myself?
You can buy decals, but placement, size, wording, and which faces get marked are all specified for the door type, so a decal in the wrong spot does not close the finding. Have your automatic door technician place them during a safety inspection, and get the dated record that goes with it.
How often should automatic door safety decals be checked?
At every AAADM safety inspection, and any time the glass is cleaned aggressively, replaced, filmed, or rebranded. Those are the events that take decals off, and the door keeps operating normally afterward so nothing looks wrong.
Are the decals different for a sliding door and a low-energy swing door?
Yes. Sliders need caution and directional markings on the moving panels plus markings where the panel passes a fixed surface, while low-energy swing doors need caution signage on both faces along with a push-to-open marking at the actuator. A technician confirms the correct set for each opening.