Roll up doors painted or non painted

[chiefbpfd 41]

Asking to see what you prefer.

Painted roll up doors or just plain non painted surface?

[sfrd18 360]

Personally, I'd prefer painted.

[helicopper 1,050]

I would ask the vendor what kind of guarantee they'll provide for painted roll-up doors. It seems to me that you're going to get lots of paint chipping from normal use unless they have some special way of painting them.

[lad45der 78]

All of our rigs have roll up doors. I would say that unpainted doors are better. The problem is that the doors take a beating in the rolled up position, when your moving tools about the inside of the compartment.The door when rolled up on the drum tends to get scratched from the tools. In a busy company you can tell which compartments are opened the most by the scratches. Example ems compartment or the compartment with the irons and can ect. Also I notice we tend to over wash the rigs and leave a lot of swirl marks from the brush. We wax the rigs once a year. Boy do I wish we had non painted Doors then. Cleaning wax between the slats blows!! Big time.

[xfirefighter484x 234]

I have dealt with both, and I find that the unpainted are much easier to deal with. No woes about paint chipping, easier to clean, no need to wax or buff or polish the "brushed" aluminum.

[dadbo46 50]

Unpainted. Painted doors will be a maintenance nightmare.

[sfrd18 360]

Personally, I'd prefer painted.

Oops. I was thinking of roll up firehouse garage bay doors painted or unpainted this whole time . It's been a long day.

As for apparatus roll up doors, it depends on the mfg. and the department, but in my opinion, unpainted doors are easier to manage, by far, but painted ones can look better, again depending on the rig itself and the department's color scheme.

Edited January 9, 2012 by sfrd18

[ja3kfd 34]

I prefer unpainted doors easier to maintain.

[CHIEFPHIL 90]

Our rescue truck has unpainted and they look terrible (tough to keep clean.). Our Tower Ladder has painted and they look good (easier to clean).

By the way, they go up and down as needed, use some compressed air to clean out the tracks of sand and what not, they operate fine.

Edited January 10, 2012 by CHIEFPHIL

[xfirefighter484x 234]

Our rescue truck has unpainted and they look terrible. Our Tower Ladder has painted and they look good.

By the way, they go up and down as needed, use some compressed air to clean out the tracks of sand and what not, they operate fine.

Again, looks aside, not all people have that preference. I think that some unpainted doors look just fine. I don't need paint on mine to make them open. Just one less headache later down the line.

[PFDRes47cue 653]

All of our rigs have roll up doors. I would say that unpainted doors are better. The problem is that the doors take a beating in the rolled up position, when your moving tools about the inside of the compartment.The door when rolled up on the drum tends to get scratched from the tools. In a busy company you can tell which compartments are opened the most by the scratches. Example ems compartment or the compartment with the irons and can ect. Also I notice we tend to over wash the rigs and leave a lot of swirl marks from the brush. We wax the rigs once a year. Boy do I wish we had non painted Doors then. Cleaning wax between the slats blows!! Big time.

I also prefer non painted for maintenance reasons, but painted can often look better. They do take a beating when rolled up, but this could be fixed by having them roll up into an enclosed unit that protects the roll. Would not take up much extra space either.

[NoWestFF 21]

I was in a department that had unpainted roll-up doors on several rigs and am currently in a department that has painted roll-up doors on some of the rigs. I prefer the unpainted roll-up doors because the painted doors eventually get chipped, scratched, etc. It's ironic the choice that "looks better" to some people when the rig is delivered may wind up causing more maintenance headaches and detracting from the rig's appearance in the long run. Also, if you put any stock in the notion that taxpayers expect to see well-maintained apparatus than unpainted doors should be the choice as the painted doors will eventually get beaten up...unless limited maintenance time and funds are spent to maintain painted doors, which isn't a worthwhile investment in my view.

More importantly, move away from the appearance of the doors to the utility of the doors. Do you operate on busy roadways/interstates where roll-up doors provide some degree of safety over the swing-out compartment doors? I know scenes should be blocked with apparatus and other measures should be taken when we're on a roadway, but there are those misguided and distracted drivers who will find their way into the scene and just miss hitting a firefighter or worse. If we can avoid standing further into the likely path of a moving vehicle when getting equipment out of a compartment we just might avoid a close-call, injury or LODD.

A final thought: if you don't like unpainted doors because they don't look good then you won't like the high-visibility reflective striping/chevrons you'll eventually have on your apparatus. And it would be a shame you put appearance over function and safety...your safety and that of your crew.