Paul Kelly is effusive in his praise when it comes to his new Conqueror – Efaflex high speed garage doors.
Paul, who is the owner of Christchurch’s Paul Kelly Motor Company, has had two high speed Conqueror- Efaflex roller doors installed in his new 2,000 square metre service centre.
They were installed in early June and life then changed dramatically.
“My initial thought when I opted for them was that on a building that has cost approximately $2 million, it was worth spending the extra on getting high speed doors. And that has absolutely been the case,” Paul shares.
He says, however, he had no real concept of exactly what a great decision that was. Because the doors are high speed he is now able to have his mechanical workshop functioning with closed doors. This is significant, he emphasises.
“We are in a service industry with 22 technicians on the floor so we have cars coming in and out, non-stop, all day. You could not, normally, run a high-volume mechanical workshop with the doors down. But, we can because we have these high speed doors, and we have the appropriate ventilation systems. The doors auto fire up and down, taking only 3.5 seconds to go from top to bottom of our full, container-height doors. They are very, very fast,” Paul enthuses.
The day the doors were installed, he tells, it was about three degrees outside.
“Once we got them it was easy to forget how utterly, bitterly cold it can be in an automotive workshop. My staff, who used to be well rugged up, now work in short sleeves.
“We have about 25 cars coming in here every morning. They have been driven here, so by the time they arrive inside our workshop their motors are like heaters. With our doors shut, the cars warm up our very large building.”