Surviving the Storm

When the housing industry collapsed in the middle of the last decade, it was clear it was going to affect our bottom line. Homes are at the heart of North Shore. From building them, to refurbishing them, to owning them, houses with garages are our bread and butter.  Therefore, when times got tough, we pivoted. We aggressively invested in the future, which in our case was selling our products online; first using eBay and then through our own website. It was a risk, but it worked out. While the recession ravaged other family companies, our digital strategy help expanded our sales by 20% a month.

We survived and flourished, and now it looks like our region is starting to show signs of life again. CNNMoney.com just released its list of the 100 U.S. Zip codes hit hardest by foreclosure in 2011, and the list looks a lot different than it did in 2007. Back then the capitols of the Rust Belt, including Cleveland, had a quarter of the top 100 zip codes. Four years later, Ohio does not even have one on the list. There is no doubting that things are still tough, but there is a feeling, a glimmer of hope, that we might have turned the corner.

Through thick and thin, we have been and will continue to be ready, willing, and able to serve the amazing folks of the Rust Belt.  If you have any garage door needs, check out our website or drop us a line at sales@northshorecommercialdoor.com or 440-365-5707.

Here’s to an amazing 2012!

Access Control Systems and the Big City

According to RE/MAX Northern Illinois, the Metropolitan Chicago real estate market posted its largest increase in sales in the past six months. The 4,760 closed sales were a 26% increase from February 2011 and 6% more than in January 2012. Numbers like these have everyone at North Shore Door excited about the Chicago area market. Not only are sales numbers up, but we’ve been seeing a lot of owners who are looking to upgrade their property access systems both for re-sale and for upgraded security. As with any big metropolitan area, Chicago faces some unique challenges. While overall crime figures have declined from previous years, property owners in Chicago are always on the lookout for ways to strengthen their security for both attached and detached homes and businesses.

At North Shore Door, we are prepared to fill the city’s needs with a wide range of innovative and highly cost-effective access control systems.  We offer products from industry leaders like HID, Transcore, Tag Master, Amano, Passport, Linear, Liftmaster, and many more. Everything from HID’s simple but effective proximity key fobs to Linear’s rugged and multi-function AE-100 commercial telephone entry system can be found on our website.

Of course, you don’t need to live or work in a city of 2.7 million to take advantage of North Shore’s amazing access control systems. But if you do, no one is more prepared to improve your entry security than North Shore. If you want to get ahead of the building security curve, contact an access control expert at North Shore Door today.

They Have an App for That

You can do just about anything with your smartphone these days.  From paying bills, to making restaurant reservations, to finding the nearest gas station, as the ubiquitous iPhone commercial says, “there’s an app for that”. Now the innovators over at Craftsman have come up with a way to control your garage door through your phone. The Craftsman Assurelink™ Garage Opener just needs an internet connection and downloaded program to control your garage from just about anywhere.

Many of us have left on a long trip, only to realize that we left our garage door open, and in turn left our home vulnerable to theft.  Now instead of having to panic and try to get a neighbor or family member to rush over and check, you can now simply check your phone and the Assurelink™ app will let you know if you left the door open and if so, you can close it! The unit and app are a modern convenience that provides homeowners added security and peace of mind.

At North Shore, we offer a wide range of accessories for both of the Assurelink ™ models, including the one with the DieHard® battery backup to protect against your service being interrupted due to power outages. At North Shore, we are always looking to discover the latest technology and bring it to our customers at the best possible prices.

Was it Cold Enough For You This Winter?

In wintertime, a lot of us get sick and tired of asking or answering the question, “Is it cold enough for you?” Unless you’re lucky and have palm trees in your front yard, you know all about this seasonal predicament.

Experts claim that homeowners lose 18-20% of their heat through windows and doors. Most of us take great care to guard against leaky windows and doors in our homes. However, there is one place that we often neglect, the garage. We reason that since no one is living in the garage, there isn’t any need to insulate the door and windows. Unfortunately, this common misconception may end up costing you money no matter what climate you live in. Even in milder climates, an insulated garage door is a great way to save on year-round energy bills.

At North Shore Door, we offer a number of different ways to keep the cold both out of and inside your garage. Our best-selling insulated steel garage doors are both attractive and thermally efficient. They have a layer of styrene foam that not only limits temperature fluctuations but also offers a measure of soundproofing. If you’re not looking to replace your entire garage door, we also offer a wide variety of weather seal products, including weather stripping, threshold seals, and even complete garage door insulation kits. So if you’re sick of throwing money out the window, or in this case the garage door, take a look at our website, send us an email or pick up the phone and contact one of our experts today.

A New Initiative by the DOE That Maximizes Homeowners’ Energy Savings

Whether you’re a homeowner, or whether you build and/or retrofit homes and garages for a living, a new initiative on the part of the Building America Retrofit Alliance (BARA), a unit of the Department of Energy’s Building America Initiative, is something worth paying attention to. Sponsored in part by industry-leading companies and organizations such as LiftMaster, Honeywell, and the Metal Roofing Alliance, the new project (known as the “Cool Energy House” project) is an initiative in Winderemere, FL that showcases new methods of reducing one’s energy costs at home.

For all those who wish to build and/or improve upon homes in the wake of the so-called “Housing Bubble Burst,” strategies for enabling a house to become more energy- efficient should be by now a matter of pure economic commonsense, not just environmental principle. The strategies, tips, and methods being showcased at the Cool Energy House project include air sealing and re-insulation; window, door, appliance, lighting and pool pump replacement; mechanical system replacement and air duct sealing; and cool roofing. All of these home retrofitting strategies are equally applicable to garage retrofitting: hence our own interest in the project.

At North Shore Commercial Door, we always bear in mind how such initiatives will impact the future of our own business. As far as our own current energy-saving technology, we stock such energy-reducing products as garage door T vinyl weather seal and garage door bottom seal weather-stripping. Such improvements allow for the energy that would normally get translated outwards from a house – through all its various nooks, cracks, and crannies – to stay put, and thereby get re-circulated. The more energy that gets re-circulated and recycled, the more money a homeowner saves.

The simple fact remains that energy saving retrofitting should no longer be a simple matter of governmental experiment and initiative. As the economy continues to recover from these last few years, it is crucial that private homebuilding and renovation companies keep in mind the technologies and methods being developed today, if they’d like to see their businesses boom again.

It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask Us Questions

Customers from around the country frequent our website not only because we consistently offer useful merchandise and services, but also because we present these products and services in such a way that is neat, clear, relatable, and comprehensible. Still, it does one credit to ask the right questions to a knowledgeable salesperson. After all, quite frequently, what you’re purchasing from North Shore Door is the actual key to your home, business, and/or gated community. What better argument exists for you to ask the right questions? You want to ensure that your door is secure; that your remote is the right kind; that it goes well with the particular use for it you have in mind; and that your door is sealed safely and properly from any unwelcome outdoor elements.

For example, our LiftMaster series of lift openers is one of the most popular brands of lift opener to buy in history, bar none. Still, LiftMaster products have a huge number of varieties, specific uses, and even sometimes bear company names other than LiftMaster. At North Shore, we carry a full line of Chamberlain LiftMaster gate operator and garage opener parts and accessories, but the Chamberlain group manufactures its products under such different “aliases” as Sears Craftsman, Access Master, Garage Master, Master Mechanic, Formula 1, Security+, Link, Billion Code, True Value, True Guard, and Raynor… all in addition to Liftmaster. Sometimes you need to speak with an expert to help you make the right purchasing decision. Likewise, when it comes to the question of weather-sealing your garage or gate, you need to be able to make an informed choice about what sort of weather-seal kit you need to buy. A WS-1 kit is better used for a smaller, one-car garage, whereas a WS-2 18’ kit performs better with a two-car garage.

It’s a matter of convenience to point and click while shopping online, but it’s a matter of necessity in accessing and protecting your home and/or business. The point is, don’t be shy. Contact us at North Shore Door today and you’ll receive intelligent responses to whichever your question, regardless of how general or specific. We’ve already long since changed the way our business is run at North Shore Door. It is high-time our customers discovered that our informational services are just as good. Call us today at (440) 365-5705 or visit our website at www.northshorecommercialdoor.com.

Lifting Our Share for America’s War Effort

It’s no secret that America has seen some tough times this past decade. Not only have we endured domestic economic problems, but we’ve also been engaged in fighting wars on several fronts that require a sizable amount of national focus, determination, and technological development. We at North Shore Door ought to know of what we speak, since we’ve performed integral work on behalf of the defense industry throughout the course of the current hostilities.

One such war-related job came to us a few years ago from a prominent aerospace defense client. The client had developed a prototype loading mechanism for a bomber, but they were experiencing difficulty in lifting the combined weight of the door and its payload; specifically they were having issues with a lifting motor that they’d already designed. They asked for our help in designing torsion springs that would give the motor the necessary wherewithal to lift the full complement of bombs.

For those who aren’t fully in the know, a torsion spring adds vital leverage power on account of its storing mechanical energy upon being twisted. The level of force, or “torque” as the technical term would have it, stands directly in relation to the degree that the spring has been twisted. In this particular instance, the torsion springs we designed were used to counterbalance the weight of the door and the payload.

After being given the exact weight of the door and bombs that needed lifting, as well as familiarizing ourselves with the already-designed lifting motor, we put together a strategy for designing torsion springs that could easily provide the necessary counterbalance.

Our design worked well – exactly as we planned. Both door mechanism and payload were easily lifted on account of our torsion springs. The prototype went onto the next phase in its long (and necessary) trials and testing before being used by the U.S. Air Force.