DIY installation guide: fitting Robo Door supply-only products

Updated September 2026 by Luis Popa, Local Distribution Manager.

Robo Door supplies every product for DIY fitting, made to your measurements with fixings and instructions. Robo Clear bars, fixture-fitted burglar bars and welded bars are realistic weekend jobs. Trellis doors and hinged doors are doable with care. Automated driveway gates, fencing, shutters and strongroom doors belong with a contractor. What you fit yourself keeps its manufacturing warranty.

Before you order

Measure the clear width and height of each opening at three points and give the smallest. Record the frame material (steel, aluminium, timber, masonry), which way a door must open or stack, and anything in the way on the stacking or swing side. Photograph every opening. Robo Door's quoting team checks the sheet before manufacture, but the accepted measurements are what the product is made to, and made-to-measure orders cannot be cancelled once production starts. If any dimension is in doubt, ask for the free site visit and fit the product yourself afterwards.

DIY suitability by product

Robo Clear polycarbonate bars

The kit contains bars cut to size, one-way screws or rivets, and caps and washers in bronze, white, grey or black. Space the bars about 100 mm apart, centre to centre. Drill a 5 mm hole into the window frame and a 6 mm hole in the bar; into timber, drill a 2.5 mm pilot hole in the frame and a 4 mm hole in the bar, which allows for expansion and contraction. Peel off the protective film, fit the bars and finish with the caps and washers. Lay the bars out around the window's opening mechanism so the window still opens. Robo Clear suits inside and outside windows in all climate conditions. Clean with a soft cloth and mild soapy water, never abrasives or ammonia cleaners.

Fixture-fitted burglar bars

Offer the unit up to the frame, check it is square and clear of the opening mechanism, clamp it, and fix through the supplied points with fixings suited to the frame material: self-tapping screws into steel, the correct fixings into aluminium so the frame is not crushed, screws into timber, anchors into masonry. Work from the corners inward. On aluminium windows, pack rather than pull the bar into a twisted frame; a square bar on a slightly out-of-square window is right, the reverse is not.

Welded pattern bars

These fix to the reveal rather than the frame. Two people hold the unit while one marks and drills. Use anchors rated for the wall and keep the fixings inside the reveal where they are covered. Touch up any chip from drilling within 30 days with the matching colour, and on galvanised units with zinc-rich paint first.

Trellis doors

The tracks are the job. Fix the top track straight and level, then hang the bottom track exactly parallel and plumb below it using a string line or plumb bob; a few millimetres out at one end makes the door drag for its whole life. The bottom track sits at the threshold, so check the floor line and drainage before drilling. Hang the door, run it fully open and closed, adjust until it stacks fully and the locking points meet the frame, then fit the lock keeper and test from both sides. Confirm the stacking side does not cover a switch or a plug.

Hinged burglar doors and garden gates

Fix the frame plumb to the reveal with packers so it is not twisted, hang the leaf, and check the swing through the full arc: no drop, no bind, no contact with a step or another door. Set the lock keeper so the bolt throws cleanly. Garden gates need posts in footings sized to the leaf; a leaning post is the usual cause of a gate that will not lock a year later.

The faults that void the warranty

Our terms name improper installation as an exclusion and list what that means: dragging the gate across the ground, leaving concrete or mortar on the coating, unsealed hollow sections that fill with water, and no earthing on motorised gates. Carry, do not drag. Cover the product while making good. Seal any open section end. Leave motorised gates to a qualified installer. The manufacturing warranty on the product Robo Door made is unaffected by who fits it; the Break-In Repair Guarantee on Deluxe and Deluxe Fixture requires fitting by Robo Door or an authorised installer.

Finishing checks

• Opens, closes and locks freely from both sides
• Square, level and plumb; no twist in the frame
• All fixings tight and tamper-proof screws used where supplied
• No chips, swarf or mortar on the coating; touch-ups done
• Window mechanisms still operate behind bars
• Escape-route windows and doors agreed with the household, keys placed
• Dated photographs taken for the maintenance record

Then the routine starts

Wash coated surfaces with mild soapy water twice a year, lubricate hinges, rollers and tracks every six months, touch up chips within 30 days and inspect hinge welds on galvanised products once a year. That is the whole routine that keeps the paint and rust warranties alive, whoever did the fitting.

When to stop and call

An opening that is badly out of square, a window frame that flexes, a track that cannot be made level, a gate that needs a motor, or anything that would mean drilling through a finished coating in a place the instructions do not show. Robo Door's installers can take over a supply-only job; the call is cheaper than the mistake.

Next step

If you are fitting it yourself, order supply-only and keep the fixing instructions with the product. If the opening turns out to be out of square, our installers can take the job over. Request a free quote, WhatsApp +27 82 888 1919 or call 082 888 1919.