Though we typically pull open doors with our hands at approximately 42” off the floor and push doors open with our hands higher at 54”, people have installed 16” push plates centred behind the pull plates. Better in our opinion to order 5” x 20” push plates that is installed just below the bottom push pull mounting bolt and then extends upwards or use longer push plates to accommodate both children and adults.

7” and 9” long aluminum door pulls with a flat 1” face and curved back are inexpensive and are often chosen, but cannot compare in appearance with 3/4” or 1” round stainless steel pulls. We do not understand why aluminum pulls, push plates and kick plates are mixed with latch sets that have a stain nickel or satin chrome finish.

Kick plates used to be sold only pre-punched with holes for mounting with #6 screws. This made mounting them into steel doors a tedious, time consuming job and in fact are still sold that way. Better to use kick plates with two sided tape on the back for a cleaner look and a very fast installation.