Door Hardware - Push Pull Sets

Push/Pull Sets for High-Traffic Door Hardware

A push/pull set puts a flat plate on one face of a door and a projecting grip on the other, so the door opens the same direction no matter which way someone approaches it. Rocky Mountain's Rectangular and Metro lines cover this category, sized from compact 13 inch plates up to 30 inch Metro sets for a wide or heavily used commercial-style door. Both lines are cast in bronze rather than stamped from sheet metal.

How the two sides differ

The push side is a flat or lightly profiled plate mounted at hand height, built to absorb repeated palm and shoulder contact without denting the door face over years of use. The pull side carries a projecting grip, standing far enough off the door for a hand to wrap fully around it rather than pinching fingertips against the surface. Because the two faces serve different jobs, a push/pull set only makes sense on a door that swings one direction, not a double-acting door that opens both ways.

Sizing the Rectangular and Metro lines

Rectangular sets run from 2 1/2 by 13 inches up to 3 1/2 by 24 inches, a range suited to standard interior and light-commercial doors. The Metro line extends further, up to 3 1/2 by 30 inches, for taller or wider slabs where a hand needs more room to land without hunting along the plate. Mounting height should stay consistent with any other push/pull hardware already installed nearby, particularly across a run of matching doors in the same hallway.

Finish behavior on heavily touched hardware

A push plate takes more direct hand contact than nearly any other piece of door hardware, so finish change shows up here sooner than it would on a rarely touched knob or lever. Bronze develops a living patina that shifts tone with repeated handling, and that shift becomes visible faster on a push plate simply from how often it gets touched. That wear is expected rather than a flaw, and it tends to even out once the whole surface has been handled evenly over time.