There are a thousand ways to screw up a door, so one of my goals with this blog is to help others avoid mistakes I’ve seen or made myself (yes, I’ve made plenty). 

Today’s warning involves the straight pulls that have become popular in the last few years.  These pulls are often close to the full height of the door, but even the shorter versions can cause conflicts with other hardware.  Whether the door has a deadlatch, deadbolt, or a panic device, there is usually a cylinder on the pull side of the door.  The photo at right illustrates the problem pretty well. 

The photos below are from a recent site visit to a building under construction.  Since these are flush doors the pulls are located far enough away from the door edge to avoid the cylinder, but if these were stile and rail doors or flush doors with lites, we’d have a problem. 

If you’re using long straight pulls on flush doors, I would recommend coordinating the mounting location early on.  For stile and rail doors, I would use an offset version of this type of pull, so the posts or stand-offs that attach the pull to the door are at an angle and allow access to the cylinder.

Be careful out there!

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