Being from the Northeast, I didn’t immediately recognize the reason for this type of Fixed-It Friday ingenuity when I first saw something similar at the Hoover Dam years ago. I’ll give this one an E for aesthetically pleasing. 😀
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Very common in Arizona. Can you imagine how hot a black door gets in the sunshine when the outside temperature is 110 degrees.
Sometimes I walk past black doors in the sunny city where I live and I can feel the heat radiating off of them even though they’re in shadow at that point in the day.
– Lori
Did the pull handle break or did the paint get scratched off?
Hi Jim –
It’s to protect against the high temperature of the hardware after baking in the sun all day. This restaurant is in Las Vegas, and I’m seeing these “thermal protectors” more frequently.
– Lori
When I first saw it I thought it must be in Arizona or Nevada, maybe New Mexico. Then I checked out the area code. Yup Las Vegas and surrounding areas. You don’t want your customers to burn their hands entering your fine establishment.
Living in the desert near Death Valley means I sell or specify only dull chrome and aluminum as anything in darker finishes gets so hot in the summertime that it will burn you. Even then I keep my tools in the shade, or they will get too hot to hold. We’ve had doors painted brown that would not open in the morning because of the sun heating up the outside skin on door and the AC on the inside causing the door to bind the latch. We also deal with high winds at times, and it always amazes me that designers never look at the weather and prevailing wind directions. Doors that swing into or against the wind survive, ones that open with the wind usually go sailing away ripping the hardware apart.
Thanks for sharing your insight, Greg!
– Lori