Door Kick Plate - BAMM!

If you look at most glass doors, the bottom is solid about a foot above the ground. This way, if someone accidentally kicks the door, you hit the wood rather than the glass, which could potentially cause it to break. After we reversed our patio door, not only did the door hardware and door hinges have to be moved, but the top became the bottom, so there wasn't much protection there against door kickers.

Since I have two kids in the house, my father-in-law Larry said a simple solution is installing a door kick plate which basically is protective piece of plexiglass in front of the glass. These are often colored to protect from UV damage. Installing is trivial - drill some holes in the plexiglass (so it won't crack when you do the screws) and then attach to the door.

A few weeks after we installed the kick plate, my younger son was leaning back in his chair and it fell over backwards, impacting the kick plate rather than the glass door ... so score one for that! ;-)

Alek installs the door kick plate

installing kick plate

Larry tests it out with a kick

larry kick plate

Closeup of Larry's foot!

kick plate 1

Kick Plate hangs tough!

kick plate 2

One problem with kick plate ...

kick plate bugs 1

... bugs get in there - ala bugville

kick plate bugs 2