Re: damage by wheelchair

Sally,

I've been thinking all day on this one and am having trouble with any firm solutions. Maybe one of the other handymen hanging out can provide some insight. Doorways and wall corners can sometimes be successfully protected from dents and scrapes.

The sell a clear plastic corner mold that sticks to outside corners that might help in some kinds of doorways. Commercially, we would use sheet stainless steel on corners and doorways to protect just the area that is suseptable to damage, but stainless anything is really expensive. If it has to be molded.. that's even worse.

You might be able to use cut pieces of door kick plates found at hardware stores. Kick plates come in all shapes, sizes, and materials and are very durable. Making it pretty might be a chalenge though. If you have a wall where there is a problem you can use wooden chair rail molding with a natural or stained finish and that looks nice too.

Cabinets are a different animal. I can't think of anything other than covering the door with laminate (countertop material) that would make it look nice and be durable.

Bottom line is that paint, in general, can't be protected from the type of abuse that a wheelchair can create. In those areas you will need to use materials less suseptable to scrapes and dents....

Any help out there handy guys and gals?!?!?!