Hello all,
I am designing a new home and am interested to know what the most typical handing of interior doors is. It would seem to me that it makes sense to have most interior doors reverse handed, so that the door opens into a hallway rather than take up space in the room when it is opened. This is especially important in a bathroom, where you would not want to have someone fall in the doorway, thereby preventing the door from being opened from the outside. What I have seen most often, though, is doors opening INTO a room.
What have you all seen, and what would you recommend?
Thanks alot for any advice you may be able to offer-
Johnny
Replies
An interesting question; I'm sure there will be plenty of good responses. I can specifically answer why doors do not open into a hallway - eventually someone is going to get their head whacked.
Closet doors typically open out from the closet. Or if a room is exceptionally small or tight, the door might open out. Otherwise doors typically open into the room. Push the door open with one hand, reach for the light switch with the other. A door that opens into a hallway at best must always be kept closed, at worst is an obstruction. (never heard of "reverse handed"). Another option, if space is tight, is a pocket door. Maint. is a PITA, but they take up no floor space. Bifold doors are common on closets and laundry rooms.
Reverse is door opening out, such as in the hall closet. Good point about it always having to be left closed. Hence the beauty of this forum.
Thanks so much
Johnny
"Reverse is door opening out, such as in the hall closet."
Its probably a regional thing, they don't use that expression here in my area of So. Cal. Years ago when I used to buy a lot of doors for remodeling and tenant improvement projects, there was always confusion when ordering "left-handed" and "right-handed" doors. Seems residential doors were always called out the opposite of commercial - go figure. I don't know if the industry has gotten together and come up with a unanimous decision or not. Last door I ordered they said Stand with your back to the jamb - the hand that swings like your door should determines the handing of the door. So I ordered a RH door and they sent a LH door - again, go figure!
I ate a Marvin Patio door once................after nearly killing the salesman!!
I always draw a picture now, can't go wrong.
EricI Love A Hand That Meets My Own,
With A Hold That Causes Some Sensation.
[email protected]
This was always a problem when I worked in a lumber yard...the consensus was (from the manufacturers) pulling the door towards you, which side was the knob on..in other words if you were inside of the room (with the door swinging in) if the knob was on the left, it was a LH door...
Commercial is similar but when the use right-hand reverse and such...everyone is totally confused!!!
That's how I understand it as well.
Drawing = better odds of getting what you want.
That's what I thought when I gave the homeowner a drawing as he left to go buy the door. I should have known by the blank look on his face...(he was probably thinking "I need a door - not a shark fin")View Image
It is wise to ask the door shop how they call out handing. While walking through with a door salesman I continually called out the doors the way I was taught( commercial callout such as Right hand reverse). As I called a door out as a RHR he would write down LH(left hand). To him this was the same. For the door he was correct, however, hardware callouts need to know which side is the inside of the room( for example privacy locks). The commercial callouts use a reverse handing to designate when a door swings toward the hallway. Since then I have always asked the supplier how they call them out even if it means completely redoing a door schedule. If you are doing a bathroom with a outswing (reverse) my door schedule could show a left hand swing (instead of right hand reverse) for the door. This avoids confusion at the door shop. Check with the door hardware company to see how they want the hardware specified.Adam Greisz<!----><!---->
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I'm with Ben - Doors opening into a hallway are a REALLY bad idea. Seems like that would be an ideal thing to run into at night when you get up go to the bathroom. Run right into a door or 2 on your way down the hall in the dark.
It would also be an emergency egress issue. You don't want doors sticking out in the hallway when people are trying to get out due to a fire.
And if you came out of a room and wanted to head down a hall, you'd have to shut the door all the way in order to get by it. (Unless the hallway was very wide)
How about leaving doors open for ventilation? Can't do that if they open into a hallway.
Nothing wrong with questioning the way things are generally done. But in this case, I think they're done for some pretty good reasons.
Width of the hallway makes a difference in this. In a 3 ft. residential hallway, the door gets in the way. But in many schools with very wide hallways, the doors open to the hallway. If they opened into the classroom, the danger is that kids would crowd against the closed door in a fire, and not be able to escape through the hallway.
-- J.S.
"But in many schools with very wide hallways, the doors open to the hallway. "
I don't think that's allowed anymore.
The doors MUST open outward, as you pointed out. Buy the wall must also be inset so the door doesn't partially block the hallway.
Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.
I thought you're asking about right and left handing.
As the above poster noted it's an interesting question. Anyway, most interior doors are opened into the room and I think this has something to do with the notion of going from a larger or more prominent space into a lesser space.
When the room is small e.g. a closet or a small bathroom, in order not to take up precious space, then the door is usually opened out into the hall.
May have something to do with the region too. In North America most exterior doors are opened into the house while in some parts of the world they are opened into the street.
If you have a tightly designed room and need a different approach to avoid a wide door swing or the pocket door, then consider a bi-hinged door for those diffcult openings.
These are available as prehung units if desired. 2/0 thru 6/0
........Iron Helix
just remember "butt to butt". If you stand with your butt against the door and the butts (hinges) are on your right, its a right hand door
Beware certain door manufactureres that supply home depot were marking their doors LH and RH for left hinge and right hinge, totally backwards (clueless again).
even in a small bathroom its a good Idea for the door to swing in and toward the toilet. that way if you're sitting on it and someone opens the door you wont ruin that persons day.
In a bedroom the door usually swings toward the nearest wall
You gotta watch out when talking door handing, because it is different everywhere.
Residential work is where it is the most confusing, because the "shop made" door people, who build virtually all doors except those that are built by the window companies, have one set of by-laws, and the window companies have another.
You think you know handing terminology because maybe someone told you the "butt to butt" method. Open any door, put your butt up against the hinge jamb, and whichever side the opened door leaf is on is the door handing. Right?
Wrong! Use that thinking in ordering a hinged patio door from any of those recognizable brand names in windows, and you could end up needing to buy yourself a second one, on your dime and opposite from the first, when the first one comes in backward from what you though you ordered.
Commercial door and hardware jobbers are real pros at getting it right, because they cannot afford not to. Commercial GCs lay the job off onto them to interpret the plans, specs, and door and hardware schedules, and deliver what is needed.
These pros consistently use the terms RH, LH, RHR, and LHR to speak about handing and swing.
Edited 4/28/2005 12:58 pm ET by Gene Davis
Bah! You guys got off topic again!
This thread got me thinking and now I want to know more about door swinging. I asked my brother, an arhitect for his rule of thumb. Here is what he wrote:
<< Generally, it is in the direction of flow of a person. For example, you wouldn't have a door open in any manner that would disrupt the way a person would naturally move into a room.
Like for instance,a front door may open to the left b/c if itopened to the right it would block flow into the living room which isthe first destination upon walking in. >>
Another point of view, at least.Justin Fink - FHB Editorial
Well, I was taught that a door was handed by standing outside (outside was never really well defined, then or now) and look at the door. If the hinges are on the right, it's a right-hand door, and vice versa for left.
Now, whether a door should swing in or out, is a worm can warehouse.
There's "generally accepted" practice, code, and ADA to consider.
There's even the nifty residential practice of having the door swing to always hide the toilet, even when this looks contrary-wise on the plans.
For residential stuff, doors should swing in to rooms, and out of storage, like closets. Like any rule, that's as much exception as rule. If there's a privacy (or 'real') lockset on the door, the hinges are always to the "inside" of the lock, for a rule of thumb.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I have been researching the ribbon and girt. Both terms are correct. Girt was a carry over term from timber framing and best I can tell ribbon is the later more common term. My understanding is that balloon framing lost favor around end of WWII.
> My understanding is that balloon framing lost favor around end of WWII.
Earlier than that here on the West coast. I see a lot of 1920's buildings, and never found a balloon frame. I've also seen platform framing referred to as "Western" framing.
-- J.S.
If custom built I think some change doors for Left/Right handed folks.. Expensive houses though...
Which side of the door is your butt against?
>>Which side of the door is your butt against?
If you can't see the hinges your on the wrong side.
How many ways are there? I like yours because it would be easy to explain over phone. Mine is, open door, put your butt against butt [hinge].Which side is hinge on?
I saw some doors at Home Depot that were labeled RH and LH But were wrong. I asked the clerk (####-ociate) why they were labeled wrong and he said LH and RH stood for "left hinge" and "right hinge"
...Only at Home depot!
I was just in HD, noticed they are (at least on their new pre-hung luans) marked as left or right INSWING.....which ends up being the reverse of how most people call out handing (i.e. face the door on the hinge side of the jamb & whatever hand opens the door, that's the handing).....On another subject, how does anyone feel about the new (to me, at least) luan veneered door jambs.....?
I'm with the rest of the pack -- open into the rooms not the hallways, tripping / collision hazard; closets open into the room or bi-fold; pockets are the best for saving floor space.
Interesting scenario with the person collapsing in the bathroom, never thought about that situation. IMO the bathroom door opening into the hallway produces a greater probability of late night collisions than any other door in the entire house.
Which side are the hinges on???? Left hand, right hand? Draw a picture of what you need and take it to the supplier. Seems every door supplier around here has a different nomenclature (not really, only 2 versions, but I can never remember who uses which one -- stand inside the room, door opens toward..............).
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
I came up with a unique solution to noise traveling down our hallway from the family room to the bedrooms. I installed a 36" door on a closet right at the entrance of the hall. When it opens all the way the front of the door "closes" the hallway from the family room. I had to replace the latch with a roller, and am still working out rejaming the opening, but it works great for noise reduction.Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
I am interested in thoughts on replacing cheap bifold doors in my bedroom. Present installation is 80" wide x 92" high, 4 masonite panel hollow core doors. Hardware is cheap as well. I am interested in top of the line replacement options. I thought of buying 4 solid core doors and piano hinging them together, but have been told that piano hinge in this application might be a mistake. Drywall on both sides of the openning suggest attachment at floor and ceiling.
TIA
I don't think I have been in a house where doors don't open into bedrooms and bathrooms. You don't want a door to open into a stairway. My youngest son leaned against a basement door that opened in on a stair. He tumbled down the stair and spent the night in the hospital for observation. Unless you have a walk-in closet a swinging door can't open in. How do they open where you live now?
Good architectural design has most all interior doors swinging into the room they privatize, with the open door leaf laying against a wall. That way, the door, when left open, is not taking up floor space.
Small closets have outswing doors. Some small baths and powder rooms have outswing doors, simply because the room size is small and cannot accommodate the swing of the door.
Exterior entry doors generally swing in, but in south Florida's Dade and Broward county, front doors usually swing out. That tradition probably got established because of hurricanes, with builders and architects thinking a door is less likely to blow in if it is against the stops.
Any interior door's handing is determined by standing in the doorway with the door open, your back against the hinge jamb, with your face towards the strike. The side of you the open leaf is on is the hand of the door.
The door jobbers that sell prehung interior doors to pro lumberyards most all abide by this handing definition. They don't need to know whether an interior door is swinging into a room or out of it. They just need the LH or RH callout.
Hardware for interior doors has a different set of handing rules, due to latch functionality, which can put lock and unlock features on one side of a door or the other. For example, a small powder room too small for an iswinging door, is outfitted with, say, a door called out to the lumberyard as LH. Its privacy latchset, which enables someone in the room to lock the door against intrusion, by perhaps pressing a button, is called out as RHR, or right hand reverse.
Gene Davis, Davis Housewrights, Inc., Lake Placid, NY
That's the best response to the original question yet. Why can't I talk that good?