Without that information you may end up with a door that has the hinges on the wrong side.
Exterior door swing direction.
Learn door swing direction for properly choosing the correct door for your room.
Ask this old house carpenter nathan gilbert helps general contractor tom silva change the swing of an entry door subscribe to this old house.
Door swing direction is an important piece of information when you re buying a new interior or exterior door for your home.
If you live in a snowy environment opening the exterior door outward will be very difficult if there is a large amount of snow against it.
Safety is the critical issue when deciding the swing direction.
When the door opens toward you and the knob is on the left hand side it is a left hand inswing door.
Watch ask this old house carpenter nathan gilbert as he helps general contractor tom silva change the swing of an entry door.
We install doors that open from the garage into the house on either side of the frame.
Since garage doors are an exit we would install the doors to open in the path of least resistance.
Changing your door from a right hand swing to a left hand swing can be a fairly easy task as long as it s the same height on both sides and you re okay with the inside face of the door becoming the outer face.
To order the correct exterior door you need to know both the desired handing and whether it is inswing or outswing.
You ll want the door to allow the most open space in the room when the door is open.
Determine what hand your door is.
Now a good rule of thumb is that you want the handle of the screen door to be on the same side as the entry door.
Know where to stand to figure out if you have a left hand or right hand swing door.
If the exterior door swings outward it could catch the wind on a windy day and basically get pulled away from your hand and possibly bang into something.
See the picture for a visual reference.
Now hinging is either left or right and is simply determined by the side you want the storm door hinges to be on.
Slightly different specifications from interior doors.
If it bumps or blocks passage because of a wall barrier or other object when you open it such as a toilet or cabinet the door should swing in the opposite direction.
You are standing inside the house.
Generally interior doors will swing into the room opening towards the nearest perpendicular wall in the room.
In order to determine your door swing direction by using the diagram shown above imagine the square box is the room.
View the diagram to learn what hand your door is.
An inward opening door should swing in the direction needed to provide adequate passage.