messagenews:V1oYj.6387$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.virginmedia.com...
It's not about absolute left or right opening. It depends which corner of the room the door is inas to whether left or right gives more or less privacy.
MBQ
I do know what he's on about ie the bedroom doors in this house open inwards with the handle on the right as soon as you open it you're faced with wall and no view of the room till you go in. All I was doing was pointing out the scenario as to why they did it like this in various Vic houses.
I've searched high and low for remote ones but not come up with anything that would work. I've posted here previously on the subject.
Unless you have another suggestion, which I'd be grateful to hear!
Matt
These any use?
Have a look at the Rako 'PILL' - it's an RF based system.
Regards,
Steve
Maybe the wall switch here:
(Would also need switches/dimmers to be controlled, of course.) Not exactly cheap - but almost certainly cheaper than relocating "real" switches.
We re-hung our doors so that they opened against the wall, it gives a lot more space in the rooms. They don't hit the wall, nor even the skirting board.
I think the conventional way is very silly and no architect or builder I've asked has been able to explain it.
Mary
Dave, this is a interesting topic coming from the only person I know who has a front door that opens outwards! Quite useful for knocking people off the step if you don't like them. Also enables your porch to be smaller. Is this so unusual in the experience of other group members? Tim
Our 'front' door still opens inwards but when Spouse built the porch he hung the doors to open outwards. It gives more room in the porch.
Mary
What period are you thinking of there?
Mary
My house is a 1904 build that has been tinkered with by various more recent inhabitants. Consequently a lot of the doors have been rehung to open against the wall, rather than into the room. It makes some of the rooms more flexible for furniture, though not always.
However, where the doors have been rehung to lie against the wall, the light switches are now in the wrong place, so to access them you have to open the door, enter the room, close the door and then the switch is on the wall. Very irritating, but as I only started to get annoyed by this after we had decorated some of the rooms when we first moved in I haven't got the inclination to move the switches!
Matt
We got some slim switches and inset them in the door jamb. It took some time for us to get used to using them though.
Mary
Was that a typo or do you have two (or more?) doors?
I am getting the picture that you have a pair of narrow doors - both of which open outwards. And (again assuming) that they are substantially see-through (i.e. glazed but didn't want to just say that as they might be glazed with opaque stained glass knowing your posts :-) ).
IMHO, such a pair of doors opening outwards is fine. Indeed, might be the best of all worlds.
================================== It's possible that the doors are in their original positions and that the light switches are a much later addition. Electricity probably wasn't universal in 1904.
Cic.
He made two split doors so that each vertical door could open as one or it could be split horizontally to be like a stable door. It's a very versatile door. Each of the four elements is glass paned.
No, the coloured lights are original 1937 windows. That glass isn't opaque, it's coloured and mostly textured.
We think it is :-)
Mary
I doubt that.
Households with maids usually had double doors, in the centre of a wall. We know many such houses.
It's interesting that the carpets in those rooms were always worn where the servants entered and stood. We acquired one such from a friend who wanted new carpeting, the old one was still in very good condition apart from the wear, we used that part on the fireplace side of our sitting room and cut the carpet to accommodate the hearth.
They got new carpet, we got carpet!
Mary
Duh!
The reason, as previously mentioned, is privacy back in the days when every middle class family had a maid or two. You can tap on the door, open it a little and say "your tea, ma'am" without embarrassment to anyone.
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=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D- Hide quoted text -
A decent enough potential explanation, but a) no-one in the right minds would put the switches there and b) the "old" fixing positions for the doors are evident still in the architraves. I'm reasonably certain that the house wasn't fully electric in 1904, and the wiring is certainly more up to date than that.
The location of the switches has made me reconsider moving several doors into the "open against the wall" position.
Matt
Sarah Beeney - presents property development progs on C4. Well thought of in certain quarters.
Oh - we saw that in February when we stayed in an hotel.
It was awful, I don't rate her at all. Nor did Spouse, in case you were wondering :-)
Mary
"nightjar .me.uk>"
That is the story I got from a retired joiner.
Later came the Victorian idea of
Agreed, but in a 2 bed semi with no maid?
Today a good reason for not opening against the wall is safety,
You would have to be a clumsy bugger to open a door and trap a child between a door and a wall. You could also knock first!
Adam
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