Door scrapes

[glassartist]

I have a duplex which is settling. I have a front door that drags on the interior floor. It is currently cut about 1.5 inches up and a threshold is installed to meet the under side of the door.

I am putting in new oak hardwood floors. To have the door not scrape it will make the front threshold like entering a battleship. You'd have to step over/on a raised threshold that is about 4" high. This would make moving in furniture difficult too and when damaged, as I'm sure will eventually happen, then the air gap will be significant.

Any ideas. I even thought of hanging the door to open out. I thought I'd need a special type of hinge, but maybe that would be the best idea. Any thoughts? Are there such hinges? I think most doors aren't hung this way for safety. So people can't remove the hinges and gain access to the home. Argh! If it isn't one problem it's three or four!!!

++++++++

KaCe

[tbasc]

There are hinges for out swinging doors that protect the pins. TB

[RicodJour]

Don't have the door swing out. Really - don't. Use rising butt hinges.

R

[tbasc]

What's your thinking? We don't know about landing size. TB

[Eric in North TX]

RicodJour, thanks for posting that, I love being made aware of problem solvers!! I don't presently have that problem, but it will probably come up.

[Al Bundy]

"RicodJour" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Awesome! Never knew this existed. Thanks again Ricod.

[RicodJour]

Gee, shouldn't the OP be the one thanking me? I'm not sure I can legally accept a "Thank you" by proxy! ;)

Rising butt hinges have been around for a long time - I guess since shortly after they discovered that houses settle and doors don't like that. They're a quick fix for the usual too-thick-wipe-your-feet-please mat at the entrance doors.

R

[RicodJour]

He's putting in new flooring. He'd either have to put in a new door to reverse the swing, or do some serious reworking. Ain't worth it for that reason alone. Add in the confusion that almost everyone visiting will have operating a door that swings the opposite way of what they were expecting and what they are used to, the "non-welcoming" aspect of having to step back away from the house to open the door, weatherstrip and threshold issues, and it's a non-starter.

Reversing the door would cost a lot of time and money, as compared to $30 and a half hour's work (including stopping for the requisite beer about halfway through the project).

R

[Abe]

If it's a wood door, you can safely saw off about an inch from the bottom. If not, rising butt hinges are another option.

[HeyBub]

Every commercial door in virtually every jurisdiction in the United States MUST, by law, swing outward. This is an obvious fire-safety rule. But not everybody harkens to the obvious.

I remember visiting the Jerusalem police station and couldn't work the door (it swung inward). I thought to myself "they must not want any business..."

Another reason for swinging outward is that it is easier to secure the door from forced entry - the goblins have to PULL the door open (but there's nothing to grip but the knob). They sure as hell can't kick it down when the door's braced on all four sides. For example, the cops can bang on the door with that 50-pound battering-ram thingy against an outward-opening door and accomplish nothing but getting tired. You'll have ample time to flush your stash.

Some doors HAVE to be reversed, like when you have two doors per opening: Screen doors and burglar bars for example.

[RicodJour]

How do mass exits during a fire in a commercial building apply to a residential door?

The only thing holding a door in place, besides the hinges and lock/latch, are the stops. If the door is rabbeted into the jambs, then it would be much tougher to kick it in, whether it is an in or out swing door. If the jambs have applied stops, you can kick it in whether it is an in or out swing. If you're referring to hollow metal jambs, maybe grouted in place, well that's commercial construction again and much tougher to kick in. The out swing hollow metal door itself can be pried open like a sardine can. I witnessed that first hand upon returning from a vacation overseas to find my shop had been broken into in exactly that way.

I've reversed doors many times, and have one that's ten feet from me that keeps asking when I'll be getting to it (later, of course). For the OP's situation the rising butt hinges will save him time, money and won't require any reworking of weatherstripping, refinishing or patching.

R

[Goedjn]

Is the problem that the floor rises inside the house to where the door hits it, or that wall the door is in tilts inward so that the door isn't swinging level? If it's the latter, shouldn't you either move the top hinge out, or (more likely) the bottom hinge in until the door swings level again?

[HeyBub]

Uh, "good practice" and guaranteeing the ability to open the door when a panicked crowd is trying to escape. Like when the cops are kicking in the FRONT door (and having a difficult time because the door opens outwards) and all the dopers are trying to leave by the BACK door.

There's no requirement that residental buildings have fire extinguishers or second-floor ladders either. They're just reasonable ideas.

You have clever burglars in your area, that's all. If a door won't kick in, my local kick-burglars go elsewhere.

Time, money, reworking, weatherstripping, refinishing, and patching are of no concern to the OP. Maybe not burglars either.

I'm just opining that the door COULD open outward along with some good reasons why.

[ericf]

replying to RicodJour, ericf wrote: Thank you for this suggestion(11years later, it was still helpful) I didn't know these existed!