1. Home
  2. Home Repair
  3. Door swing survey

Door swing survey

We were talking about door swings and I had reason to knock on 112 doors today on HOA business. At least 50 of them swing out. More than half of those swing out into a screened in vestibule and the remainder have no outer door of any kind. It seems that this was very common on houses built 20-40 years ago in Florida. I do believe it was the idea that they perform better in hurricanes but the older houses were also pretty small so losing 9 or

10 square feet of your living wasn't attractive to them.
Reply to
gfretwell
Loading thread data ...

It must be a regional thing.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

Must be a regional thing. I've never seen a swing out residential door that I can recall. Of course, I've limed in snow territory too.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

My stepdad built stairs (5 steps) to a porch door, but with no outside landing. The door swings out. When I told him he'd have to back down a few steps to open the door, his correction was to tie a rope to the door handle to make it easier to get in. He has to stand next to the stairs to grab the rope and walk around the railing, pulling the rope.

Reply to
Deedle Nick

How does one swing on a door?

nb

Reply to
notbob

You grab the top of the door, straddle the outer edge with your legs over the knobs and swing.

Reply to
gfretwell

Reply to
Larry Fishel

Off the top of my head, all exterior doors in both my house and my parents' house (both in South Florida) open out. Both houses built in the early '70s I think. It's pretty common here. I assume to withstand hurricane winds, but it also makes it harder for an intruder to kick in a door.

You certainly wouldn't want that in snow country, or you could end up trapped (or at least very annoyed).

On the other hand, I'm sure more than one person here has found their door blocked closed by debris after a hurricane. With the new required window shutters that have to be unscrewed from outside, that could be a problem, so they may be moving towards inwardly opening doors...

Reply to
Larry Fishel

All the houses I've lived in in NY have had storm doors that swing out and entrance doors that swing in.

My current house has an insulated exterior door at the top of the cellar stairs that swings out. I built it that way & I'm glad I did. The landing to the stairs is just 40". The outside is covered so snow is not an issue. Since it is a utility door I don't want to mess with a stormdoor when I've got a hand full of tools, hoses, or whatever crap I might be bringing into or out of the basement.

I've lived in a house in both NY & VA that had a storm/screen door that swung out-- and an entrance door that swung out behind it. Try those suckers with an armload of groceries.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

On 2/27/2011 7:51 AM, Jim Elbrecht wrote: (snip)

???? I'm having trouble picturing that. Unless there was 3 feet between them, wouldn't the storm door finished opening have to be rather oversized to allow the real door to even open?

When I hit the lotto and build my dream house, exterior doors will all be on deep covered porches. Hate my current front door- no overhang, and no practical way to add one. Small stoop, and a big step up to threshold level. On Halloween, I have to sit outside, lest I sweep the kids off the porch with the storm door. I also can't bend over that far

100+ times in a 3 hour period any more. A lot of the other cookie cutters in the neighborhood have actually had wooden 6x6 front decks added over the concrete stoops to make the entrances more friendly, but they look funny with the style of the houses, and it would never pay me back on resale. Other than Halloween, I may get 6 people a year using front door, so I'll let the next owner deal with it.
Reply to
aemeijers

My house has a front door that swings in and storm door that swings out. The storm door swinging out does kind of take up space. Trying to carry plants in and out when the season changes is a bit of a challenge, since the main part of the porch winds up behind the door. Getting the door open and then dodging around it can be a bit of a problem. However, having the storm door is a good thing, so I'm not sure what can be done to correct the problem.

That said I prefer to have a main door swinging in and a storm/screen door swinging out.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Gill

The difference in the resistance to wind pressure is almost the same in both directions (+55/-50 PSF for the 130 zone) so the difference the swing gets you is not significant. You are still talking about

1100 pounds minimum on the inward force on a 3068 so these doors are not going be very easy to kick in.
Reply to
gfretwell

yep-- Royal PITA. Storm doors in both places were 36" - the entrance doors were 32. The one in VA was actually a door we used fairly often. I can remember many times that you'd open the storm-- hold it with your butt, reach for the inside door- then you needed to let go of the knob on the inside door before the storm smashed your fingers.

Jim

Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

??? Don't you have oneof those door closure thingys at the top that has a little doo dad to holdl it open? I have a storm door out opener (with that closer) into a small mud room, leading to an out-opener main door. Carry stuff in? A second or so to lock the storm door open and I'm in business.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

My back door is leads onto what became a 3 season screen room after 2 rebuild. storm door opens out into it, Interior door opens in to a hallway with closet. Absolute PIA because it has to be shut to gain entry into the closet. We only close the door when we lock up on leaving.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

Probably first remembering how those doors were *really* hung.

I'm drawing a blank--- but obviously, as you point out. . . I'm mis-remembering something again. They were both houses I lived in in the early 70s.

Jim

>
Reply to
Jim Elbrecht

Left. Or in emergency's, right.

Reply to
Sjouke Burry

Not a lot of snow in FL to block the doors.

Reply to
Tony Miklos

I had an attic door behind the open swing in front door where there is often a closet, I know what you mean. And to finish the attic I had to take at least one door off the wall to get drywall up there. It was easier when I took off both the front door and the attic door.

Reply to
Tony Miklos

"aemeijers" wrote

Hate to tell you, but I got the winning numbers, they just haven't drawn them yet. I fantasize about having foyers, or what people commonly call "mud rooms", which would be mandatory if I ever build another house. Keep the dog from running out. Help contain HVAC. Place for muddy boots, etc. Keep the weather off the front door. A place for incoming and outgoing guests to pause without having the wind, snow or rain encroaching.

SteveB

Heart surgery pending? Read up and prepare. Download the book $10

formatting link

Reply to
SteveB

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.