We've got a left-hinge door, and my husband wants to install the storm door right-hinge. Here's a picture of our setup:
It seems really inconvenient to me, and I'm trying to talk him out of it (although I expect to lose, as I have lost every damned point on our current project.)
Does anybody have anything that I could use to persuade him?
Thanks,
Cindy Hamilton
If the hinges are on the same side, it's easier to hold the storm door open with your back as you unlock the front door.
If the hinges are on the opposite side, you'll be reaching into the more constricted part of the opening to unlock the front door. If you have anything at all in your hands besides the key, this will be annoying.
If your husband can't see this, he's just being difficult. Retaliate in any of the numerous ways open to you.
R
Thanks, I'll try that one. But we mostly use the front door to accept delivery of a pizza. Otherwise, we use the back door, which is closer to the detached garage.
The problem is, he's the youngest of five boys, and I'm an only child. He's much more inventive and experienced than I am.
I'm sure I'll think of something. Perhaps I'll start "forgetting" the sugar in his coffee.
Cindy Hamilton
Just telling him he is an idiot is unlikely to help so...
What I've learned from sorry experience is that this approach requires people to hold the outer door wide open while reaching to open the inner door. Wind gusts will then snap the outer door to its fullest extension (and a little beyond, sometimes) which is hard on the outer door. Not to mention that a fully-opened outer door means the wind, rain or snow then blasts into the house once the inner door is opened. So having both doors hinged on the same side minimizes exposure to the elements.
Tell him if you can't get that door to open the way you want it, he won't be getting *your* door to open the way he wants it.
And how are the hinges on THAT door configured?
Further, if you only use the front door infrequently, why bother with a storm door?
You've received some reasons why *not* to do it, but I'm curious...
Has he shared with you his reasons for changing the current set-up?
Maybe there is something he is aware of that we're not.
The door to my shop in the basement is "opposite-hinged" but there is a reason.
The shop is an extension off of the back of the house, but is only half as wide as original house.
The door is marked by the X.
Yard Yard ------------ Yard X | | | S | |
------------ | | | |----------------------|
(Not to scale)
The interior door opens against the back wall instead of into the shop.
The storm door opens towards the original house instead of into the yard. There's a shed in the corner (S), the storm opens towards that.
Access is easier with that set-up, since both doors are out the normal traffic path, especially when carrying material from the yard into the shop.
I've had an inkling, for some time, that the average intelligence of this group exceeds by more than a small amount that often found in other congregations.
Imagine reference to a play by Aristophanes as a solution to a home repair question !
I continue to be impressed.
Although It is not recommended I can see why your husband wants the storm door to swing the wrong way. People approach your front door from the left. If your door was installed properly it would swing into the face of someone coming up the sidewalk. A door opening the wrong way would welcome your guests. Opening the other way would be like the opposite. They would have to walk around the open door. Your husband is a thoughtful man. He' s thinking of others instead of himself in this issue. You might want to hang onto this one. :)
LdB
Our most used entry door and its screen door are set up with opposite hinges. It could have been same side hinges, but it works fine... probably better. I recently added a new exterior door and storm door to a deck. In this case, opposite hinges was the only practical way to go.
From the exterior, it appears that you would approach the front door from the left side, rather than straight on, so opposite side hinges would work great. Sorry. Besides, husbands are always right.
;-{
Our back garage entry door is that way - the storm opens out against the wall, while the door opens in away from the entry to the house - wouldn't have it any other way.
I find otherwise. Our front door is "conventional" and you open the outer door, hold it open with your bum while you open the inner door, then let the self closing outer door close behind you when you come in. Going out you open the inner door, open the outer door, reach back for the inner door and pull it closed behind you as you squease out from the self closing outer door.
Our garage door is "bass ackwards" - Coming in, I pull the outer door open enough to get between it and the inner door, open the inner door, let the outer door close behind me, and open the door into the house (swings into the house. Coming out, I leave the house, pull open the inside door, push out through the outer door , pulling the inside door behind me.
__________________________________/_______________________________ | / / |O | |
As you can see frommy lousy asci art, the outside (left)door opening the other way would be nasty, as would the inside door, which now opens against my air compressor and workbench.
Awe, shucs, twernt nuthin...
Awe, shucs, twernt nuthin...
Awe, shucs, twernt nuthin...
All they made us do was draw circles in a spiral. Like a Slinky. Never could do them worth a damn.
For heaven's sake, WHY?? [...]
Don't do it. It's a pain in the ass. It's a *major* nuisance if you have anything in your hands as you're coming in the door -- either you switch hands, or you have to make an awkward reach for the inside doorknob.
It makes it *very* awkward to carry anything big enough to require two people through the door, and definitely limits the size of things that can be carried.
And it's just "wrong". Doors aren't normally set up that way. It's unusual. It's clumsy and awkward. *Nobody* likes it.
A large pizza is wide enough to be really awkward to pass through such a setup. Believe me, I know. Our front door is set up that way, and it's a nuisance every time we have one delivered.
Sliding patio door.
To protect the 2-kilobuck fiberglass door that we just bought and installed. There's no overhang of any kind.
Cindy Hamilton
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