Easiest way would be to tear out the door jamb and install a new prehung LH door oriented with the hinges on the same jamb side as your existing RH door but facing into the hallway, or whatever the door connects the bathroom to.
Otherwise sharpen your wood chisels and hope the door closes right when you're done.
What's the idea anyway? My thinking is that bathroom doors open inward for a reason, but I'm drawing a blank here.
flip the hinges 180 degrees??
Please outline a procedure for me to follow to change an existing bathroom door from an inside RH swing to an outside swing ?
Frankly, I don't remember which is LH and which is RH but if you just want to rotate the door 180 degrees (without moving the hinge placement on the door) so it would swing out rather than in (but in the opposite direction) you would have to do nothing to the door itself but you'd have to replace both vertical jambs because the hinge and lock mortices are in the wrong places. You could just swap positions of the jambs. You'd have to reverse the lockset too.
If you wanted to rotate the door and have it swing in the opposite direction to the above, you'd have to extend the door hinge mortices so the hinge pivot would be on the opposite side of the door. Ditto with the jamb hinge mortices. You'd have to make a new mortice for the lock set in the opposite jamb (or replace it). This would be easier than the first instance as the hinge mortice spacing is already set...you'd just have to saw across the existing mortices to the same depth. That would leave you with the old mortices which you could fill with wood dutchmen and paint.
In both cases, you would most likely have to move the door stops...the thin pieces on the side & top jambs against which the door closes.
Taking off/moving/replacing the jambs could be tricky if you've never done it...it would be just like hanging a new door. You'd need to take off the casings too so when you replace/move the jambs you can wedge them parallel to each other and perpendicular to the wall. They need to be 100% right else the door won't work well.
But before you jump into all that, see my last post to your original thread.
-- dadiOH ____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at
pre hung door. You will save time, the frustration level will drop at least
80% and I guarantee it will look better.
Ya, but now the poor OP's door is upside down. And still swings the wrong way,....just from the other side though.
AMUN
For starters, you don't whack someone in the hallway when you open the door. I don't know if there are any codes on that.
Remove the casing.
Remove the door and jamb.
Turn door and jamb 180 degrees.
Reinstall door and jamb.
Reinstall casing.
Remove doorstop and reinstall at new proper location.
Fill nail holes.
Spot paint with matching paint or repaint entire jamb.
Done.
It just goes to show that you can't make anything foolproof, cuz fools are too ingenious.
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required