What do you call it

[Doug]

Someone else's post made me think of this of which I completely forgot about. When I was a kid living on Long Island, my dad installed a Dutch door as our rear door along with a storm door. I've never seen this type door since and I've seen a lot of homes. Has anyone else seen this type door and where? I was wondering if its common in NY or such area.

Last I was too young to really think about it then but I wonder now why he or anyone for that matter might want this type door? I'm guessing since I never saw one again, they aren't practical. Correct?

[Doug]

My bad.... my Subject Line should read " Are Dutch doors practical anymore? "

[Sjouke Burry]

Doug wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Those doors are rather common in older houses and farm builings in the Netherlands. Go see some in Volendam. My house had one when I was 0-5 years old. In google go into picture mode, and tell google to show dutch doors. See hundreds of them. And they are practical. You can talk to someone without opening th lower part, and stop them from walking into the house. You can also lean on the lower part while talking. Mostly done by talkative wimenfolk.

[The Daring Dufas]

It seems to me to be practical for a farm house since you can open the top half for ventilation and the view while keeping goats from walking into the kitchen. ^_^

TDD

[Ashton Crusher]

The only place I've ever seen one was on the George Burns and Gracie Allen TV show.

[harry]

They are called stable doors here in the UK. You can leave to top half open for ventilation but keep animals out and kids in..

And you can use them on stables.

[harry]

And they are very common and practical too. Especially in areas where there are kids and lots of traffic.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Now that you mention it. . . . . I've not seen one for years.

They were practical year ago, mot so much today. It is a bit more difficult to secure them compared to a standard door. They are needed less now that we have air conditioning.

[krw]

Mr. Ed?

[Frank]

or letting your pigs escape ;)

[The Daring Dufas]

Piglets silly, full grown hogs would knock it open. ^_^

TDD

[rlz]

We had one installed at our office building for our stockroom. We put a 1x6 board flat on the bottom door. The person running the stockroom could open the top half to assist people and use the bottom half as a small area to write on. It worked out pretty good. It probably wouldn't keep someone from climbing over if they really wanted to, but it kept people normally out of the stockroom.

[Joy]

I had a Dutch door put in when I remodeled in 1990 and I love it. It's great to keep kids and/or dogs in and/or out (mostly while mopping), though it doesn't keep cats in or out, but they do like sitting on the half door while deciding which way they want to go--and I don't have to wait for them to decide.

Great for ventilation in the spring and fall when it's just a bit too breezy to have the full door open. Living in the Great Pacific Northwest, I have no need for air conditioning. One of the best things about living here is that my box fan and snow shovel have the same amount of dust on them and are a one-time purchase.

[Jon Danniken]

Kid I grew up with had one, we used to pretend it was a business and open the top part to engage with our "customers".

Jon

[Dean Hoffman]

My workplace formerly housed a farm equipment dealership. There was a Dutch door between the parts area and the mechanic shop. The bottom door had a shelf on it. The theory was that the partsman would be the only one with access to the parts. That didn't work out too well from what I saw. There were other ways to the parts shelves and the partsman was no speed demon.

[Lee B]

When I was house hunting several years ago, I saw a house with an exterior one. I haven't seen too many houses lately with a Dutch exterior door, but it definitely wasn't something I was startled to see.

I do see them fairly frequently indoors, particularly in the homes of dog owners.I keep thinking about looking into getting several installed. I have two dogs that I don't want wandering around in the house. As it is I use baby gates, but a more permanent solution would look nicer. I have a whole house fan and having Dutch doors would simplify using that.