External Doors

Rocker

Not a subject that I had expected to be writing about but my sister-in-law got new external doors installed recently.  She specified that they open outwards instead of the usual inwards.

Great idea.

spark240

Why ?

Iamnobody

Has she had her back door kicked in before?

strumjoughlamps

so lets just hope no one blocks the door and sets fire to the house.. or if there is an emergency and the fire brigade/police need to big red key the door.. and has she put a sign up to callers 'please knock and take one step to the right'

Sporky

And good luck in the zombie apocalypse. How are you going to blockade a door that opens outwards?

axisus

I like it. As a jolly jape you can break your visitors nose as they will be standing too close.

ICBM

Rocker said:

Not a subject that I had expected to be writing about but my sister-in-law got new external doors installed recently.  She specified that they open outwards instead of the usual inwards.

Just wondering - why?

nanoman

We've just had ours done and got the back door opening outwards. Just gets in the way of other things in the utility where it's situated and opening in. Easier to let the dog out as well.

Doing it with the front seems a bit of a faff though. They did try and tell us we couldn't have a Stormguard sill on an outwards opening door but relented when we showed them the full page of options on the website.

Rocker

@nanoman answered all the questions perfectly.  It is amazing how much interior space an inward opening door actually needs.  And as for breaking into the house in the event of an emergency, would any door prevent such action.  I hardly think so.

Tone71

Traditionally front doors always open in and back doors open out.

holnrew

My back door opens outwards, but it's on stairs.

mellowsun

@holnrew I thought your back door was always open

quarky

I thought your front door had to open in for fire regulations. Pretty surprised you can have it any other way.

strtdv

If you live somewhere windy you'll soon realise why front doors don't open outwards.

RandallFlagg

I get it she lives in a Caravan!

Col_Decker

Our front and back doors open outwards but to be honest I'd never really noticed until I read this thread.

ewal

I noticed when watching Swedish TV programmes that their doors opened outwards. I thought it looked really strange. Apparently it's got something to do with Swedish Building Standards and emergency exits being required to open that way. Didn't know that such doors existed over here.