Hello Forum
Is there any reason why bathroom doors open /swing to the inside? It takes up a great deal of space versus opening to the hallway?
Thanks
Drake
Hello Forum
Is there any reason why bathroom doors open /swing to the inside? It takes up a great deal of space versus opening to the hallway?
Thanks
Drake
By considering things like energy-efficient mechanicals, window orientation, and renewable energy sources, homes can be evaluated to meet the energy codes. Here's what the IRC has to say.
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Replies
You would have to knock before leaving the bathroom?
and then back into it
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Thats funny, right thar!
Happy
Holidays
A MisterT award goes to splintergroupie <!----><!----> View Image View Image
http://www.quittintime.com/
somehow, your dancing icon reminds me of Ellen DeGeneres' body english.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
So the blue ribbon is an award for thinking outside the bathroom? Cool...
It is unsafe to open a door into a hallway and often inconvenient to enter the bathroom that way. When the room outside is a larger room instead of a hall, it is generallly a nicer room where it is normally inappropriate to have a door hang open into it.
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
Depends on how it's arranged. As stated, you don't want it to block a hallway, or be in a position where someone absent-mindedly walking down the hallway might bump into the door edge if it's left slightly ajar.
Related: Use at least a 32-inch door for the main/most accessible bathroom. It's possible (though not easy) to get a standard wheelchair through a 32 inch door, impossible for 30 inch. And a 34-inch door is much better in this regard.
My wife rams her chair right through our 30" doors. We have notches on both sides of every doorway where the bolt on the front wheel cuts through. And on the bed posts and the kitchen cabinets and everything at that height.
reminds me of the movie, Ben Hur
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Her strength reminds me of Ben Hur.
Which reminds me of a team of race horses waiting in the hall while their companion human used the facilities, which reminds me of the scene in Impromptu where the horse, steered by Mandy Patinkin, dumps on Judy Davis' writing desk....oh never mind...
I like pocket doors...not sure if that's a symptom or an outcome, though. I just adore those little handles you pull out of the edge.
If you can't decide, use a pocket door, but make sure the bathroom light switch is 5'-0" from the tub and shower. If the pocket door doesn't grab your fancy, try a screen of hippie beads and large can of Glade.
Hmmm, I didn't know about the light switch. Makes it tough to design small bathrooms.
Are there any exceptions?_______________________________________________________________
tagline challenged
It works out fine if you place the switch behind the door, or in the area where the sliding door will want to open. ;)I've seen cases of the switch on the outside, likely to address these issues.
People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt. --Otto von Bismarck
That's what I'm afraid of, the old 'what does this switch do' syndrome.
Now it looks like the pocket door will have to slide back toward and behind the side of the shower.
Sigh._______________________________________________________________
tagline challenged
Up here, there's lots of switches outside the door, something I'd never encountered before moving here.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Joe,
I'm curious. Have you designed with pocket doors for bathrooms often? I've done afew. overall, I like pocket doors for a lot of applications, but they are so unsuited for bathrooms that I am suprised that an architect would be making the recomendation.I'm not beating you up - just trying to come up with situations where tht would be right choice. The biggest objection is that they are the least private of doors for shielding against the often unfriendly noises that are produced in a bathroom, and they engender lots of complaints about locking and handle systems.The only place I can recall where pocket doors were right for a bathroom, was a master BRm suite, for the lady's bath where a small dressing room separated it from the bedroom and the man's room was in the opposite direction also adjacent to a dressing room. Distance covered the privacy issue, and my understanding is that they rarely closed the doors anyways.Your scenario of the passed out person is a valid one. Though I'm not sure of the mechanics you describe.
Friends of ours had taken a motel room when Christmas shopping in Denver ( long time ago) and she suffered a stroke while getting out of the bath. He heard a thump as she slumped to the floor reaching for the knob, so he called out and having recieved no answer, tried to open the door.As I gather, it was quite a struggle for him to gain entry. She was quite young, so he still didn't suspect anything serious, but finally called 911 when he couldn't rouse her.She passed on a few days later.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I'm sorry to hear about the woman you mentioned, but cases like that or even a case of an elderly fragile person who may fall down in such a situation blocking the inswing door.
I don't make it a practice of using only pocket doors in bathrooms. However, a situation comes up now and then where a pocket door is the solution. I have seen pocket doors in homes designed by architects as well as homes cookie cutter style built by builders. On the positive side, pocket doors now-a-days are not the same as the pocket doors of our grandmothers' era. They don't fall off the track the minute the final payment is made for the work completed by a good contractor. At least I hope not.
Now I do know that you can't have a inswing shower door and it's IRC. scalding and quick exit issues
Indeed, I am not prejudiced against pocket doors, just don't see them as appropriate in bathroms generally. I have installed probably around a hundred or so in my years and have one on a portion of my bathroom too.That room is oriented such that the potty and the bath are the deeper chamber and have a swing dooor. Then the anteroom to that chamber is where the linen closet and the vanity sink are placed. Between this and the hall is the pocket door. It ( the pocket door) is only used in the presence of company. It is actually at the end of a hall, and when both doors are left open, a person in the hall sees none of the bathroom fixtures, but a view of the exterior through a window. That light flowing in helps keep the hall and bath seem larger than they are.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Yes it does. The code issue is that your not suppose to be unable to operate the light switch while standing in the tub or shower. It can cause a shocking experience. I've seen light switches located outside the room, as well as lights which turn on automatically when someone walks into the bathroom.
The pocket door is another option that may affect your shower orientation and size. If the outswing door is your only solution, so be it. Don't forget that if someone passes out in the bathroom against the inside face of the closed door, you can always get in for the rescue by pulling the hinge pins.
If the outswing door is your only solution, so be it. Don't forget that if someone passes out in the bathroom against the inside face of the closed door, you can always get in for the rescue by pulling the hinge pins.Outswing door, hmmmm...yeah, I guess turning the knob would be out<G> Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."
I'm assuming a passed out person against a locked door. Pull the hinge pins for the rescue.
Maybe it's been too much eggnog...but if I can pull out the hinge pins, isn't the weight of the passed out one going to push the door open, onto me?...when all I had to do was poke in a paper clip, swing the door open, of course, carefully avoiding hitting myself...usually, I'm the one on the floor against the door<G> Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."
Edited 12/27/2006 2:29 pm ET by Snort
Thank you Bob Dylan.
Sorta of off topic, but what the Hey!We I was in 10th grade we had this guy that was suppose to be a physics teacher.The class room was on the 2nd floor and overlooked the flat top roof on the lunch room. We went to lunch before starting that class.The doors opened out into the hallway. During lunch one day some one broke a pencil off in the lock. The "teacher" removed the hinge pins trying to get the door open, but there was not enough clearance past the knucks for it to open. But some one climbed up the drain pipe on the lunchroom roof and can in an open window. He turn the latch on the inside just enough to release it.The "teacher", was mad and grab the door knob and hanked. That is the door without an hinge pins on it.Of course that could all be understood.But the next day EXACTLY the samethig happened down to him trying to pull the hinge pins and grabbing the door open after the latch was released.The next year he was teaching 7th grade.I believe that his meter stick was only 36" long..
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Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
"If you can't decide, use a pocket door, but make sure the bathroom light switch is 5'-0" from the tub and shower."Where do you see that. It is not in the NEC..
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Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Since you inquired, I started looking into my IRC and Chicago Building Code and have not found the requirement. I do know that I have encountered that comment twice on my permit reviews (in different municipalities) and have always maintained that 5'-0" distance (sometimes +/- as close to 5'-0" as possible). It could very well be that this is a local municipal ammendment to a national code being used by some local jurisdictions. Sorry.
I did not realize that you where in the Chicago area. There are lots of codes in that area whose whole purpose is to increase the cost of construction..
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Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Yes, at times it seems that is the case. But there is progress. It was within the last 10 years +/- that the city of Chicago allowed the use of PVC for above grade waste and vent in residential (1 to 3 unit buildings) despite the objection of the plumbers' union. However, the city of Lake Forest still sticks to cast iron. The IRC requires second floor bedrooms to have emergency egress compliant windows or doors to the exterior, Chicago does not, at least at this time. Chicago does not require a smoke detector in each bedroom at this time.
Here in Canada the electrical code calls for 3'-0". Which just means I have to stretch a bit to flick the switch when standing in the tub. 5'-0" sounds like a more sensible distance, code or not.
Not in the NEC, you say?
Back to plan A._______________________________________________________________
my tagline fell down, and can't get up
General rule of thumb is that all doors swing into the room....be it bathroom or other.
Nothing written in stone though.
Happy
Holidays
My upstairs bathroom door was built to swing out. It would whack into the sloped ceiling (1 1/2 story) within the room, since it is a tall door matching the rest of the doors off the hallway. It is at the end of the hall at a very generous landing, so it has never caused any real problems.
I would think this solution works for my odd house layout only. I think a pocket door, as already recommended would be the way to go.
...that's not a mistake, it's rustic