I’m building a new home, again, and history leads me to believe that outward swing
exterior doors are better at resisting adverse weather than interior swing doors (French doors). Do I need to go back and get recalibrated?
I’m building a new home, again, and history leads me to believe that outward swing
exterior doors are better at resisting adverse weather than interior swing doors (French doors). Do I need to go back and get recalibrated?
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Replies
Thats what storm doors are for.
If that were true,I think outswing doors would be more common in a residential setting than they are.
Lots of variables to consider.
In snow country an outswing door can get drifted in.
An outswing door prevents installation of a storm or screen door.
An ungasketed outswing door is probably a bit more weather-resistant than inswing. Properly gasketed, there's apt to be little difference.
With double doors, if there's a strip on the secondary door lapping the center split, with inswing it will cover the split and prevent weather entry.
An outswing door is a bit more resistant to forceful breakin, but the latch is easier to jimmy.
In a commercial setting (where the door is left unlatched), an outswing is apt to be caught by the wind and damaged.
And there's always the question of whether there's room for the door to swing one way vs the other.
Yeah but if ya lose yer keys, just drive the hinge pins out, and yer in.
93767.5 in reply to 93767.4
Yeah but if ya lose yer keys, just drive the hinge pins out, and yer in.
The industry isn't that stupid, they make security hinges for that very reason
Which may or may not be installed on the door you buy.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
Really? WOW! Who'da thunk it?
I guess the implied sniggle didn't travel thru the itty bitty wires.
Spent from 12 years old to 18 in a trailer, with outswing door, never again.
From my own experience -
DW and I built her parents house on Chesepeake Bay 16 years ago. On a bluff, 25' above the water - facing 12 miles of open water and the prevailing wind.
Seven exterior doors, all Peachtree steel. None has three-point locking. The balcony door of the master is the only outswing (special order; faces the wind), and on super windy days it's the only one that you can't feel air on your face through, as you move around the edges.
I think outswing is better in that app, if you can deal with an interior screen and a latch for the open position, so the wind doesn't tear it off. Needs security hinge pins also.
Forrest
Tightest door I've ever seen was in Norway. It was for a sort of walkout basement that faced the bay. Nice looking solid wood door (with a "kitchen door" set of divided lites) but extra thick and with some mongo hardware. The door was made to lift up as you opened it (inward), out of a groove at the bottom and off of hooks on both sides. The door and opening had matching tapers. Woulda worked on a submarine, if you didn't go too deep.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
You mention Norway and the outswinging door.
I was watching TOH and they were over in one of the Scandinavian countries, not sure anymore which one but they said that they installed outswinging doors for the reason that McDesign mentioned, tight fit when the winds blew. Made sense to me, just have to deal with the screen in a different manner.
Doug
Edited 8/21/2007 9:14 pm ET by DougU
No bugs in Norway. (Well, hardly any.)
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin