Should doors open inwards or outwards?

[Independent voter]

Doors on homes open inwards. I wonder if there is a place or a culture where doors open outwards? One thing I can think of is doors that open inward would have the door part just a little more out of the weather. Water is the bane of carpentry.

[Mormolyce]

Actually depends on the objective of the door.

Do you want to break the nose of the person knocking on the door?

Yes/no, choose one and the answer is obvious.

On the other hand, easier to reinforce a door from outside attacks if it opens outwards.

[Lolretadin]

They should all be sliding doors, Senpai~!

OT:
I think they should all open outwards, just a little extra security should the zombie apocalypse happen.

[Mormolyce]

Doors on homes open inwards. I wonder if there is a place or a culture where doors open outwards?

Flyscreen doors and other secondary doors open outwards, though obviously that's a consequence of the main door opening inwards.

They are kind of awkward, which is no doubt why most doors open inwards, putting convenience ahead of security.

[kriimsilm]

Check your crystal ball again, I'm from Finland. And there's a canopy over almost every door, so snow's not really an issue. (Unless, of course, there's a massive blizzard, but that's less than uncommon.)

I live in Estonia. To some people who live in "snow area" a foot of snow must mean something, I guess. :P
I`ve seen winters with snow so high it reaches under my armpits and I`m 1,87 m. Never had a problem at a country house with an outwards opening door.

I also have studied construction and work in the field and know for sure that in most places outward opening doors are a must on public buildings. The last year I have been developing a fireproof window for the company I work for, that manufactures windows and exterior doors. By what i have learned during this time about safety I will always choose an outward opening door.

[Thandrend]

From a fire hazard standpoint, they should open outward. Otherwise, inward.

[Deleted]

Deadlocks, if that fails then keep a baseball bat by the door.

I get it! So the intruder stumbles over it and breaks his neck? Effective home defence

[meheez]

wtf lol, they do both actually and you cant fix that

[Orange Joe]

Check your crystal ball again, I'm from Finland. And there's a canopy over almost every door, so snow's not really an issue. (Unless, of course, there's a massive blizzard, but that's less than uncommon.)

Read again. If don't live in an area where you can get a foot over night. Then you don't live in a snow area.

Where I live it isn't uncommon to wake up and see 6-12+ inches of fresh snow.


This was New York this winter.

http://i.imgur.com/IXYbVAP.jpg

Good luck getting outdoors with an outward door.

[Eace]

Read again. If don't live in an area where you can get a foot over night. Then you don't live in a snow area.

Where I live it isn't uncommon to wake up and see 6-12+ inches of fresh snow.


This was New York this winter.

http://i.imgur.com/IXYbVAP.jpg

Good luck getting outdoors with an outward door.

I dare you to find me a place in Finland that isn't a "snow area". You can definitely get a foot of snow overnight anywhere in Finland. Hell, a lot more than that.

I've never, ever had a problem with an outward-opening door. Ever. Never even heard any of my friends/family say they've had a problem with it. Because, like I already said, we have canopies over our doors that protect the front of our houses from everything else but the most horrible blizzards. Even then, the benefits of an outward-opening door trump the benefits of an inward-opening one.

But sure, if you live in a place where these snow shut-ins happen many times a year, I can see the convenience of an inward-opening door.

[Orange Joe]

I dare you to find me a place in Finland that isn't a "snow area". You can definitely get a foot of snow overnight anywhere in Finland. Hell, a lot more than that.

I've never, ever had a problem with an outward-opening door. Ever. Never even heard any of my friends/family say they've had a problem with it. Because, like I already said, we have canopies over our doors that protect the front of our houses from everything else but the most horrible blizzards. Even then, the benefits of an outward-opening door trump the benefits of an inward-opening one.

Never heard of snow drifts? Feel free to look at the picture I posted. Please tell me how you would open that if it was outwards?

I dare you to find me a place in Finland that isn't a "snow area". You can definitely get a foot of snow overnight anywhere in Finland. Hell, a lot more than that.

Here are your exact words.

Check your crystal ball again, I'm from Finland. And there's a canopy over almost every door, so snow's not really an issue. (Unless, of course, there's a massive blizzard, but that's less than uncommon.)

[Revi]

Usually outwards because of convenience and safety.

[Gheld]

It depends on the effect you are trying to achieve.

If you require that a particular room/vestibule/dwelling be tightly sealed, the easiest way to achieve that would be to pump an excess of air out through the ventilation system and have outward opening doors. This will create a low pressure condition inside the area, and the weight of the entire atmosphere will hold the doors shut.

If you require a particular room/vestibule/dwelling to be easily escapable, you want the opposite condition. Maintain neutral or high air pressure and have inward opening doors.

And that is exactly why certain doors are handled this way. The main doors on houses open inward, because if the house is on fire, the fire will heat the air inside the house and create a high pressure condition. If the door opened outwards it would be nearly impossible to open. (the screen doors just open the opposite direction to avoid interfering)

A room housing a store of dangerous chemicals will have an emergency ventilation system that constantly maintains a low pressure condition inside, and an entry vestibule with outward opening doors. This keeps everything in the room contained in the event of a leak.

So it's not about preference. it's about science. So YES, doors should open inwards OR outwards, depending on their use.

[Eace]

Never heard of snow drifts? Feel free to look at the picture I posted. Please tell me how you would open that if it was outwards?

Here are your exact words.

Here are also my exact words:

But sure, if you live in a place where these snow shut-ins happen many times a year, I can see the convenience of an inward-opening door.

Did a bit of Googling and from what I read, the heavy snowing in Michigan is due to the cold air blowing over the warmer lake waters. So the apparently frequent snow drifts and shut-ins in Northern Michigan are more of an exception than the rule. Which brings us to the topic. For most of the (out)doors there are, swinging outwards is more beneficial than swinging inwards.

[TheTaurenOrc]

I find it hilarious, and a little worrying, how many people think doors should open outwards.

Clearly they know nothing about the safety implications or infact how doors are hung and work. This is a pretty good representation of the mmo champ community :P

[Orange Joe]

Here are also my exact words:



Did a bit of Googling and from what I read, the heavy snowing in Michigan is due to the cold air blowing over the warmer lake waters. So the apparently frequent snow drifts and shut-ins in Northern Michigan are more of an exception than the rule. Which brings us to the topic. For most of the (out)doors there are, swinging outwards is more beneficial than swinging inwards.

We call it lake effect snow. New York also suffers them this. Though not as bad as northern Michigan.

[nextormento]

It depends on the effect you are trying to achieve.

If you require that a particular room/vestibule/dwelling be tightly sealed, the easiest way to achieve that would be to pump an excess of air out through the ventilation system and have outward opening doors. This will create a low pressure condition inside the area, and the weight of the entire atmosphere will hold the doors shut.

If you require a particular room/vestibule/dwelling to be easily escapable, you want the opposite condition. Maintain neutral or high air pressure and have inward opening doors.

And that is exactly why certain doors are handled this way. The main doors on houses open inward, because if the house is on fire, the fire will heat the air inside the house and create a high pressure condition. If the door opened outwards it would be nearly impossible to open. (the screen doors just open the opposite direction to avoid interfering)

A room housing a store of dangerous chemicals will have an emergency ventilation system that constantly maintains a low pressure condition inside, and an entry vestibule with outward opening doors. This keeps everything in the room contained in the event of a leak.

So it's not about preference. it's about science. So YES, doors should open inwards OR outwards, depending on their use.

The pressure difference in a fire situation is not high enough: any adult can overcome it. In fact, if such pressures would be achieved, the persons inside would be dead long before: the air temperature would be too high for humans (they'd probably die from suffocation before anyway). Air wind, on the other hand, can produce pressures high enough that humans may not overcome.

Besides, dwellings are rarely air tight; in fact, we make strategic openings all over the place to evacuate combustion fumes, and have automatic air renewal.
If mechanical extraction is required (industrial buildings, boiler rooms...) we calculate the flows such that the outgoing (mechanized) is equal to how much incoming flow the building can produce passively (through vertical vents, facade openings and the gaps on window/door frames).

The inward/outward positions have nothing to do with pressure. As has been pointed out, it's outwards for public buildings (or rather in the direction of evacuation for inner doors).
As for private housing, the reasons for them often opening inwards is varied and very much dependent on the culture and technology of the area.
- snow piling outside prevents outwards doors form opening
- when people come visit and you go open the door, it's not nice to knock them on the nose
- some old hinges are easy to disassemble; placing them inside (as every inward opening door) prevents people from breaking in.
- if the main door is placed one step above, and it opens outwards, it'll be hanging on the air, which stresses the frame.
- if an outward door opens enough to get wet on the top, the wood deteriorates.
- outward opening doors make it complicated (or prevent entirely) to place screen doors.
- areas with tornadoes and the like may prefer for doors to open outwards so they don't get blown inside
- should a zombie invasion occur, you can secure an inward opening door with beams across the frame from the inside.
- the intruder kicking in scenario is bullshit (I'd break a glass before doing that).

[Eace]

We call it lake effect snow. New York also suffers them this. Though not as bad as northern Michigan.

Now I'm so curious that I might have to travel to Northern Michigan at some point just to see how different the winters there are from the winters in Finland.

[kendro1200]

The answer is actually very simple: Doors should open either inwards or outwards.
What determines if a door will open inwards or outwards is which way an intruder is most likely going to come in. The door should always open inwards from locations that are most likely to have external threats, and outwards from areas that are most likely to have internal threats. The reason for this is that it is easier to push and barricade a door than it is to pull and hope the door handle holds out.

[nextormento]

If the hallway is narrow enough for open doors to pose a blockade, make them able to swing 180°, into the direction of a nearby exit.

That's a severe safety error. Particularly on a hallway. Do you know why we always draw the swing circle? So that no part of the swing itself (not the door) blocks an evacuation route. It's not nice to be running down a corridor only to stamp your face against a door someone else is using at the same time.

At the poster who was concerned about the wood taking damage from weather if swung outwards[...]we do have the technology.

It's very rare for door edges to receive the same treatment as the front surface. For wooden doors, it's not rare to cut the piece in-situ to fit the frame (thus exposing the grain on the edge). It is a minor concern, but a concern nonetheless. And, I mentioned it in the context that the opening direction is tied to conditions of the of the site or the region.
Doors in private homes typically open inwards for a variety of reasons but, most importantly, because there's very little reason for them to open outwards: inwards is the default, outwards may be considered.