Selecting Between Right- and Left-Handed Doors

If you’ve decided to replace a door in your home, whether an entry door, security door or any other type, you have several important choices to make. Door material, door size and door color are all vital areas to consider, and may have a significant impact on both home value and practical use.

At Price’s Guaranteed Doors, we’re proud to offer a wide variety of entry doors and other door types for you to choose from, plus expertise on the important factors in this choice. One extremely simple area, yet one that often doesn’t receive enough attention during door selection? Whether you want a right-handed or left-handed door. Let’s dig into what we mean by this and what you need to consider in this area.

Telling Them Apart

Choosing between right- and left-handed doors comes with some of the same factors as choosing between inswing and outswing doors, but with a few important differences as well. There are a couple different ways you can figure out whether a current door in your home is a right-handed or left-handed door:

• Stand with your back facing your door, specifically against the hinged side of the door jam. If the door opens to your right from this angle, you have a right-handed door. If it opens to the left, you have a left-handed door.
• Stand on the side of the door that swings away from you, facing the door. Hold up your hands, mimicking hinges with your wrists and the door itself with your palms. If the your right hand mimics the way the door swings, you have a right-handed door. If it’s the left, vice-versa.

When placing an order for a door, you will have to specify not only the right- or left-handed nature of it, but also whether it swings inward or outward.

Why It Matters

In many cases, the handedness of your door only really matters for personal preference reasons. But in other cases – such as when you have an obstruction on one side or the other, or when opening space is limited by some other factor – it can be very important and impact functionality. When obstructions are present, you should be placing hinges on that side of the door, allowing it to open against a wall so there’s plenty of walking space.

In addition, consider the direction from which you approach the door. Stairs or other notable areas near the door area may impact the direction you want the hinges to face.

Reversing Swing Direction

If you need to reverse the handedness of your door, this is often possible without a replacement or additional hassle. You will have to change the way the hinges and strike plate of the door are placed, plus reverse the hardware placement. If you aren’t experienced in this field, we might recommend leaving this to professionals for a high-quality, safe job.

For more on whether you want a right- or left-handed door, or to learn about any of our entry doors, garage doors or other services, speak to the staff at Price’s Guaranteed Doors today.