Why Do Front Doors Open Inward?

Have you ever stared at your door and wondered why most doors throughout the entire United States open inward instead of outward? In today’s article we’ll go over some of the reasons why your door opens inward instead of outward. 

 

Snowy Areas

It does make some sort of sense that states with the potential for heavy snow need doors which open inward. This is to prevent them from being trapped inside their house if a big wall of snow were to block the door. This is a very rare instance, but does happen and it’s important to have an inward swinging door for this reason.

 

Pins & Hinges

Another major reason doors swing is that because the hinges are safer on the inside of the door. This also means that the inside of the door is easy to detach in case you need to carry large furniture like couches into your house while moving. It’s harder to make the door hinges safe against intruders when the door swings outward. 

 

Public Building

It’s true that most front doors of public buildings like the ones in malls have outward swinging front doors. Why do they get to be the exception to the rule? This is mostly due to the fact they want to lower the fire hazards. If there is an emergency in a building the doors swing outward to ensure that crowds can get out easily. 

 

Limited Space

There are a couple major reasons one would want their door to swing outward. The first reason is to save space. If you have a tiny tiny home, it might be a good idea to have a door which swings out to save space, but again, this is not typically the normal in most homes. 

 

Hurricanes

If you live in an area with extreme weather like hurricanes, sometimes homeowners opt to have the doors swing outward. When heavy winds blow doors are less likely to blow in and cause more damage. Outward swinging doors are great at protecting homes from all kinds of extreme weather. 

 

Groceries

There are several internet theories that doors also swing inward to help people bring groceries inside their home. This way they don’t have to hold the door open while they bring the groceries inside. This theory is actually quite smart in my opinion. I mean, who hasn’t struggled with getting the piles of groceries inside their home. 

 

Screen & Storm Doors

Another reason doors swing inward is because they also have outward swinging Storm Doors which already swing outward. When both doors switch a different direction, they’re easier to move and install. If they both swang the same way they would be quite hard to open indeed. 

 

New Front Doors

Ask us about our new front doors and we are happy to help. We can accommodate most requests for outward or inward swinging doors. You get to design the door from the ground up too so you get just the right look you are going for with your home. Our quotes are free and our doors are a standard 25% off. 

 

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading today’s article. We hope you’ve learned more about  why doors swing inward instead of outward. If you are in need of a new front door please get your free quote today. Please comment below on what your favorite part of the article was.