Do French Doors open in or out?

Question

When I lived in Florida, I never saw French doors that opened "in" to the house. Now I'm back North and it seems to be common. I thought French doors opened out (onto a porch or balcony). Is there a reason for the differences between North and South? Is it snow?

Answer 1

Here is the deal:

Check which way the hinges are mounted. For security reasons, most people put the hinges on the inside of a building, so that burglars won't remove the hinge pins, take off the doors and break into your house.

If your French doors are on a balcony, you could mount them either way. But on the first floor, if it were my house, I would put the hinges on the inside, and the doors would open inwards.

If you really want French doors to open out, you can add a security feature to the hinges by drilling a hole on each hinge piece. Then insert a nail into one hinge and cutting off the head. When the doors close, the nail will fit into the hole on the matching hinge and prevent the door from being removed if someone pulls the hinge pins.

Good luck

Answer 2

I am not entirely sure of the answer to this question, but the snow fall in the north would be a logical reason for the doors to open inward instead of outward. If you've ever tried to open a screen door onto a snow and ice encrusted porch you could easily see why those doors would be installed to open inwards. I am from the north and the only time I have seen the french doors(that I can think of right now) that open outward are at certain hotels that offer protected balconies to lounge on.

Answer 3

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RE:
Do French Doors open in or out?
When I lived in Florida, I never saw French doors that opened "in" to the house. Now I'm back North and it seems to be common. I thought French doors opened out (onto a porch or balcony). Is there a reason for the differences between North and South? Is it snow?

Answer 4

I am assuming that when you mention sliding doors, you are not talking about glass patio doors, but what is called pocket doors that slide back in to the wall. If you do not have good, reasonable room for regular french doors to swing, then pocket doors is a very good alternative. But you must consider that if you were to install a pair of 3' doors that you must have at least 13' of wall space for this to work. You can get narrower doors all the way down to 2', but when you get down to the smaller ones, it really is a waste of time and money. The other thing that you must consider is the wall and whether it is a load bearing wall or not. If there is no wall there yet, then it don't matter. You can also get pocket doors in solid smooth, raised panel or 15 lite. Good luck.

Answer 5

Depending on code issues, and where the doors are located,,,IE: actual exit, or an interior room, they can be installed to open either way.

Beyond a code issue that may require all exit doors to open out, for escape, it very much depends on WHAT is in either room that the doors open into.

Example: There is a sofa in one room that may conflict with the full openeing of a French Door setup,,,maybe it can be relocated? OR maybe not? What then might be adjacent to doors opening in the opposing direction, if you had a contractor hang them to open in the other direction.

Aesthetically there is NO LAW regarding this.

Steven Wolf

BIG SIGH,,,Location on the planet has no relevance to the Q

Answer 6

Mr French doors in Tampa, Florida open out on to the patio. It may have something to do with Florida houses are usually much smaller than up North and there isn't enough room inside the house for my doors to open that way.

Answer 7

We had a home built in Indiana some years ago and the French doors opened into the house. I've seen interior french doors that open "out" (like into another room.)

Answer 8

If you want to have screens or storms with your French doors you would want the French doors to open in.

That way in the summer you would just open the French doors to get to the screens, to let air in.

If the screens were on the inside you would have to open the screens, then open the French doors then close the screens to let air in & not the bugs.

So if you weren't worried about the cold or bugs & just had French doors you could well have them open out so as to not conflict with things in side the room.

to open in

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Normobria got the functional reason right, lots of em got the installation kinda fuzzy. There are inswings and outswings (speaking in terms of manufactured prehung doors). NEVER!!! interchange them. Most people i`ve encountered base their swing choices on traffic and what objects and furniture may or may not impede the swing of the door. In Florida codes usually have no significance on residential installations.