Door Handing and Why It Is Important

When we started designing and making custom door handles the challenge came not from creating original and artistic door hardware but from understanding the mechanics that make door handles work and from understanding terms of art that are commonly used within the hardware industry but which at first glance are mystifying.

In this article I hope to provide a clear understanding of the term Door Handing. The term reminds me of my early introduction to English grammar where  everything makes sense once you know the rules but where the rules at the outset appear cryptic and confusing. 

                                        

                                           RIGHT HANDED DOOR – HINGES ON RIGHT WITH LIZARD ENTRY SET

Door handing describes the way a door opens and therefore impacts the way you order your locks and latches, terms which were discussed in my last post.

A door can be either a left handed or right handed and  this has nothing to do with your being left or right handed but has everything to do with the location of the door hinges. So here are some simple rules:

1. Always look at the door from the outside whether that is the outside of the front door or the outside of a bedroom, bathroom, closet or other door
2.  Which side of the door are the hinges on? If, from the outside, the hinges are on the left of the door then the door is a left handed and if they are on the right, then the door is right handed.

What happens when you have a pair of doors or double doors?

Start by determining which door is the operative door or door that is using a latch and the one you will be opening. The operative door will determine the handing of both doors, so if viewed from the outside the door that opens has its hinges on the right  then it will be an operative right hand door and the other door will be a left handed door.

                            REVERSE BEVEL OR STEP ONE WHEN DANCING THE WALTZ – LIZARD COLLECTION

We move now from English grammar to ballroom dancing as the next aspect of door handing is the question of whether the door swings inward or  outward. Again we judge this from the outside of the door. The norm or standard is a door that swings inward, if it does you do not need to describe it as such as it will be assumed to swing inwards. However, if the door pulls open toward you, or swings outward then it is described as a "reverse bevel"' the reference to bevel is a description of latch tongue. To etch this idea on my brain I always think of dancing the waltz which for the female begins with her stepping back with her right foot and dragging her partner, or in this analogy, the door with her.