What does door handing mean, and which way should my door open?
The convention British suppliers use, how to describe your own doorway so a handed part arrives right, and which hardware is genuinely handed and which is not.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 12 min
- Read
- 3 min
Short answer
Stand on the side the door opens towards you. If the hinges are on your left it is left-handed; on your right, right-handed. Add whether it opens towards you or away. Most latches are reversible, but friction stays, cockspur handles, hooked multipoint locks and closers with backcheck are genuinely handed.
Handing causes more wrong orders than any other single thing in door and window hardware, because there is more than one convention and suppliers do not always say which they use. The way to stay out of trouble is to describe the door in plain words as well as by a code, and to know which parts actually care.
Step by step
- Learn the common British convention.Stand on the side the door opens towards you — the pull side. Hinges on your left is a left-hand door; hinges on your right is a right-hand door. Then say whether it opens in or out relative to the room or the building.
- Say it in words as well as a code.'Hinges on the left as I look at it from the hall, opening into the room' is unambiguous in every convention. 'LH' is not. Suppliers deal with confused customers constantly and will always take the plain description.
- Photograph the doorway from the pull side.One photograph settles it. Take it standing back far enough to show the hinges, the handle and which way the door swings.
- Know what is not handed.Butt hinges, euro cylinders, rim cylinders, tubular latches, mortice deadlocks and most door furniture do not care which way the door opens. If a listing does not ask, it does not matter.
- Know what is reversible.Most latch bolts and many mortice sashlock latches can be pulled out of the case and turned over so the sloped face points the other way. Manufacturers usually say so, and it takes seconds.
- Know what is genuinely handed.Window friction stays, casement hinges, cockspur handles, hooked multipoint locks on some makes, door closers with a backcheck function, and rebated door pairs. These are made in two versions and cannot be swapped.
- Decide which way a new door should open.Into the room rather than into a corridor, so it does not block circulation or hit someone. Against a wall rather than into the middle of a room, so it opens flat. Away from the light switch, so the switch is not behind the open door. Away from a radiator, and not fouling a window opening.
- Consider escape and access.A door that opens outwards on a very small room — a WC — can be the difference between reaching someone who has collapsed and not. Bathroom doors are worth thinking about specifically for this reason.
- Check the space before committing.Mark the swing arc on the floor with tape and live with it for a day. It costs nothing and it catches the clash with the bin, the radiator or the wardrobe door that nobody notices on a plan.
Questions people ask
Why do different suppliers describe handing differently?
Because more than one convention exists — some describe from the side the door opens away from, and some describe by where the hinges sit as you push. Always ask which the supplier uses, or describe it in words.
Can I change which way a door opens?
Yes, by moving the hinges and the latch to the other side, and cutting new recesses. The old recesses have to be filled and the door stop moved. It is a real job but a normal one.
Are internal doors handed when you buy them?
The door leaf itself usually is not — it is symmetrical, and the hinge recesses and lock mortice are cut on site. Pre-hung door sets are handed, and so are some glazed and moulded designs.