I am thinking about another post that I saw on this sub the other day. I learned why fire exit doors open out to make sure that people can escape during the event of a fire, but then why does my front door opens into the house? Wouldn’t it be safer to open out?
Also, my bedroom doors and bathroom doors open in. Same reason?
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Fire exits open out so people won’t be unable to open the door or die by being pushed by a scared mob while exiting a dangerous situation.
Your door opens in so you won’t smash someone in the face in the hallway as you open it.
So it’s easier for the firemen to get in and prevent the door being blocked from the outside, and the hinges are on the inside.
The basic doorway in your home has a very simple structure: A large board is attached to a frame using a few “pin” hinges. This design has a number of advantages — it is easy to build, easy to install and easy to repair. Of course, it is also very easy to disassemble — removing the hinge pins completely detaches the door from the frame.
While this might help you out a good deal as a homeowner — you can remove the door in order to squeeze in an over-sized couch, for example — it’s not something you want to make accessible to intruders. For this reason, the hinge mechanism needs to be positioned inside the house. With a standard hinge design, this means the door will open inward.
Public buildings have the same security concerns, of course, but they also have to consider other safety factors. Unlike a private home, a public building is likely to have large numbers of people in it. In case of fire or other emergency, these people need to be evacuated as quickly and easily as possible.
When a mob of people rushes an exit, it’s very hard for somebody to open the door inward — everyone pushes up against the door, and there is no room for it to open. For this reason, an effective emergency exit needs to open outward, moving with the force of the mob. This is also why a lot of emergency exits are built with wide “panic bars” instead of ordinary door knobs. The basic idea is to build the exit so even the most out-of-control mob will be able to escape.
To maintain perimeter security, public exits are typically built with concealed or protected hinges, which are much harder to detach than simple pin-hinges. These doors are more expensive to install and repair, making them impractical for residential use. And as long as you don’t have an unruly mob living with you, these outward-opening doors don’t offer any real advantage in your home.
Doors opening outward is safer in the event of a stampede, because you don’t have to worry about the press of people preventing the door from opening. However, stampedes are unlikely to occur in private residences; they usually don’t get that crowded.
Doors opening inward provides security. It means that a burglar cannot circumvent the lock simply by removing the hinges. You can also barricade it if you’re under attack, to try to give the attacker time to calm down and/or give the police time to arrive.
Doors in a residential use not required to open outward unless occupancy more than 49 people. Front doors are often several steps above grade. to open an outswinging door from outside you have to step backwards, and you could fall down the steps. As somebody noted, it is best not to have doors that swing outward into a hallway, unless there is something dangerous in the room such as electrical equipment or fuel storage, in which case it is required.
Doors opening outward would be a nightmare here (because frequent heavy snows). I remember having to dig my friend out of their house because someone had put their front door on backwards (outward opening) & they couldn’t open it
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