Determine Door Handing or the Swing of Your Door
Confused with left and right hand door levers? Read this quick tutorial and learn how to easily determine the handing of your door so you can order the correct door hardware the first time.
Steps
- Open the door that you need hardware for.
- Stand in the doorway with your back to the hinges. You will be standing sideways in the opening, looking at the part of the opening where the door latches into place when closed. Which side of you is the door on?
- If the door is on your left hand side, it is a left handed door.
- If the door is on your right side, it is a right handed door.
- Check for exceptions. If your door swings outward, this rule will be reversed. Most exterior doors, such as patio doors, swing outward. If the door to an interior room swings out into a hallway, you might also need to reverse the rule. Click here for additional handing instructions. Special-Lite, Inc.
- Finished.
Tips
- You do not need to determine door handing when ordering doorknobs, deadbolts and even some levers that are non-handed. Any lever handles that need to have their handing indicated will have the option upon checking out.
- The direction of doorknobs has most to do with which way the lock or privacy lock goes. If you don't have a lock on a door at all, you may not need to worry about direction. You can just install the doorknob so it points the right way.
- If you're still not sure, get a picture of a right- or left-handed lever and compare it to the door where you will put it. Will it point the right way with the lock on the correct side?
Warnings
- Double check yourself before ordering to save yourself some time and possibly money making exchanges.
Related Articles
Sources and Citations
- How to Determine Door Handing - Original source of this page. Shared with permission
