Doing the installation of an interior door on your own is not a difficult job. A simple step-by-step scheme will be described below, starting from choosing the interior door you like in the store and ending with the self-installation of interior doors with step-by-step photos.
Interior doors can be divided into several types
On the market, manufacturers of door structures offer a fairly wide range of models. Ready-made interior doors can be made of different materials. The most common types of materials are:,,.
Helpful information:
1. fiberboard - door: the frame is made of wood, and sheathed with fiberboard sheets with lamination. The advantages of such doors include: low cost relative to other types, low weight, which makes it possible to deliver them from the place of sale to the house on their own, ease of installation. Given these points, they are popular among buyers, so that their wide range is most often presented in stores.
Of the minuses, one can note the low strength of the fiberboard itself, which is why the door breaks and becomes unusable quite easily, poor resistance to moisture, the door can twist. Therefore, we do not recommend its installation in bathrooms with weak ventilation, this material loves dry rooms.
Photo - Models of MDF doors
3. natural wood- Interior doors made of this material are the most durable. Their price directly depends on what kind of wood was used for their production. Doors made of valuable species of wood are used for installation in rooms with the author's design; they will perfectly fit into a classic interior. The width of the interior doors is selected according to the size of your opening.
Photo - Models of wooden doors
The list of interior doors by type can be supplemented with steel, but these types are not very popular among the general population, so they are not included in the article for a detailed description.
Come here if you are interested in and.
Types of door frames for interior doors
The correct interior door should be in a reliable box for the door, because its quality will depend on how long the door will last, as well as the design of the doorway of your room. Door frames can be divided into three main types.
1. Fiberboard box. It looks pretty decent, but when choosing a box made of this material, the strength of the entire structure will be questionable. The middle of the box bar sags from its own weight, not to mention the possible deflections from the weight of the door leaf itself. Since the main components in fiberboard, to put it simply, are glue and paper, it must be borne in mind that they are very fragile and not durable. It is not recommended to hang wooden and MDF doors on them because of their heavy weight.
Photo - Fiberboard box
2. Raw wood box. The cost is at the level of fiberboard boxes, but unlike the latter, boxes made from dry profiled timber have a higher strength. Therefore, when choosing between fiberboard boxes and raw wood boxes, we recommend choosing the latter. You also need to consider that you will need additional materials for the final finishing of the box.
Photo - Raw wooden box
3. Laminated wood box. It does not require final finishing, as it is already laminated with paper. And here there is one important point, when choosing such a box, the quality of lamination is very important. If thin paper was used for this, there is a high probability of scuffs, scratches, cracks, the coating loses its appearance. Perhaps a better option would be a box made of raw wood with self-finishing and painting.
Photo - Laminated wooden box
Also, the entire doorway of the interior door may require additional processing after the doors are installed. Everything will whistle from your opening, its size, the location of the door in it, the interior of the room.
For such processing, you can use an additional bar and platbands. Required kits can be purchased at the store. We recommend that you decide on their need after the final installation of the door in order to understand what kind of final finish you need. After all, the purchase of additional materials is an additional cost, which in the end may not be necessary.
An example door is considered with a fiberboard frame. If you need to install wooden boxes, you need to work on the same steps. Installation will be easier, as wood is stronger than fiberboard.
Step 1. Choice tools and necessary additional consumables. For installation you will need:
- saw;
- electric drill ();
- drills 3 mm and 4 mm for wood;
- drills 4 mm and 6 mm for concrete;
- screwdriver;
- roulette;
- pen;
- wood screws;
- fast mounting dowels;
- mounting foam.
Step 2. We determine the scheme for fixing the box in the doorway of the interior door.
Photo - Scheme of fixing the door frame in the opening
The figure shows the scheme of fixing the door frame in the opening. As you can see, the interior door (2) is installed in the box (1), which is fixed in the opening with screws (3). Blow foam between the wall and the box (4). The process is as follows: we install the box in the opening, fix it to the wall, foam it.
Photo - Disassembled door frame and door before installation
If, after installing the door, its threshold cannot be hidden in the floor, for convenience, choose a box without a U-shaped threshold. It does not have a lower crossbar, so you will simply have nothing to interfere with walking.
Step 3. Assembling the door frame.
Photo - The door frame must be assembled for ease of installation
Loops must be attached to the purchased box. The door should have a cutout for the handle, as well as for the door lock of the interior door. We begin assembling the door frame. It is necessary to connect all the parts of the box together and fit the size of the opening. The factory length usually comes with a margin of 5 cm.
The surest option not to make a mistake is to assemble the parts on the floor the way they should be in the doorway. Particular attention must be paid to the metal bases of the hinges, they must stick up so that the door can be hung on them from above.
Choose the opening side depending on the rooms between which the doors are installed. From small rooms, such as a bathroom, pantry, it is better to open the doors to the outside, from large rooms to the corridor - to the inside.
Photo - The correct position of the end strips
We attach the upper bar to the screws. The end strips (1) must lie in line. If there is no line, then the bar lies incorrectly and needs to be deployed.
Photo - Tighten the screws after pre-drilling
Given the structure of fiberboard and the characteristics of its strength, in the box, before screwing in, it is necessary to drill holes with a wood drill with a diameter of 3 mm. We carry out this action so that our box does not crack during the assembly process. For the same reason, screw fixing points should be located closer to the center, away from edges and corners.
Photo - Assembled box
Four self-tapping screws will be enough to fasten the bar, two on each side.
If the door is lying flat on the floor, place a soft cloth under it to reduce the chance of damaging the laminate.
Photo - Factory stock box
We will cut off the factory stock of the box (protruding edge). To fit the box, we accurately measure the dimensions of the doorway of the interior door. And we transfer it to the door frame, taking into account the gap minus 1-2 cm on all sides for the possibility of foaming. We recommend that you double-check yourself on the dimensions of the structure several times.
Photo - Measuring the height of the opening
Photo - Cutting line of the excess part of the box
The protruding surplus is best cut with a hand saw. It is advisable not to use an automatic saw to avoid damage to the coating.
Photo - Trimming the excess with a hand saw
As a result of all the manipulations, we get a U-shaped door frame, ready for installation in the doorway of the interior door.
Photo - Wooden box assembly
Step 4. Installing the box in the opening.
We put the box in the doorway. Level up. We check the correctness and evenness of the assembly of the box by hanging the door on the hinges and closing it.
Photo - Checking the position of the box with a level
Photo - Drill diameter 4 mm for wood
The box installed in the opening must be fixed with self-tapping screws. We remove the end decorating strip and drill 7-8 through holes on each side. The distance between the holes is 25-30 cm.
Photo - Drilled box
The wood drill is not designed for drilling walls, we only drill a fiberboard box with it. After that, we again check the position of the box with the help of a level, since it could move during the drilling process. If there are no changes, start drilling the wall. Using a thin concrete drill with a diameter of 4 mm, through the holes in the box, we mark the wall. It is impossible to completely drill the wall through the box, as it can be damaged. The hole diameter is 4 mm, if you make more, then the caps of the self-tapping screws will fall out. Next, we remove the box from the opening and begin to make holes with a drill with a diameter of 6 mm. If the wall is brick, the mounting holes should be in solid brick, and not in the masonry joint, in which the dowels do not hold very well.
Photo - Drilled brick wall
Photo - Dowels in solid brick
Photo - Self-tapping screws for quick installation - on the left, wood screws - on the right.
Dowels are mounted in the finished holes. We fix the box in the wall with self-tapping screws. For convenience, you can use a screwdriver or a drill with a nozzle for a self-tapping screw head. Do not screw in the screws completely, the deflection of the box is possible. In order to avoid deflection, wedge lining is possible. To check the evenness and absence of distortions, in the process of screwing in the screws, additionally check the box for level.
Photo - Lining wedges
At the end of the installation, the box is checked from the side of the room using a level.
Photo - Checking the box by level
Step 5. Installing the door on the hinges.
How to install an interior door? It is enough to put the door on the hinges
If this is a fiberboard door, given its weight, it is possible to do it alone. After its installation, we will try to open and close. In the closed position, the gaps between the box and the door should be about 3 mm.
Sections of the article:
Success in self-installation of interior doors can be achieved if you approach this task correctly. On the one hand, such work is not difficult to carry out, but on the other hand, there are a number of nuances that must be taken into account during the installation process. Before installing an interior door, it is important to think over the algorithm of actions. At the same time, if you do the work without being prepared, then this may affect the final result. Of great importance is theoretical training in the question of how to install such door structures. Even in the absence of experience, you can install interior doors correctly and reliably.
Preparatory work
Before you study the theory of installing interior doors and proceed with the installation of the structure, it is necessary to consider the issue of preparatory work. In no case should this stage be ignored, otherwise a simple and quick installation of doors can turn into a real nightmare. First of all, you need to pay attention to two points.
First you need to make sure that the door block is in full compliance with the opening. The optimal situation would be if, after the installation of the structure, a gap of 2-3 centimeters remains on all its sides. This will make it possible to easily set the door frame in the same plane with the opening.
This is easy to achieve. If the opening is too narrow relative to the door block, then it can be expanded with a hammer drill or impact drill. In the case when the doorway is too wide, it is possible to reduce its dimensions using a wooden beam. In general, a gap of up to five centimeters is considered normal.
For the perfect installation of the door block, you can use one simple device. It is required to attach three even wooden slats across the box. One from below, the second from above, the third - in the middle of the structure. These rails will allow you to set the door block in the same plane with the opening.
To avoid damage to the surface of the door frame, you can fix the slats by placing wooden linings under them. They should be screwed to the end of the box. In addition, the length of the rails must be chosen in such a way that after installing the door frame in the opening, the rails rest against the walls. By the way, there are a few more nuances that will help you complete the installation without unnecessary difficulties.
First of all, the rails need to be fixed on the side of the door block into which the door will open. In addition, they must be fixed after the door frame is installed in the opening and gaps of the required size are formed between the opening and the opening.
To fix the box, you can use double-folded thick cardboard. It is very important at the stage of preparatory work to perform the above two steps. Without the implementation of these procedures, it is not recommended to proceed with the installation of the door block, because in this case the risk of skew of the entire structure increases significantly. After the implementation of these manipulations, you can proceed directly to the independent installation of interior doors.
Independent installation of interior doors
After completing the preparatory work and preparing all the necessary tools, you can begin to install interior doors. Of the tools you will need a hammer, a short rack level and a crowbar. In addition, it is necessary to purchase a cylinder with low-pressure polyurethane foam during polymerization. An example is Macroflex 65 foam. Wood wedges should also be prepared. To date, there is a proven technology on how to install interior doors correctly. You can see the installation process in the video.
The first step is to put the door block in the opening. During this process, it is important to pay special attention to the side on which the structure is being installed. When installing, it is advisable to be where the door will open. Now you should set the structure in the center of the opening. By moving the door block to the right or left, it is necessary to ensure the same gaps between the structure and the walls on both sides.
At the next stage, you will need to make sure that the vertical position of the door frame racks is correct. To do this, you can use the rack level. It must be applied from below the upper transverse jumper. If the level is not respected, you will need to use a crowbar, lifting the desired rack with it and placing wooden wedges under it.
After that, you should fix the door block to the partitions. To do this, it is necessary to drill holes with a diameter of 6 mm in the protruding part of the wooden lintels. Then dowels are hammered into these holes. In the process of fixing the door block, it is necessary from time to time to check the position of the structure relative to the side walls.
After that, the door frame and opening should be wetted with water. This procedure is carried out in order to increase the polymerization of the mounting foam and its adhesion to the walls of the opening. Then you need to once again make sure that the correct position of the door frame is maintained. To do this, use the rack level. In addition, it is necessary to check the presence of gaskets made of cardboard between the door leaf and the boat. If some fell out in the process of performing work, then they must be returned to their place.
At the next stage, it is necessary to fill the gaps between the door block and partitions using mounting foam. After that, you need to let the foam grab and dry. This will take several hours. As a rule, the polyurethane foam completely hardens in 6-10 hours. By the way, it will be said that polyurethane foam is a poisonous material. To avoid the unpleasant consequences of skin contact with it, you can use protective gloves. In addition, it is necessary to protect the surface of the products with masking tape, pasting the door block around the perimeter with it.
After that, you must remove all aids. Now they are no longer needed. So, with the help of a screwdriver, dowels and self-tapping screws are dismantled, which secure the jumpers in the door frame. Then you need to remove the rails themselves and open the door. Cardboard pads should fall to the floor on their own after the door is opened.
Finishing doorways
The question of how to properly install door blocks is not limited to the installation of the structure itself. After the interior doors are mounted, it is necessary to carry out work on finishing the doorway. The method of carrying out this procedure depends on the width of the doorway, as well as the type of mounted door block. In the case of a thin wall, as, for example, at the entrance to the bathroom, it is possible to finish using only architraves. This option is the simplest and most labor-intensive. The purchased set of platbands is fixed on both sides of the door structure, closing the gaps between the frame and partitions filled with foam.
If we are talking about wide doorways, then their finishing is carried out using the same platbands or additional trims. They may differ from the color of the door leaf, especially since recently contrasting solutions have become popular. The sentinel strip can be cut to the required width, and it should be fixed with construction adhesive.
In addition, it is worth emphasizing that one of the ways to finish the doorway is to plaster the slopes. This method is especially appropriate when installing wooden door blocks. The fact is that the cement-sand plaster mortar favorably emphasizes door structures made of natural wood. At the same time, this type of finish is not recommended for fiberboard door frames. This material is not compatible with the high humidity of materials used in plastering.
After installing the door block, installing the platbands with your own hands is not particularly difficult. It is necessary to cut the edge of each architraves at an angle of 45 degrees and fix them on the door frame. For these purposes, you can use glue, finishing nails or self-tapping screws. The caps of the studs are subsequently overwritten, and the self-tapping screws are hidden with the help of decorative plastic plugs.
As practice shows, installing interior doors is a fairly simple procedure. But, only subject to the installation technology and the sequence of work. A reasonable approach to business will allow you to perform all the manipulations without much effort and problems.
Caring for interior doors
It is important to remember that technically competent and accurate installation of interior doors can easily be leveled by the lack of care for the structure and improper operation. Interroom doors are recommended to be used indoors at a temperature from +15 to +35 С°. In this case, the humidity of the air should not exceed 70%. It is important that the door unit is not affected by sudden temperature fluctuations and changes in humidity in the apartment.
By the way, it will be emphasized that special attention should be paid to the operation of interior doors in rooms equipped with sealed windows. If the rooms are not ventilated, excessive humidity may occur in them, which is likely to cause damage to the structural elements of the door structure. So, the door can swell, the finishing material can peel off.
In addition, it is strictly forbidden to install MDF doors in those rooms in which there is a constantly elevated air temperature and humidity. These facilities include swimming pools, saunas and baths. At the same time, it is not recommended to install such structures in rooms without heating, with cement or earthen floors. At the same time, it is allowed to operate interior doors with short-term exposure to moisture. In this case, ventilation of the premises is a prerequisite. An example of such an object is a bathroom.
During the use of interior doors, the opening and closing of the leaf should be carried out exclusively in ways that do not entail damage to the structure and platbands. In addition, even if the door is equipped with a wear-resistant finishing coating, rough mechanical impact on the structure should be avoided. Otherwise, chips, cracks, burrs and scuffs are likely to appear. Such defects will significantly worsen the aesthetic appearance of the door block.
The interior door, like the furniture in the room or other interior items, needs careful treatment and attention. To maintain the aesthetic appearance of the structure, it is enough to periodically apply special care products. It is necessary to clean the door unit from dirt and dust with a soft cloth or a damp cloth. Contact of the structure with various solvents, acidic and alkaline compounds should be avoided. If you follow these simple rules, then interior doors will delight their owners with aesthetics and a long service life.
In conclusion, it is worth emphasizing that the whole process called “we put interior doors on our own”, carried out in compliance with the technology and recommendations of professionals, will take about three hours. True, this is not counting the time spent on the preparatory work before you start installing the structure with your own hands.
Necessary tool Preparing the box Assembling the box Assembling the block of the interior door Installing the door + frame block Inserting the lock into the door Installing the architraves
At first glance, installing an interior door is not a difficult task, but it includes so many operations that it will not work without detailed instructions to install the door.
This article is a detailed, with all the nuances, installation instructions. do-it-yourself interior door.
Required Tool
1. Miter box or miter saw. Without these tools, it is impossible to make a box and platbands, if they have a rounded surface.
2. Chisel. Better two, 12 and 20 mm wide. Or a cutter.
3. Hammer.
4. Drill or screwdriver.
5. PH No. 2 and PZ Nos. 1 and 2 bits, or appropriate size screwdrivers. Bits PH for black screws, PZ for yellow or chrome.
5. A set of perks (feather drills).
6. Drill 2 mm. for self-tapping screws.
7. Drill 6 mm. for screeds.
8. Roulette.
9. Metal square.
9. Pencil.
10. Mounting foam.
11. Strips of fiberboard ≈ 30 mm wide.
So, you bought an interior door, and received a set: a door leaf, blanks for a frame and blanks for platbands.
First, a box is made. This work includes the following operations:
a) making a box
b) tie-in loops;
c) tie-in of the counter bar;
We measure the exact width of the canvas in millimeters.
The width of the box is taken at 5 mm. wider than the door leaf.
This requires precision. It is worth making a mistake by a millimeter or two in one direction or another, and as a result you can get either an excessive gap between the box and the door, or the door will not close against the box.
To make a box, you will need either a miter box or a miter saw.
First, the ends of long workpieces (racks) are cut at 45 °
At the same time, do not forget that it is necessary to cut the workpieces towards each other.
Then a short workpiece is cut from both ends.
The next step is to determine the length of the racks. It depends on what kind of gap you plan under the door.
We take the length of the canvas, add 3 mm. and add the width of the gap, set aside the resulting size on the racks and cut off from the uncut end.
Let's wait with the assembly of the box, first we will cut the hinges, since it is much more difficult to do this on the assembled box.
We mark 30 cm from the ends of the rack and from this size we impose loops for marking.
The markup is done very accurately, as an unevenly installed loop will ruin all the work.
In the center of the holes for self-tapping screws, we prick, and then drill holes in the rack with a 2 mm drill. This is done so that the self-tapping screw does not go to the side, and does not pull the loop behind it.
Then we fix the loops with self-tapping screws.
After that, with a wallpaper knife, carefully cut the veneer along the edges of the loop, after which we turn out the screws and remove it.
Then we take a chisel or a milling cutter, who has what, and cut out a seat, with a depth equal to the thickness of the loop wing.
If the depth turns out to be greater or less, then in the first case the door will not close well, as it will rest against the rack, and in the second case there will be a large gap on one side and, accordingly, a small one on the other.
After that, on the opposite rack, we cut the oncoming bar.
The comfortable height of the door handle is 90 cm. We set aside this size on the rack, and just like a hinge, we fasten the bar and cut the veneer with a knife in those places where we will make a selection.
If the counter bar is thin, then it is not necessary to embed it. In this case, only a selection is made for the latch and latch of the lock.
After their manufacture, at the end of the rack we leave marks according to the size of the sample, which will be useful when inserting the lock.
To assemble the interior door frame, we need black self-tapping screws 55 - 60 mm long. For them, at the joints of the box, holes are first drilled with a 2 mm drill, then the screws are screwed up to half, or even more, but not completely.
Self-tapping screws are pulled evenly on both sides so that the elements of the box do not lead relative to each other along beveled plane.
The door leaf is placed in the assembled box and a gasket made of strips of fiberboard 2.5 mm thick is inserted between them. or similar material.
To keep the canvas in the box during installation, ties are made from improvised material (plywood, thin planks). Two per door.
They are made so that later, after installing the door in the opening, they can be easily removed.
I still have cuttings of MDF panels, and I'm in this once made of them.
Now we will install the resulting block in the doorway.
Please note that if the door is installed in a plasterboard partition, then a wooden bar is inserted into the profile.
To prevent the door from sliding down, supports are placed under it along the height of the gap.
The block is flush with the wall. If it fails, then the wall will then turn out the platbands, if it comes out in front, then an unpleasant gap will form between the wall and the platband.
The gap between the opening and the box is carefully filled with mounting foam, taking into account the expansion of the foam, by one third. The places where there will be loops and the oncoming bar are not filled with foam, I will explain why further.
When the foam dries, we mark on the door leaf the places where the hinges are inserted and remove it.
Just like on the box, we make a hinge insert on the door leaf and fasten the hinges in place.
With the hinges fixed, we put the canvas on supports and fasten the hinges on the box.
Close the door and see if there are any distortions.
If there are no distortions, and the door hangs, opens and closes normally, we make markings for the lock, or rather, while we mark its boundaries. This is where the marks left on the box when inserting the counter bar come in handy.
Self-tapping screws are screwed under the hinges and under the counter bar, in places of the greatest loads. In these places, between the box and the bar of the opening, bookmarks are inserted along the width of the gap. Therefore, the gap was not filled with foam there.
After that, through the box and the bookmark, a self-tapping screw is wrapped in the bar.
Before proceeding to the sidebar of the lock, I will pay attention to the fact that the locks are right and left. Consider this when buying.
Of course, the latch of the lock can be redone from right to left, but for this you have to disassemble it.
The lock is fastened exactly in the middle of the door end, within the boundaries marked according to the counter bar. The veneer is cut with a knife and the first selection is made.
Then (for those who do not have a milling cutter) a feather drill (perk) is selected according to the thickness of the castle. The size of the perk is taken in places where the castle has bulges.
In the first sample, the borders of the castle and the middle line along which the second sample is made are marked, first with a perk.
Then we refine with a chisel. Please note: you can not work with a chisel with the beveled side inward. In this position, it can easily jump out, breaking through the thin layer remaining after sampling, and the door will be damaged.
When installing a swing door, there are four options for installing it on the opening side. How to choose the right one from four options so that it is convenient to open and close doors, turn on and off the light, go into the room and leave it? What are the safety regulations and requirements for this?
Before you buy interior doors, you need to know not only the exact dimensions of the doorways, but also where these doors will open. And if you are making repairs, then the direction of opening the doors must be determined at the stage of the design project, since the location of the furniture and the switch in the room will largely depend on which direction the doors will open.
The direction of door opening should be convenient and safe. The safety of opening doors in Russia is regulated by the building code and rules (SNiP) “Fire Safety of Buildings and Structures” dated January 21, 1997, the main thesis of which reads: “Doors at emergency exits and on escape routes should open towards the exit of the building.” This is necessary in order to make it easier to get out of the room: it is faster to open the doors, it is easier to break in.
This is especially true for non-residential public spaces. Office doors must all open outward, especially, according to SNiP standards, for rooms in which there will be more than 15 people.
10 problems faced when installing interior doors >>>
Rule 1: Doors should open from a smaller room to a larger one.
For example, in a bathroom or dressing room, opening outward and not inward will not take up additional space in an already small room. In addition, opening the doors to the bathroom from the outside makes the bathroom safer in case someone gets sick, and falling on the floor, he can block the doors.
Opening the doors to the children's room is more correct to do inside. If the child closes in the room and at this time a situation arises in which you need to urgently help the child, then it will be much easier to break the doors if they open into the children's room.
Rule 2: The door should swing open to most of the room.
When we enter a room, we must immediately see everything that is in it at the entrance. This is possible in cases where the entrance is located in one of the corners of the room, and not in the middle of the wall. In this case, the door opens towards the nearest wall.
If the entrance to the room is in the middle of one of the walls, then the opening should be towards the switch. This means that when we enter or exit, we open the doors with one hand, and turn off or turn on the light with the other. If the switch has yet to be installed, then it is more correct to open it towards the window so that when entering the room, the first thing we see is the window, the light from which would enter the corridor.
Rule 3 Note: Adjacent doors must not touch each other when opened at the same time.
If the doors are very close and touch each other even when installed to the far edges of the opening, then one of the doors will have to open to another room, or move the doorway. Hitting each other doors, when opening, not only can injure themselves, but can also hit someone leaving the room. But most importantly, it must not be allowed to block one door from another.
Where should the interior door open? No matter how strange this question may seem to you and the obvious answer, there are whole standards according to which interior doors must open in a strictly defined direction.
Moreover, it can open not only outside and inside the room, but also to the left and right. That is, there are as many as 4 ways to place an interior door.
According to the rules of fire safety and SNIP, which must be observed by all construction organizations without exception, in small-sized premises (bath, toilet, kitchen), doors must open outwards. This arrangement is due to the fact that in case of an emergency it will be easier for a person to leave the room by opening it to the outside. In addition, if a person becomes ill and is unconscious in a small room, he will not be able to block the door that is opened to the outside. And this means that precious minutes will be saved, and help will come much faster.
So how are the doors supposed to open? The basic rule for installing interior doors is: they should open in the direction where the space is larger. Most often, with a standard layout, this rule implies that interior doors should open towards the room. But on the staircase, the situation is the opposite. That is, it should go outside, not inside. This requirement is dictated by security considerations. Outsiders will not be able to crack it with a simple physical effort, that is, such a door cannot be knocked out. However, if when you open your front door it takes up a lot of space in the stairwell and makes it difficult to move, it would make more sense to make it open in the opposite direction.
SNiP standards
According to building codes and regulations (SNiP) “Fire Safety of Buildings and Structures” dated 01/21/1997, doors at evacuation exits and on evacuation routes should open towards the exit from the building. In all other cases, the direction for opening is not regulated, since it does not have standards. Below is a list of them:
- apartment buildings;
- private houses;
- premises in which no more than 15 people can be at the same time;
- pantries, the area of \u200b\u200bwhich is not more than 200 m²;
- bathrooms;
- the outer walls of buildings that are located on the northern side of the climatic zone.
Also, the SNiP document dated January 21, 1997 states that at the design stage of the building it is necessary to position the doors in such a way that at the moment of simultaneous opening they should not block each other. That is why there are situations when, in the same room, the doors, although they open in one direction, but from a different hand. Today, there are “right” and “left” doors. In Russia, these standards differ significantly from European canons. For example, in the case of opening a door with the right hand, it is considered to be “right”. And if you need to use your left hand to open it, then such a door is considered “left”. Experts advise to be extremely careful when buying them and not to neglect the advice of consultants. If you need a “left” door, then be sure to describe it to the seller as the one in which the hinges are located on the left side when opened towards you.
Space Saving Design Solutions
Modern housing layout sometimes puts the owners of living space in front of a difficult choice: follow fire safety rules and install doors strictly according to the rules, or install according to the intended design, which, although it looks beautiful, does not always have a functional component.
We all know the fact that a full-fledged swing door is able to take up a sufficient amount of space at the time of opening and closing. Therefore, when you install it, try to find a “golden mean”, in which the location will not only be beautiful, but also convenient and safe.
If your priority is saving every centimeter in the room, then the front door should open outward.
And if the corridor space is occupied by shelving or a wardrobe, then for greater convenience it will have to be mounted in such a way that it opens into the room.
In some cases, designers recommend sacrificing the front door and redesigning the opening. For example, they do this by connecting the kitchen and living room with a decorative arch. Thanks to this technique, you can not only visually increase the space, but also facilitate the passage between rooms.
When installing an interior or front door, remember that for best use it must not only be properly installed, but also positioned so that it opens in accordance with the rules and regulations of fire safety. Otherwise, you run the risk of getting a court order for a forced alteration.