Bathroom doors can be designed to swing inward or outward depending on the area and place you have for them.
Why Do Bathroom Doors Open Inward? Bathroom doors usually open inward because it provides security, space to walk through your hallway or corridor, smell control, safety and cleanliness, and privacy. It is easy to change the direction of the door swing and make it open outward.
It is better to be more careful and attentive while deciding the swing direction of your bathroom doors.
Why do bathroom doors swing inward?
Usually, the bathroom and toilet doors of houses and commercial places open inward.
Security
Swing-in doors provide you security when you lock yourself in the bathroom in an emergency. As a result, you can face the worst situation of thieves jumping into your house for a robbery.
They can have any dangerous thing to harm you. In this case, you can run towards this place to hide or lock yourself there.
Doors that swing inward also have hinges and locks inside the door side. This will provide you with more security as you can lock it from the inside. So, it is better to have swing doors to get better security.
Obstruct the hallway or Corridor
Having doors that swing inward will not obstruct your hallway or corridors. When you have small corridors and a hallway to pass, it will not block the passage to walk. Instead, it gives you a good space to walk easily to your hall.
Swing-out doors can do the opposite. It can disrupt the walkway for people in public restrooms. A door that opens outward can cause many problems if the corridor has a tiny space.
Public washrooms are in regular use as people keep going in and out. However, swing-out doors will block the walking space continuously and disturb people.
In addition, bathrooms near the stairs with a swing-out door can cause the person outside it to fall off from stairs if you suddenly open it outward.
Having these doors in any emergency can be a nightmare as it will hinder the place to walk out.
Smell control
This place can smell bad because of the humidity and closed environment. However, a swing-in door system can control the smell coming out of it. When you open the door inward, fresh and odor-free air can pass into the washroom.
This will make the inside environment less smelly. In addition, inward swing doors can prevent bad odors from coming out, especially in public places.
The outward opening can make the foul odor come outside more frequently, which will cause the outside atmosphere to be unpleasant. So, push-to-open doors are more suitable for controlling smell.
Safety and cleanliness
When it comes to your restrooms, the first and most important thing is their cleanliness. For example, you must wash your hands after gardening or eating something.
It is a better option to keep the doors and handles clean while stepping into this place.
Also, when your hands are dirty, and you do not want to touch its handle, you can simply push the door inward without touching it.
It also provides safety if you lock yourself in the bathroom, as hinges and locks are inside.
It is easier for people to smash the door and take you out if it swings inward. Also, kids in your can lock themselves; it is somehow easier to break it.
Also, it provides safety to the people standing outside the bathroom as you can open the door anytime. However, when it opens outward, this can cause an injury to the person waiting outside.
It is advised to design this place that swings inward to provide safety in your house or public places.
Privacy
Everybody needs privacy when it comes to their bathroom activities. It can save you from embarrassment if somebody enters the washroom while you are already there.
Swing-out doors can open up the entire area when someone accidentally opens it. It will show the inside view to the outside person; obviously, you do not want this to happen.
Hinges and locks are inside so that you can lock them for privacy. When using public toilets and washrooms with no locks, swing-in doors can provide you with more privacy here as you can hold them from inside.
What if bathroom doors swing outward?
Bathroom doors are also designed to open outward, considering the place you have for them. In case you do not have a large toilet, doors that open outward can provide you with more space inside it.
The doors that open outward can be easy to break if you lock yourself in the washroom and there is no one to help you out.
Outward swing doors are safe for the mirrors on the wall and other stuff in your restroom, as there are fewer chances of damaging them when you quickly enter your bathroom.
It will not stand in the way of other doors in your bathroom, such as shower and toilet doors. It can save your walls from damage if its handle, which usually bumps outside, strikes the wall behind it.
It will not cover the windows if it swings outward. However, you can use your shoulder or leg kick to open it after washing your hands to avoid germs on the handle.
It is easy for people in wheelchairs and other disabled people to push the door outside after using a toilet.
Is it possible to change the swing direction of the bathroom doors?
Yes, it is possible to reverse the swing direction of doors. Let’s say you want to install a bigger bathtub or vanity or add some other stuff to your bathroom. For this, you need to make your door swing outward for more space in it.
You can open it inward if it blocks your hallway or corridor.
You need a screwdriver, hammer, nail punch, router, drill machine, and a pry bar. There are two ways to change its swing in your favorable direction: inward or outward.
You can just change its direction within its frame. You can remove the hinges and lock from it and drill it to the other side. Move the door stops and metal strikes in the frame.
Then, you can attach the hinge to the previous holes to strengthen the jamb and door.
You can use another method in which the whole frame of the door will be changed, but this is a complicated and tiring procedure and need special skills.
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