Russia
Joined: Aug 13, 2022
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Re: A learning experience: My new Kitchen
In my experience, there are no special rules for the direction of opening doors inside a house or apartment. There are professional recommendations and logic. For example, it is really better to open the bathroom to the outside. And there is a very important argument to this. If a person becomes ill in a cramped space and falls to the floor, opening the door will be a big problem. For the same reason, saunas and built-in shower cabins are opened to the outside and there are no locks. In other rooms, everything is dictated only by the space itself, the presence of space for an open door leaf. Much more important is the place under the switch)). But the front door is much more difficult. Here, in addition to fire regulations (they are complex and there are no universal rules inside and out), the local mentality strongly influences the opening of the door. In my country (Russia), great importance is attached to the reliability of locking and strength of the entrance door. All these armor plates, 6-8-10-12 bolt locks, anti-detachable pins, locking with the crab system, vandal-proof inserts into locks often reach absurd values. The door often becomes several times stronger than the wall in which it is installed, which is already ridiculous, and no one remembers about easy penetration through the window)). And the most reliable design in this aspect is, of course, with an outward opening, here the door frame takes over part of the load. The door with the opening inside the apartment is held only on the lock crossbars, which is not so reliable. But often the builder of the house coordinates the project exactly according to fire regulations with the opening inside. But our man (!!) is still trying to make the door as strong as possible, even if the walls are made of loose foam concrete. And the agreed project can be re-agreed if there is more than 160cm width in the common corridor and an open door does not prevent other residents of the house from running out of other apartments on the floor and running down the corridor in case of a fire. If less, the fire services prohibit opening outside. About 15 years ago, all houses were built only with an opening to the outside, even in cramped vestibules, now new standards have been introduced, doors are initially coordinated, but in the same conditions you can meet different doors. Bureaucracy is a strong thing.
Joined: May 18, 2021
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Re: A learning experience: My new Kitchen
@Keet. Rules and regs will be too dependent on location, and the buildings purpose. For example, in the UK if a new build home wants to be certified as suitable for disabled use there are a whole raft of criteria to meet. Here in UK we have a whole section of the planning regs just for that: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ac...dings-approved-document-m
I don't think a non-certified bathroom must have a particular direction, but it is considered better to open outward to prevent someone (usually older people) slipping and falling in front of the door and blocking emergency help. This is more a consideration in countries like the UK where typical bathrooms are quite compact.
I don't think there is anything other than convention for other doors. The only exception would be if some other regulation made one direction impossible. i.e. a door cannot swing into the area of an stairway landing area.
Netherlands
Joined: Apr 8, 2022
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Re: A learning experience: My new Kitchen
A very true and serious reason for outward opening bathroom doors! I'm going to check all my projects but I think I already have them all outward opening. Still, a too good reason to make sure I haven't missed one.
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Joined: May 18, 2021
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Re: A learning experience: My new Kitchen
@VeroniQ Sure, me too. I think the outward opening preference is becoming more common as a modern fix to postage sized plots of land where the bathroom (or ensuite) has just about enough open floor space to stand up in. Where an ill person wouldn't so much fall, as slump into a crouched position wedged between the door and the fittings. Another fix for that is pocket/sliding doors.
United Kingdom
Joined: Nov 20, 2023
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Re: A learning experience: My new Kitchen
sjb thanks so much for your design! get where you are coming from, the pantry model didn't really fit quite right and I see the lines of the cabs above the hob, I'm going to remodel and try something different.
I have to say I only put the door inward because that's how it is right now all my bathrooms have inward doors but it is a very old house lol
Germany
Joined: Jan 6, 2024
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Re: A learning experience: My new Kitchen
Just from observations I have determined there seem to be some unwritten rules about the opening direction of doors. Bathrooms: always out, bedrooms: always in, living rooms: always in, exterior doors: always in. No fast and hard rules but overall that's how most doors in a house seem to open.
There may be local differences for Germany: Bathrooms / Toilets: normally in, even if you can't open it complete because the washbasin limits it. Exception is if you are building according to DIN 18040 for persons with wheel chairs. In this case you have also to take care of other dimensions.
Exterior doors: If it is the door of an apartment then in, if it is the door of a house with several apartments then out.
The others are the same in Germany.
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