One of the small things that can really make a difference to your house is how doors open……..but its one thing that is frequently forgotten.
This sketch shows a typical bedroom and ensuite layout. (I know it doesn’t show the wardrobe but I’m trying to keep it simple)
A couple of things you need to think about are:
Into The Room Or Not
You will see as usual the doors to open from the corridor, into the room, and into the en-suite from the bedroom.
Particularly in the case of bathrooms and en-suites it makes a lot of sense for the door to open into the bedroom as this makes a lot more usable room in the bathroom.
It also minimises the risk of sending my wife flying if I open the door while she is at the mirror putting her make up on.
In the case of separate toilets its actually much safer to have the door open outwards. (The reason is if an ill person passes out they are likely to fall forward against the door, stopping it being opened. . . this means getting to them can be extremely difficult)
Left Or Right Handed
How to tell – When you look at the door from the side it opens towards, and you can see the hinges…. which side are they on?
That is the hand of the door.
Looking at the door to the bedroom you will see that the door is hinged on the right as you look at it from inside the room (right handed).
This works well as the door opens against the wall. Having the door hinged from the left side doesn’t seem much different, but it means you have to walk round the door to get out.
It seems minor but in a previous house we got one door wrong and it annoyed us every day for 6 years.
Plan Doors Early!
You need to get the door opening sorted out before you can finalise your electrical plan as it will affect which side of the door you put the light switches.
Once the wires are installed and the drywall installed changing the door direction can be a major cost.
More on doors including 24 pages of Check Lists for your new house choices in the
Most people spend a lot of time thinking about their front door. . . . . but forget about their back door.
There seems to be a bit of a convention for back doors.
Conventional Doors
Quite often if a conventional door is used usually have a half window and usually only have a single simple lock.
Unfortunately criminals know that an easy way to break in is to break the small window, reach in, and unlock the door.
It’s not as though you really need the window as most back doors are in the laundry which isn’t a room you spend a lot of time in, and it usually has a window.
My preferred approach is a solid back door with two locks fitted at least 300mm apart.
One a deadlock, as I am always a bit suspicious about Construction Locks
Not only is this more secure, and offers better insulation but its likely to be slightly cheaper. Also you can always put a couple of coat hooks on the back of the door to hang your gardening clothes.
As you can see from this photo of a previous back2 door I specified the double locks but didn’t think to specify ‘no window’.
My latest houseI is a plain door!
Full Length Sliding Glass Doors
When looking at a display home you might find the builder uses ‘Patio Doors’ for the laundry.
Have you ever thought about who has keys for the locks on the doors of your new house?
After all there are lot’s of tradies working on the house after ‘Lock Up’ stage.
Well these days most builders use Construction Locks, sometimes called Project, locks. These are a special type of lock which comes with two types of key:
The Construction Keys
Standard pattern ‘master’ keys which are given to all the tradies, who can with a single key enter any of the builders houses under construction
The Final Key
These are the keys which is given to you at handover. Once you use this key it displaces some ball bearings in the lock which should mean the Construction key will no longer work.
Some of the things you should know about Construction Locks are:
Before the end of the handover you should make sure you use the Final Key in every door lock in the house. check each lock with all the keys you are given. This will ensure that:
Every lock will be changed to only open with the final key. (It’s worth borrowing the site supervisors key to make sure his key no longer works)
All the locks, and keys work properly.
The locks the builder uses are unlikely to be expensive/high quality.
Although the construction key won’t work there will be a limited number of final key combinations for this type of lock. If you want in increased level of security it could be worth getting a locksmith to re-key the locks as soon as possible. The cost is going to be around $60-80/lock plus a call out fee.
These sliding patio doors were the entrance to a cafe that I visited the other day.
It was no surprise to find they didn’t open very smoothly.
It reminded me of the first house we built in Australia where we used patio doors to let the dogs in and out of the house.
The Problems
Most patio door components are not designed for constant use.
The doors are fairly heavy but run on a couple of fairly small nylon wheels
My experience is that the wheels the doors roll on will only last for 2-3 thousand openings. . . . . Sounds a lot but open them twice a day and they will be badly worn after 3-4 years.
You can get new wheels which are a bit fiddly to fix; however that’s not the end of the problem.
After a few more years you might find the door tracks, which are often fairly soft aluminium, are also badly worn, and that can be a tricky and expensive fix.
I’m not saying don’t buy patio doors . . . just don’t use them in places where they will be in daily use.
Could it be because there isn’t room to fit the car because the doors open into the garage? (taking around 1.0m off the effective length of the garage)
There is a reason why garage doors either lift or open outwards!
As I visit lots of houses I often wonder if some houses have too much security.
I see lots of houses with roller shutters or even steel gratings over the windows like these.
Quite often when I ring the bell the owner seems to spend ages unlocking the various locks and bolt on the front door.
Yes they are keeping people out . . . . . but what happens if there is a fire in the house?
In a typical year around 70 People die in Home fires in Australia.
So before you put more security in your house . . . .Think about how you would get out in a fire!
Here are some thoughts about making sure you keep safe:
Although I typically have two locks on my doors I only lock the deadbolt when I am going out.
If you do want to lock the deadbolt while you are inside always leave a set of keys where it is easily accessible in an emergency.
Think about how you would escape through the window if you couldn’t get to the door. I would be able to smash a window and get out . . . But would shutters or bars lock you in, with the flames!
