I like 34" doors. They are just a nice size for me (when I am carrying laundry baskets through them and such).

And, in a small home, you are not likely approaching the door head-on, but rather will need to "turn into it" (from a hallway, for example") Your particular layout may or may not be the case.

So, a 32" door might work well for a "straight on" door, I'd like a little wider for a door that you'd have to turn into.

Make sense?

Thank you @Renovator8 for the wonderful explanation! I sincerely appreciate it.

Is the 42 inch hallway a good idea? I'm now wondering if it's an unnecessary waste of precious space.

Good point @kirkhall regarding the laundry basket scenario. The master bath is a direct approach, but the main is off the 42" hall way.

I would post the floor plan, but it's changing by the minute and pretty messy from my markings at the moment.

I consider 42" to be a minimum hallway width.

If it was my house, I'd make corridors 48" clear and use 36" doors for all major circulation and all accessible rooms.

Just my preferences.

I have a 36" "hall" and that is way too narrow. I have a 42" hall, and I like it a lot. But, it is only a few feet long, and only has 1 destination--the master bedroom. If it was a main thoroughfare for the house 42" would be a little tight.

However, in a small house, you hopefully aren't dedicating a lot of space (either in length or width) to hallway. So, a 42" wide hallway that is only a few (maybe up to 8 feet) long would be fine, imo. Not a waste of space, per se.

Don't go any narrower than 42" on the hallway.

One compromise would be to make one bath fully accessible, and go even a bit smaller on the other (If they are adjacent somehow). It would be nice to have 36" everywhere but you really only need them on one bath, if you want to save space somewhere.

I use a wheelchair and 42" hallways would be very difficult to turn around in, depending on the type of wheelchair. ADA is 5' for turning radius, but I'm planning our house with 4' hallways. I agree with the above poster that 4' should be the minimum. I would certainly agree that the width of the door ways depends on the layout of the house. If you're turning into a door way it is obviously more difficult. A power wheelchair is typically much narrower than a manual wheelchair. If the door way leads straight into a room I would say you'll be ok with 32". If it's a turn, I'd go with 36".

We're currently in the planning stage/drawing of building. My brother is a Firefighter/Paramedic and he looked at my plans with a very different eye. His immediate comment was door placement. Think about the doors (he thinks 32"-34" should be standard, nothing smaller in hallways) and their placement. How tight is the hall if you were to have to get a cot into and out of the room. Can you move around with an 8' board? Does that make sense? We aren't building our house with the intent of having to be visited by emergency services, but by looking at doorway placements, we re-worked some of our hallways. and doorway placement.

For rolling stretcher access a 36" hall would need at least 36" doors and a 42" hall would need at least 32" doors but there are other effective but less convenient and less comfortable ways to get people through tight spaces on the way to an ambulance. Hats off to those guys!

If building codes were written for comfort in addition to safety, the minimum corridor width would be 42" instead of 36".

You should always think twice before using a building code minimum. The people who write the codes are not usually house designers.

We built our house with the intent to age in place. We put in all 36 inch pocket doors and our hall is almost 48 inches wide. Our sliding glass doors are 8 feet. We really like it a lot. The doors allow us to move furniture in and out of rooms freely, and the hall is not claustrophobic. I wouldn't change a thing about it.

We bought really nice solid wood doors and used the highest grade pocket door hardware. We also installed a layer of Masonite in the walls to avoid the flimsy wall feeling one can sometimes get with pocket doors. Pocket doors are very wheelchair and walker friendly. I decided on 4 panel doors rather than 6 panel since the 4 panel looks better proportioned with the width of the doors, but that is my opinion only.

It doesn't cost much more to buy a wider door and make roomy allowances in your home.