Door swings wrong way, can I install it backwards?

19 years ago

Because of the architects mistake, one of my doors came in swinging the wrong way. I took it out and ordered a new one, installed it and it's fine. I own the other door. It cost me $900. I am considering using it in a less important part of the house. This will be going out to a deck from my daughters bedroom. She's going to college next year. She won't even be living here. I would love to save the $900. The reason I want to install it backwards is because it swings the wrong way for her room too. It is an Anderson door. The exterior is clad with metal to weather the elements. The interior is wood that need to be painted. I figured that I could just paint it more often or I could try to cover the wood with copper flashing. Is that a big mistake? Or does anyone need an Andersen terratone door with glass inset?

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User

19 years ago

By using only the door and resetting the hinges, it is possible to reverse the swing of a door. The doorstop on the frame may also have to be reversed, depending on the new direction of swing. The old hinge mortises in the frame will be left exposed and will need to be filled---if the old frame is used. The hinges on the door will have to be reversed by cutting new mortises---that may not be feasible with a metal clad door.

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Comments (14)

nherold
19 years ago
Is it pre-hung? If so, the hinges will be on the outside. Not good if you want to make sure people can't break in to your house.

If you want to sell it, try Craigslist.
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mightyanvil
19 years ago
When you say it swings the wrong way you don't indicate if it is left vs right or if it is inside vs outside but because of the wood vs metal issue I assume you mean it is an outswing door and you want it to be an inswing door. If that is the case, turning the door unit around would put the hinges inside and you only have to reverse the threshold and the lockset and paint the door.

If the door swings the wrong way left vs right and it is an inswing door, it is unwise to turn it around due to waterproofing (head, sill & glazing) and security issues.

Since the door will not be used often why not let it swing the wrong way?

Covering the door with copper is not only too difficult, it could cost more than the door did.
sombreuil_mongrel
19 years ago
Don't switch the inside and outside faces of the door. It will admit water into the framing, if not the floor. If you're concerned about it swinging the wrong way, at least you saved $900 to put up with the inconvenience.
Casey
houseful
19 years ago
If is was the architect's mistake, why are you out the money?
freedee
Original Author
19 years ago
I'm just to tired to argue with him.
jim_2007
18 years ago
Hi Freedee, What happened to the door? Are you interested in selling it?? Price? Location? Contact info? Thanks for your response, Jim
threetwoone
11 years ago
Wondering what you ended up doing? I mis-ordered a very expensive tall Andersen door (also terratone). Reframing to make it work would be too complicated. Would painting the plain wood interior (to make it exterior) be terrible? And painting the now terratone exterior white, to make it the interior surface?

Feeling very stupid.. (I placed the order, but double checked with the architect and contractor - all missed the mistake).
millworkman
11 years ago
threetwoone, will not work. There is an exterior and an interior for a reason. the lock mechanism cannot be switched and the frame is built the way it is to keep water out.
threetwoone
11 years ago
The frame would stay the way it is - would have to change the hinges and I found the directions for changing the lock direction:

http://alturl.com/pvvzy

I know I will have to repaint the door and lose the benefit of the cladding, but there is no other way.
threetwoone
11 years ago
I think I was not clear in my initial post: I mean to keep the door inswinging, just need to change it from left handed to right handed.

Sorry for the lack of clarity!
pnbrown
11 years ago
Not worth it.

Flipping the door is not advisable, and moving the lock-set and filling the bore is a huge job.
millworkman
11 years ago
will not work either as Andersen doors are a system, it cannot be done. The lock mechanism is multipoint the hinges are not normal hinges.
threetwoone
11 years ago
There are instructions for reversing the lock mechanism on the Andersen website (the link I posted above). I'll take a look at the hinges with our contractor and see if they can actually move them.