Inswing is pretty standard. There are outswing doors but you need to take into account your climate (for example, outswing is not a good idea if access is need in the winter and you live where it snows). Your plans should specify the swing, correct?

love our outswing patio door. it is made by pella. was no big deal to order it as outswing. It was actually supposed to swing the other way, still out, but back towards the house, but after waiting on doors SO long due to ”covid delays” we just kept it. It has been a non issue.

My in-laws used to have a house in southern California with an outswing French door from a dining room onto a patio area. I believe it was an Anderson product. They did not have room for an inswing door due to the positioning of the dining room table. It was not their main access to the backyard but did use it once in a while and it worked for them in a situation that sounds like yours.

Does it snow where you live?

Do you want screens on those doors?

Would a sliding glass door suffice?

Unless your room is huge, definitely choose sliding glass doors with screens in lieu of French Doors .

I hate my French doors -- mainly because of the inswing.

Go with the new-style gliding doors. You an have one or two moveable doors, and they require no "parking space" for the doors. They're also more secure than French doors.

I chose an outward swing patio door so it wouldn't interfere with my dining area and made sure there was plenty of clearance on the patio. (Texas)

Check your plans and verify what is drawn. If outward is drawn, kindly show the error and ask to get it fixed. If the builder won't budge, wait, close on the house, then find a handy man later to reverse them.

I don't like outward swing doors, but I would choose a sliding door before choosing an inward swinging door that would mess up my furniture placement and access to outside.

In South Florida building code calls for outward swing doors. So, yes, they are available.

Of course they are available! We had one at our old house. Loved it.

Building code in south FL does not call for outward swing doors. I was given a choice which direction I wanted to order them. All of mine swing in, except for one garage man door. They do require multi-point locking systems.

As has been mentioned, snow is an issue as well as a screen. Do you need screens where you live? If so they will be inside of the house.

We replaced inswing French doors a few years ago for an expensive wood slider and wish we had done it decades ago.

In my old house I replaced sliders with outward swinging patio doors and quite liked the summer feeling of extending the inside space onto the patio. I did need to get it approved as I'm in the snowy north and egress doors generally need to be inward-swinging here for safety, but as there were other nearby exterior doors it wasn't a code problem.

Andersen is usually available everywhere.

E-Series_PatioDoors_SS_web_v2.indd (azureedge.net)

Eric Weissmann - At my previous home, which we purchased after the framing and windows/doors were in, our builder had a single glass door swinging into the breakfast area. There was no way that was going to work if a table and chairs were to go there (red arrow.) Not only did the door mess up the breakfast room, but it would have caused a bottle-neck on the screened porch because no furniture could be put in that corner because of it being an exit onto the porch.

The first thing that I did was have that door changed to a window (red arrow), and I moved the door down on a wall in the corner of the family room (green arrow.) The exit was then in a little alcove on the porch and closer to the patio. The door opened into a space between the breakfast area and the family room. I really don't know what the architect was thinking! Your builder needs to admit to a mistake.

For our new house, we have 2 sets of outswing doors that swing onto the screened porch. We will use the door that swings closet to the wall most of the time, but have the option to open all without taking up too much room.

chispa, the link to the building code is within this article. (Yes, I know the article is an advertisement, but the link isn’t).

”The vast majority of exterior doors across the country swing inward due to convenience. However, thebuilding code for South Florida requires exterior doors for homes and public buildings to open outward for safety reasons.

These building code regulations were adopted after Hurricane Andrew’s devastating impact in 1992, as all new construction must stay in compliance with these rules.”

https://info.alcoimpact.com/blog/why-do-the-doors-on-florida-homes-open-outward

Our living room and master bdrm both have inward swinging French doors that open onto the patio. We live in Southern CA, and they were that way when we bought the house. In our case there's plenty of room for the inward swing, but I could definitely see it being an issue if it created the access/flow problem you mentioned.

@maddielee, I am building right now in south FL and was not required to have out-swing doors. They are all hurricane rated and have multi-point locks. My parents built in the last year in FL and no out-swing doors. Mine is a custom build and theirs was a tract/production builder. I think I can say for a fact that out-swing doors are not required in FL by code.

We have just installed outward swing patio doors on a house we are in the process of remodeling. Inward swing just did not work with our cabinet layout. We will be adding a screened porch that you can walk directly out from the kitchen.

We have several sets of French doors, both inswing and outswing. The outswing doors have Phantom Screens. The combination works perfectly for us.

I believe the door code is specific to Miami-Dade and Broward counties in south Florida. That said, it makes sense everywhere that is prone to hurricanes.

That is very common in my area. We have outward swing French doors across the back of my house, and I honestly don't think it even came up as a consideration to have them swing inward.

You can only have a patio outswing door if you have an available 36" landing (or the patio) no more than 7 3/4" below the door.

You cannot convert an exterior inswing to an outswing later; different threshold, jambs/stops, hinges.

For an open patio, it will have to remain closed, unless you like bugs or those curtain screens and want it flailing in the wind. When opening, you have to hold on to the door handle so it doesn't fly open or the wind catch it.

Some areas don't have many bugs -- just hosted a CA family up here in the far Northeast and it's kind of amazing how blithely they just leave windows and doors wide open, ignoring the pulldown screens/screen doors, with no apparent concern about mosquitos, flies, etc. :) So I'd wager that's a very region-dependent concern.

Building code in south FL does not call for outward swing doors. I was given a choice which direction I wanted to order them. All of mine swing in, except for one garage man door. They do require multi-point locking systems.

The reason for outward swing doors in FL is because of wind during a hurricane. It is more likely to blow the door open if it's hinged to open inward or it's impacted by flying debris. I know that we were required by code to have outward swinging doors here, but your area might be a bit different.

@Circus Peanut, you are 100% correct. We had no screens on our french patio doors in Los Angeles. The only bug we had to worry about was a random fly once in a while. We have dogs so the doors stayed open most of the time so the dogs could come and go as they pleased. July - Oct the doors were closed more often due to the heat and AC being on ... the dogs learnt how to push the doors open from the outside, to come back in, but we were never able to teach them how to close the doors once they were inside!!

We also have doors open all the time and only close screen in evening for the occasional mosquito. Our new house has screens on windows but our previous one didn’t have any at all. We live in Vancouver BC.

Yep, you West Coasters are quite lucky, bug-wise; here in Maine, if we don't have screens we are subject to mosquitos and black flies most of the summer (not to mention bats up on the third floor, they can seemingly squeeze through the tiniest cracks), and it's particularly bad if there's a lot of rain like we've had recently.

You cannot convert an exterior inswing to an outswing later; different threshold, jambs/stops, hinges.

I guess you could if you want to tear all of that out and start over.

For an open patio, it will have to remain closed, unless you like bugs or those curtain screens and want it flailing in the wind. When opening, you have to hold on to the door handle so it doesn't fly open or the wind catch it.

We were warned about the wind thing with our new swing-out doors. Hopefully the wind will not be too bad since the doors open out unto a screened porch, but I plan to have some sort of soft pouf like thing for a door stop in case the doors do get away from us. They will be placed against the brick walls where the doors will open out to. Now to find something! Or I could use these $$$ or make something like THIS without the rope. Should be easy to sew up triangles and stuff with sand. Certainly not $70 worth! They can also be used to keep the door open without worrying that they will slam shut.