Porch door options

[user1489228947]

We have a 1930s semi detached house with a shallow(ish) but useful porch. Currently has a sliding door which needs replacing. I was going to just look replace like for like, but a friend commented how dated sliding doors are (are they??), and so considering other options. Because the porch is so shallow our only other option is an outward opening door (either a single door or split doors. I think this will look lovely when the doors are closed, but opening an external door outwards seems a bit weird - and potentially unsafe. Just interested in people’s thoughts of this incredibly dull decision.

I'm no expert, but I thought that outward opening external doors were against building regulations. Not that I have any idea if this is the sort of work that would need to be signed off by building regs! But if it is, that wouldn't be an option. Split doors would have been my suggestion - even those don't give you enough room to open inwards?

I guess the other option would be a bigger porch. More expensive, but solves the problem, as well as giving you more space.

I think there's security risk if the door hinge is outside (just looked as there's a house on my road with an outward opening porch door). But, looks like you can get doors that are more secure now. Depends if keep anything valuable in your porch as I would have thought a porch itself is some deterrent.

I think lots of doors in other European countries open outwards as safer in house fires.

I think lots of doors in other European countries open outwards as safer in house fires.

I thought it was the other way around? If you're trying to escape from a burning building and the door opens towards you (i.e. inwards) then any obstacles that might prevent it opening are on your side of the door and can be moved. If the door opens outwards, a large and heavy object outside could prevent your escape.

“thought that outward opening external doors were against building regulations.”

No such thing. However, a door (or window) opening onto a public path or road would have Highways implications.

If the door between the house and porch is currently an external quality door, then replacing it with an internal quality door would normally trigger Building Regulations.

With outwards opening doors I am concerned that the person inside the house ‘loses control’ of the door when opening to a stranger in the unlikely event of someone wanting access to the house. A more likely scenario is of the wind catching the door and it swinging open with force - with the potential for damage to the door/ car etc. We could build outwards a couple of feet I suppose depending on cost - but it all seems a lot of work to escape a sliding door as the porch doesn’t do anything other than give us a space to sort the dog out.

We have a 1930s house with sliding door then main door. We moved here two years ago and gradually doing it up. Door next on list. The main door is in bad condition and needs replacing and the sliding door has also seen better days. We’ve decided to get rid of both, and move new main door to where sliding door was, increasing hall space. We will build an open porch on then. You said you find your porch useful though, so this might not work for you.

@PowerslidePanda

I think lots of doors in other European countries open outwards as safer in house fires.

I thought it was the other way around? If you're trying to escape from a burning building and the door opens towards you (i.e. inwards) then any obstacles that might prevent it opening are on your side of the door and can be moved. If the door opens outwards, a large and heavy object outside could prevent your escape.

I think that's less likely for an external door though. Think about fire exits to public and office buildings - always outwards.

I think they look weird though and, yes, you could feel more vulnerable. But, as a porch door, you still have your actual front door. Lots of porch doors are open all day really so people knock on the front door.

So do you have an existing enclosed porch with an inward opening door on the front and a sliding door between the porch and house?

The main door from the porch to the hallway is an inward opening normal front door. The porch is about 50cm deep, with a sliding door into the drive.

I think that’s a good point about porch doors being left unlocked most of the time anyway - which ours always if other than at nighttime.

Although it’s not that common, having an outward opening porch door in conjunction with an inward opening door between the porch and house is not that out of character. The main security barrier in your situation is that between the porch and house so don’t worry too much about the security issues in having an outward opening door. The majority of French doors open out and yes... even though they’re not usually located on the main street elevations, the principal is still the same. Just make sure that any outward opening door does not majorly restrict your parking/access requirements.

Good point re parking. Will keep my eyes focused on peoples porches while walking the dog for ideas

We had this exact set up and had to replace the sliding door due to the catch braking and being unfixable. We replaced with Upvc and wanted sliding again but were told we couldn’t have sliding if we wanted a letterbox which we did. Precious door had a letterbox but was seventies aluminium. We now have outward opening and it’s fine, a bit of a pain with social distance deliveries as couriers leave boxes right outside not realising then back away ha ha, just have to crack the door open and explain! It does swing in the wind a bit and we had to have a ‘stopper’ added to stop it opening more then 90 degrees. We’ve also had to have the hinges adjusted once or twice and I think this is something we’ll have to have done every year or so as they have a lot of pressure on them with wind etc. All in all if sliding was an option I’d rather have had that again.

I thought outwardly opening doors were more secure because it is more difficult to force entry i.e. It's much harder to pull a locked door open then to force it in.

Alternatively could you hinge it at the top and have something like a massive cat-flap?

We just did that and I am happy. The main door is still between porch and hallway, so the porch door is not the main door. You will get more space inside and it can open to the side not where car is. Also, we actually made the porch bigger and it didnt cost more