How is it decided whether a door should swing into a room or out?

For example, my school has doors that swing out and doors that swing in, and it seems kinda random.|||Commercial buildings such as schools,hospitals,and public buildings have a certified architect draw up the drawings. He/she designs the buildings to meet the codes of the state involved. Thus most entry doors will swing into a building. Most doors used for egress will swing out so in an emergency or panic situation people can just push the door open and exit the building. Can you imagine how hard it would be to pull a door open into a crowd of people pushing other people up against these doors?


Even some glass sliding doors like you see at the entrance of home depot or Lowe's have a breakaway system where if you push hard enough on these sliding doors they will break open to allow you to exit.


Residential doors have a rule of thumb that a door always opens into the room. Bathrooms are often the rule breaker on this because people think they can put bath fixtures in a better location if the door is not swinging into the bathroom. This is a BIG mistake. On homes, any exterior door should swing into the house - this makes it much harder to break a door down to illegally gain entry. However, doors that do swing out -even on commercial buildings, have NRP door hinges *Non remove-able pins* This is so a burglar cannot just remove the hinge pins on the hinges and pry the door open from the hinge side.


Stairway doors in older homes are nightmares because they never had a landing at the stairway going to the basement. You just open the basement door and you are right at the first step. Any newer home will have a 3-4' landing once you open the door to the basement - this is the safe way to design a basement stairway.


You will also notice in your school the Exit signs above every exit door. If the power should fail they are made with a backup battery that will light up this exit sign. There also should be battery lights mounted up high on the walls - they look like 2 bulbs mounted on a small case. These also come on using battery power should the power go off.


They all should be tested once a year to insure the batteries are at full power. Ask your teacher to test a few of them just for fun. There is a small test button she/he can push to see if they work. 75% of them have not been tested since they were installed.


This could be a good class project to test all of them.|||Although it might seem random to you, rest assured there is a method to the madness. Most structures must follow local building codes which include specifics about door swing. Often it depends on who will be occupying and the specific use of the space. Generally, the rules have been formulated based on the safety of the users.|||I always thought so the hinges can't be reached from the outside like on a front door for instance so no one can take the door off the hinges and break into your house. As for the school doors if they swing out I would say its so students and teachers can't get locked in and if the do the janitor could just come and take the door off.|||Climate can make a difference. To open an exterior door to the weather and wind could cause a lot of damage. Commercial buildings/schools have different fire/building codes to follow because of the amount of people within the building.


Residental doors here swing in.|||If someone is trying to break in the main door, it will swing outwards. That way it will more difficult to break in.





I think?