Change door swing?

[atgcpaul]

We're staying at my parents' house and this guest bathroom door is frustrating me to the point where I want to fix it. It aggravates my mom, too. Not so much my Dad since he never uses this bathroom.

As you can see from the picture, the two doors swing into each other. What would make more sense is to have the door that is open swing into the bedroom. The other closed door swings in from a common area.

The door jambs are definitely thicker than what I'm used to seeing. Seems to be 2x6 instead of 2x4.

So how do I go about this? Remove door stops, flip hinges to the other side of the door and reinstall, cut new location for the strike plate, patch old hinge and strike plate areas?

[Condoman44]

I would verify the door is square first as flipping it might cause an issue if not.

P. S. no picture shows for me.

[atgcpaul]

If I go to incognito mode in Chrome, I don't see the picture, but I do when I'm logged in. I don't know.

It's a standard stamped MDF type door. I'll check for square, but seems OK to me

[leehljp]

No pictures for me either.

[atgcpaul]

How about now?

[leehljp]

I see it now.

I agree that opening inward would help, however check for the code restrictions in your area. In some places, doors are required to open outward for safety in emergency exit situations and to prevent something from falling behind the door and blocking entrance.

[Jim Frye]

If this were my issue, I'd probably remove the trim from both sides of the door, take the hinge pins out, and remove the door. Then I'd cut the nails and shims that secure the door jams to the rough framing, keeping the jamb assembly together. After cleaning up the rough opening, you end up with essentially a prehung door. Then you can reverse the jamb assembly in the opening, plumb/square the jambs, and shim/nail it in place. Rehang the door and nail the trim back on. The jambs look to be standard to me (3 1/2" plus the drywall thickness on each side), but this method requires no new materials, except for a couple packages of shims. The code in our area does not specify which way the doors should swing as all of our bedroom and bathroom doors open into the rooms.

[atgcpaul]

If I'm understanding this right, the door would then swing out to the left rather than out to the right, right? If so, that wouldn't be ideal since there's a closet on the left side of the short hallway that leads into the bedroom and then I'd be in another door-on-door situation.

I did see a guy on Youtube do this and it seemed pretty straightforward, but he had wood paneled walls and there was virtually no touch up he had to do.

[Jim Frye]

No, by reversing the door jamb without modification, the door would then swing in to left as you opened it standing in front of both doors. If you were standing in the room facing the door, the door would swing in towards you and to your right.

[atgcpaul]

OK, we're saying the same thing but I guess I wasn't clear.

[Pappy]

For what you describe wanting to do I think you are on the right track. it might be easier in the long haul to replace the jamb instead of drilling this one out and then patching the old hinge and striker areas.

[jabe]

Some pre-hung doors use a 1 piece jamb & door stop, so be sure to check that out before doing anything. If it's not 1 pc. then you can proceed as you planned. Sometimes when reversing the swing you may need to use thicker door stops to accommodate a door or jamb that is not square. B/C your jambs & door are painted, patching the hinge mortise & strike plate area should not be an issue. The best way if time & $ is not an issue, I would convert one of the doors to a pocket door. I notice a towel bar in the bathroom, just use a 3/4" backer board horizontally between the pocket door studs and use shorter screws 1 1/8" when replacing the towel bar. Also, paint the pocket header where the track is attached too flat black and replace the track after the paint dries and then install it in the wall, that way it won't be noticeable.

[LCHIEN]

The one behind is a closet?

Looks like a perfect situation for a sliding hidden door (called a pocket door) that sides into the wall space adjoining. Have to maybe take out some studs. The doors hang on a roller track and have a folding pull in the edge of the door to help close it when fully opened and a recessed handle to help it slide.



who revived this 2+ year old thread?