Ok guys,

I have some french doors that I need to replace. Currently they swing into the house. Any potential pitfalls or advice for converting from swing in to swing out?

I want to replace bc. what is currently here was very poorly installed, of low quality, one side has insulated glass and other is single pain, there is latch broke and they do not seal and let wind driven rain into the home onto hardwoods...

Particulars:
Late 50's single story (home new to me)
Brick exterior.
Standard double door width
Concrete slab
New unit will be a steel, built to order.

Any recs for installers? However not opposed to DIYing it.

You can have it swing which ever way you want, but the standard is to swing into a room, and there are reasons for this, but it's not like it's code or anything.

Obstruction in hallway or of switches, expose hinges (and the fact you would be able to remove door of a closed door room), safety (someone might be standing in the hallway), etc.

62strat said:

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Obstruction in hallway or of switches, expose hinges (and the fact you would be able to remove door of a closed door room), safety (someone might be standing in the hallway), etc.

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Yep, the hinges is huge. No point to having a lock on the door since someone can just remove the hinge pins and take the door off. Also, much more difficult to keep out wind driven rain. Plus it would have to be custom made since the threshold will be sloping into your house instead of outside.

Commercial only does it because people have to be able to evacuate a burning building by pushing on the door. I'd highly recommend against it since it seems like the problems are based mostly on faulty installation.

You can buy doors that swing in or out. Milgard sells both varieties. You can replace your inswing with outswing if it won't cause walking clearance issues.

Thanks for tips guys.

This will be a steel made to order unit and the hinges are not standard pins, they are integrated as to not just drive them out.

My main concern is visualizing/accounting for new hinge plane to clearance the brick veneer.

I don't want to go through all the hassle to only have a door that opens part way bc it hits the brick.

Also this opens onto an exterior patio, obstruction is not an issue.

An outswing door will hit the brick if opened too far as it sits in ~2 inches unless your make the hinge side of the jamb flush with the brick.

I have a workable solution for out swing, I will use a limiter to prevent bashing into the facade.

I need to have about a 1/4 - 3/8 piece of material across the concrete slab to raise the entire unit in order to clearence the inside finished floor.

What kind of material would you use? Also, would you use a drip pan, or self-stick flashing or both?

You can get outswing French doors, but they're pricy. I think a spring and chain setup might be enough to keep them from hitting the brick. You could also just put in a stop.