Outward swinging french doors

[Hubert A. Miles, Jr]

I have a client who has about 28-30 outward swinging french doors. The contractor who installed them, installed the Endura sills backwards (threshold facing inside) and every door has leaked causing damage to hardwood floor. He told her that they were done that way because the doors swing outward.

In addition, they installed the windows on the 3rd floor backwards, causing gaps which have leaked. They installed double hung windows on the 1st and 2nd floor. The contractor ordered the wrong sized windows and had the nail the top section of the window shut and installed a small piece of molding to act as a backstop for the bottom sash.

Any thoughts or comments? Do anyone have a diagram of the installation of outward swinging french doors and the thresholds?

[Linda J. Foster]

Do you know the brand of door?
Below is link for Pella, or they have a number to call.

http://web.pella.com/supportcenter/Pages/Overview.aspx

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

The doors look to me like they were designed to open inward, and he reversed it. You can't simply reverse the install. The doors have to be made for either swinging in or out. I have an outward swinging French door at my house, and it does NOT look like that.

[Hubert A. Miles, Jr]

The doors are Caoba. That was my thought also Joe. The client even stated they had to rigg the doors and windows to get them to fit. I told her that the doors looked to have been inward swinging and that they were reversed. This house is 3 years old and the hardwood flooring is cupping and curling all though the downstairs. I told her that it appears that the water is seeping in through the large cracks left at the bottom of the doors and seeping down the seams of the hardwood. Also, she has the air tight sprayed foam insulation in the crawlspace. So the moisture has no where to go other than back out the flooring. She is concerned with the subfloor and I told her that the only way to examine it under the current setup would be to remove the floor boards in the suspected areas becuase that would likely be the damaged areas if the subfloor was damaged at all.

[Frank P. Newman]

The installation arrangement of the doors is definitely a problem, but I will also say that similar floor damage problems (but not as great) can also exist if the doorway is an unsheltered area (no porch roof or effective guttering system).

[Bobby Hamilton]

That's an inswing door installed backwards. On an outswing door it will have a bumper sill so that the door closes against it as opposed to an inswing door where the door sweeps across and stops on top of the threshold.

[Peter C. Russell]

Excellent opportunity to use a thermal imager and moisture meter to confirm.

[James F. McKee]

Originally Posted by bhamilton

That's an inswing door installed backwards. On an outswing door it will have a bumper sill so that the door closes against it as opposed to an inswing door where the door sweeps across and stops on top of the threshold.

I agree....

[bdoles2]

Outswing doors are designed and built differently. Personally I hate them, unless they happen to have some decent exterior coverage (like a nice soffit or covered porch).

[Mark Thorman]

There is also the security concern when a standard hinge is exposed to the exterior.


www.MauiHomeInspections.com

[Peter C. Russell]

Originally Posted by Mark Thorman

There is also the security concern when a standard hinge is exposed to the exterior.


www.MauiHomeInspections.com

Very good point!

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

They can check the condition of the subfloor when the doors are removed and replaced facing the proper direction.

[bdoles2]

Originally Posted by Mark Thorman

There is also the security concern when a standard hinge is exposed to the exterior.


www.MauiHomeInspections.com

Most outward doors I've seen have secured pins in the hinges. But on the flip side, an outward swing door is less likely to be kicked in.

[Marcel R. Cyr]

No doubt in my mind that is a bad install.
The whole unit is backwards arse.

The threshhold is sloping in on the whole unit on the inside.

Here is an outswing threshhold.