In Scottsdale, AZ, your exterior doors are a fundamental part of your home—especially patio doors. These open up your home to the outdoors and give you seamless transitions. They allow guests to come and go, as well as connect you with the backyard so you can make the most of your property and indoor/outdoor living spaces. But when installing hinged patio doors, you have some important decisions to make. One of those is deciding if you want an outswinging or inswinging door. Here are the things you need to keep in mind:

Spatial Considerations
This is the first thing to consider…do you have enough room for inswing or outswing doors? Evaluate the space and what is available. If you have patio furniture or a kitchen table positioned directly in front of the door, you might have to move things around to make room for the doors you want. Where there are structural obstructions, like walls, rails or fences, you will have to be more careful when choosing inswing vs outswing doors.

Read also: An Introduction to Patio Doors

Easy Operation
Outswing doors are usually a little smoother. This is because they feature a compression gasket and positive stop. These help create a weather tight seal, but do not produce unnecessary friction. On the other hand, inswing doors require a sweep gasket along the bottom seal. Friction is necessary and helps seal the gasket tightly against the threshold. Unfortunately, the side effect is these doors do not operate as smoothly.

Protection Against Water and Air Leaks
Outswing doors work much like casement windows. As wind blows against them, the seal actually tightens. This makes outswing doors less susceptible to air and water leaks. Inswing doors have the opposite problem. The seal often weakens against the wind, which makes them more vulnerable to air and moisture leaks. You will need to adjust the sweep gasket as necessary and stay on top of the weather stripping, replacing it before it wears out.

Security
There are pros and cons to both. Inswing doors have hinges located on the inside, which is great for security. However, because they swing inward, they are easier to force open. To counteract this, you want to choose hinged patio doors with multi-point locking systems and heavy-duty strike plates. Outswing doors are a little more secure and difficult to force open. But the hinges are located on the outside, so you want to make sure your patio doors have non-removable pins. That way, you can eliminate a potential threat to your home.

Read also: Finding the Best Patio Doors for Your Home

Door Swing Codes
You might not have noticed that commercial buildings have outswing or sliding doors. This is required by an international building code for safety during evacuations. Inswing doors would create a hoard of people pressed up against the doors in an emergency, trapping people inside. Also, doors in hurricane prone areas must swing outward and doors in snow prone areas must swing inward. You don’t really have to worry about either of those in Scottsdale, AZ, but it is still good to check with building codes and regulations to make sure your doors meet the local standards.

Freelite Offers the Best Hinged Patio Doors
At Freelite, we take great pride in the products and brands we offer. We install only the highest quality and most energy efficient windows Scottsdale, AZ. To come check out our products stop by our showroom at 331 W. McDowell Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85003. Or you can call to set up an appointment at (602) 233-1981.

What are outswing doors?

Outswing doors turn outward towards the exterior of your home. The rule of thumb is you need to install outswing doors on the exteriors while interior doors are installed in rooms to prevent obstruction in tight areas like hallways.

Are outswing doors more secure?

Outswing doors are more secure than inswing doors and they are made more durable because they are designed to be fitted and used on your home exterior. It is relatively more airtight and provides more seal compared to inswing doors. In terms of security outswing doors are far better because the door “stops” prevent unwanted intrusion from external forces. The hinges are also made stronger by making the screws longer thus drilled deeper in the door jambs.

Why outswing doors are better than inswing doors?

Both work the same way. But in terms of durability and security, outswing doors are engineered tougher than inswing doors. The materials also are different because they must withstand external elements like changing weather and other outside forces that can compromise security.