I don't know about code or whatnot, but is it covered? If it's a covered area you could probably get away with it. But you'd have to lose a storm door (also a reason it'd work best covered). Maybe you can add an itty bitty mudroom....

Yes, doors can swing out (even in places with really cold weather) and there's much to be said for the (energy) efficiency of outswing doors (in Japan and N. Europe outswing doors are common)

I live in Colorado and we just installed outswing french doors in our dining room (had been a window) -- I won't lie to you, it was hard to find and the first two door / window stores I went to flat-out said to me "nope." I knew they were wrong. The third was the ticket! We got a Hurd door and so far, so good. (Marvin also has them but not in the dimensions I wanted / needed.)

Screen doors are more difficult (needless to say, hasn't been an issue yet and I still haven't investigated it -- will probably go with something like a Phantom).

what rmkitchen said. In Sweden this is the standard for all doors. Entry and patio, but they are hard to find around here. I couldn't find any that fit my budget when looking for them for my old house.

Anderson Windows

French doors.

We swing them out in Florida so they stand up to wind.

Regards,

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: Anderson French Doors

I have a door that swings out to a covered screened in patio. The door is by Pella.

If it swings out, then the hinges will be on the outside, making burglary easier.

jimonthebeach, will you please explain swinging out to stand up to the wind?

Our storm doors open out and if we're not careful, the wind will catch them and blow them back. We've had a frame crack that way.

Are we doing something wrong?

I have a door I am also putting in place of a window in my DR. I am going with two doors (storm door to swing out, interior door to swing in) because I want to be able to have a screen in when the weather is nice.

How do you let in the air when you only have one door? I didn't think it was possible?

Buffettgirl, is that only primary, though? Because this would be secondary, wouldn't it?

I have outswings on my studio. No climate issues though. Re the hinges, they're locked. By the time someone figured out how to undo them they could just break through the glass :)

I'm in the midwest and its very cold here in the winter and yes its code to have outswing doors. I am pretty sure Pella makes them. You could add a phantom type screen. In fact we plan to add outswing French doors off the breakfast area (if we don't move first).

THANK YOU so much for all your quick responses, especially the name/manufacturers.
It really helped my new layout.

Yes, there's a little roof that overhangs from the exterior wall over the deck/patio.

And I love phantom type screens.

Again, thank you.

Does anyone know why out-swing doors are so uncommon in the US?

we're about to build a new home and i cannot wait. all of our doors in our temp house swing out. i have no idea why, but i HATE it. i have to hold the door open with a shoulder while coming in with groceries. it's a very uncomfortable set up to say the least. i'd avoid it at all costs. GL!

Just a thought as to why they are rare in the US: there's a safety issue if there is a step down right outside the door-- people don't expect to step down when following the door.

And if there isn't a stepdown, a snow drift, even frozen sleet sliding from the roof can block the door from opening.

So I'd want to see 1-No step down and 2-A covered entry when doing an out swing.

The wind issue actually supports an outswing: the harder the wind blows, the tighter the door closes. Downside, it can get ripped out of your hand, slammed open, etc.

We have outswing doors in our very wnidy location. They blow into the seal when the wind blows. You do have to train your kids to hold tightly if they are going outside on a windy day. They blow open easily if the wind is coming from a certain direction. There are stop hinges you can buy that prevent them from swinging open all the way butthe force still isn't good for the door or frame.

Also, you use locking hinges that help prevent the security issue mentioned above.

I believe the code in MA also involves the amount of space outside an outswing door. You have to have something like six feet (my number may be wrong) of landing to allow you to step back as you open the door. We looked into it for an addition.

I lived for about six years in a house with outswinging doors, and like kateskouros, I HATED it. I suppose it made sense in the design for this very small house, but other than the space it gave me, I didn't like one thing about it. It was awkward opening the front door for someone, and it felt less secure if I didn't know that someone because I couldn't lean my body into the door to shut it if I needed to. Also, the latch on the front door wasn't a very good one, so if you didn't lock the door, it could come open on its own. That happened one day and all my dogs took off down the street and the door was standing wide open for who knows how long before I noticed it.

I suppose it wouldn't be the same kind of problem on a deck door that you aren't using several times every day, but I thought I'd throw those issues out there.

Many of the houses built in the early 20th century in NJ have an exterior door off a landing on the stairs to the basement. In most instances these doors swing out because they would block the stairway if they swung in and in some houses like ours they would hit the stairs to the second floor. All of the local lumber yards know about these doors and offer prehung outswing replacements. The hinges are secured in several different ways that prevent the pins being removed unless the door is open. Every one of these doors that I've looked at has, or at one time had, a chain often with an inline spring to control their opening.

My main doors swing in - my storm doors swing out. So in the summer you swing your main door inside and you get the breeze through the screen door. And yes, when you come home with bags of groceries you have to hold the storm door with your back and open the main door and push that in. I have no clue why.

Interesting Buffettgirl. Post Cocoanut Grove fire, swing-out is mandatory on all public buildings, nationwide I believe. (In 1942, hundreds of people fleeing a fire in an elegant Boston nightclub crushed up against inward-swinging doors that then could not be pulled opened inwards against the crush. Nearly 500 people died. Accounts are absolutely horrific.)

Why then should it be against code in Massachusetts on private residences? (I'm not doubting that you are correct, I just think it curious, even ironic, that it should be so. A puzzle.)

It's probably not the primary exit anyway though, so that should probably not be a problem for Huango.

I think, Huango, if you have a storm door, that pushing two doors outward wouldn't work (from inside you have to push the inner one open to get to the outer one, but there's no room ...). And depending on where the snow drifts, the door might get snowed in (or maybe that's not a problem if you don't use the deck much in winter). Or you could build a wind screen or overhang to divert the drifting snow.

But otherwise? Obviously, check the code, but if it's the only reasonable solution, even if it's a bit odd, do it.

outswing doors also make storm doors easier.

The inner door opens in, and the outer (storm) door opens out

Also, the hinges on an outswing door will be on the outside, which means a burglar could try to take the door off its hinges to get in.

For a true outdoor swing door the hinges can't just be popped off as many suggests. They are locked hinges and would take a lot of time to actually try to pop off. They'd be better to break a window than trying to get the door off the hinges.

We put an outswing door in our laundry room so that I wouldn't get smacked when I was loading the washer and someone was coming in. But that door led to the garage, so it was a covered entry.

Yeah, growley, it is odd isn't it? I never quite understood why buildings HAD to open out and homes had to open in.

Commercial buildings have to open out in case of fire or other emergency: hard to get a paniced, stampeding crowd to step back and allow the people near the doors to open them in...

Sure,

In a hurricane most structure failures are because a window or door blows in. That's why we have "Dade County" windows that are supposed to withstand a 2x4 fired out of an air canon at 156mph with no penetration and garage doors with no windows allowed and either a removable viertical center beam for storms or reinforced horizontal ribs (twice a many as normal and 4" deep).

I think that the theory is if an opening is blown in then the roof will get blown up and off.

Jim

An Exterior Pocket Door (if you have the wall space- I do!)would work. Does anyone know if such a thing exist?