Are you going to be using the door in the winter when the snow would be an issue? I'm not sure how you would have a screen door too, though, if it swings out.

Why can't it be inswing against the side of the refrigerator enclosure? Its equal one way or the other, you don't enter the room any more efficiently than if it swung against the other cabinets. The only way that holds true is if the door swings against the wall and the rest is open room. Your situation is analogous to opening into a hallway...it doesnt matter which way it swings, too much.

The outswing issue is more important snow wise if it is the main exit out of the house. If you had an inswing door with a storm door which swings out, you have the same snow blockage issue as well, except that you can take the glass of out of the storm door if you Really had to.

It sounds like you don't want to offend your contractor. You're the one who is going to be living with it (and paying for it) so after weighing all the issues (including those raised by your contractor) you still want the outswing then that's your decision.

In my small NYC kitchen, I weighed out vs inswing. It's whatever works for your space. I opted for inswing against my dishwasher instead of outswing which would have interfered with my gas grill which I use all winter, except in the snow. Outswing in the snow was not an issue and mostly irrelevant to a backyard.

Great points, thanks, that helps.

Palimpsest - the refrigerator has a pantry cabinet to the left of it, so the open door would actually block that, which I think is worse than the buffet area because I use my pantry a lot.

I live in Massachusetts. I echo palimpset's comment that if you have an inswing door with a storm door, you have the same snow blockage issue because the snow would block the storm door just as easily as it would block your outswing door. I have that happen on my back door all the time in the winter (we use our front door as the main entry/exit all the time anyway).

When we put in a new doorway to go out to our enclosed porch, I opted for the outswing door for the reasons to have more space in the room and swing out into the porch. We got a Therma-Tru door with a lovely glass panel for about $900. The only thing the contractor commented on about the outswing was the effect of the elements (rain, snow, etc) on the door. I wish I could recall his exact words--it was something about the significance of Therma-Tru's warranty and the fact that it was an outswing door going "outside", usually means that more of the door would be hit by the elements. If it is a door going to the outside, our guy implied that to not impact the warranty, then it would need to have a roof overhang or something to protect it. (If you think about it, when you outswing the door, the whole door gets pelted with the rain than when you inswing the door and the whole door doesn't get hit.) Our contractor said that because our outswing door was going into an enclosed porch, the weather effect was not an issue for us.

It sounds to me like your contractor isn't clearly telling you exactly why he's unhappy about the outswing. Maybe it is harder for him to get it to 'hang' right in that location, or maybe it's because he has to do more up front treatment (paint, etc) for the weather protection. I suppose you could voice it back to him as a question "If it were your doorway, why would you install an inswing door in this location instead of an outswing one?" and see what he says.

The "snow" argument seems less of an argument to me than a rain/storm door argument. If you can't have a storm door, then the finish on the outswing door is going to take the brunt of rain and might not last long.

Hmmm... northeast here too.

I would have to have a screen door in the warmer months but I am an open window/door person if it isnt freezing or steaming outside. I don't use a storm door there though, the screen door comes off with the first frost.

I have a similar set up and I opted to have the door lean against the 'pantry' cabinet - I know it's going to be a pain in the warmer months but I need that screen door :-)

A couple of things to consider - that door needs to not swing open enough so that it damages the cabs (if you opt for an inswing) and another thing is this - would a pocket door be possible in that area?

In commercial spaces, doors must push out for fire code. After the Coconut Grove fire where many people were trapped against inswinging doors.

At home, it is less likely that a large crowd would be trapped against an inswinging door, but More likely that snow could fall during the night or something could trap you in a house by blocking an outswinging door. Most notoriously a mistress of Frank Lloyd Wright blocked the outswinging doors of his house, set it on fire and killed people trying to escape through entrances that swung in (he was not there).

Hey, don't disparage Mamah! It wasn't his mistress, it was the disgruntaled house servant who had just been let go that blocked the door and set the fire. ("Loving Frank" is a popular book club choice).

Back to the doors, I have read that in some areas of the country the outswing is required (in hurricane country?). I will check local code - but I'm assuming my contractor would know or the place where he was getting the quote would have told him that you can't do it in Massachusetts.

La_Koala - I think the contractor mentioned Therma-Tru, but said that they don't come with a screen system? You can buy one after market, but I'm not sure if I want that. Does your door have a screen?

TIA,

Lynne

Hi Lynne,

No, we don't have a screen on that particular door because it goes from our dining room out to our 3-season enclosed side porch. We added the doorway because the previous owner had enclosed the side porch, but the only way to get into it was to go out the back door, walk around to the side, and then through the screen door of the enclosed porch part (storm door in the winter).

Because the space where our outswing door swings into is itself an enclosed space (screens in warm weather/storms in cold weather), we don't need a screen on that door. We rely on the screens that are on the enclosed porch space itself.

I hope that made sense. :-) I'm hoping that you can ask your contractor the question in some way that he can say just what he thinks makes it not a good idea. What else does he think might 'go wrong' and 'when' or under what conditions would it 'go wrong'?

I live in the midwest and we opted for a door that swings out onto the deck. It was installed about a year ago and I am glad we opted to go that route. Ours is a Marvin french door. Love it.

Hurricane code does indeed specify outswing doors. At first an endless PITA for designing everything but we did reach whatever numbered stage of grieving that is call "acceptance." But, we were not required to do our door from the hall to the garage as an outswing b/c technically the garage was not considered an exterior space. Nevertheless, we decided to have this door as an outswing also b/c the in swing would have impeded access to interior space as with the OP. So, all I can say is that our doors that are required to out swing are very inconvenient but the only one exempted is convenient to out swing. Go figure. But code is code here in hurricane country and you violate it at your insurance peril. LOL.