Door handing

[Jburgett2nd]

So this is what my text book says "Door handing or placement on the right or left hand is an important consideration for installing most locks. Some locks are nonhanded and can be used with doors of anyhand, others are for a specific hand. when I lock is installed on a door of the wrong hand the lock is upside down. This is not only unprofessional but can cause damage to the lock. The hand of the door is based on the location and direction of the swing of the doors hinges from the exterior side of the door."

Ok this just isn't clicking inside my brain for some reason, I wish they had an illustration since I am a visual/tactile learner. Could any of you explain this in a more simplified way if that is possible. Is it meaning that some locks go on the right hand of the door and some the left, but then it goes into left hand reverse bevel and right hand reverse bevel and I feel lost, I have read the chapter over and over. It's getting very frustrating because so far I've caught on to everything right away until now.

[Jburgett2nd]

I figured it out, if anyone else gets tripped up by this issue this 30 second video cleared up all my confusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TgfQbS1YXw

[Big Jesse]

dont sweat it, when i was a locksmith in training, it took 2 different locksmiths to explain this to me, and one of them had to make a diagram on a note card, that i kept in my tool box for month till i got it right. lol. but at the end of the day, 'the hand you use to open the door, is the handing'. however some people reach across their bodies, to open a door, this is abnormal, but people do it. if you can open a door, and close a door with your right hand, without reaching across your body, its a right-handed door. THAT is where the term 'handing' comes from. its a term designed to reference the placement of a knob, for the convenience of the customer/user and installation of the lock.
the hinge placement is just another way of explaining it, which i never heard of before till your youtube video.

[Big Jesse]

another way to look at it, is the direction of the turn of the handle/knob.

if you have to torn the knob to the right (clockwise) to open/close it, its a right handed lock/door.
if you have to turn the knob to the left to open/close it, its a left handed door.

because when you turn to the right, you are retracting the bolt or latch to the right...toward the hinges.

that should help too.

[Squelchtone]

another way to look at it, is the direction of the turn of the handle/knob.

if you have to torn the knob to the right (clockwise) to open/close it, its a right handed lock/door.
if you have to turn the knob to the left to open/close it, its a left handed door.

because when you turn to the right, you are retracting the bolt or latch to the right...toward the hinges.

that should help too.

That doesn't make sense, I think you can turn a door knob in either direction to retract a latch. This would make more sense if applied to a deadbolt and which way the plug has to turn to retract the bolt. I always thought that left handed would be clockwise to retract deadbolt and right handed would be counterclockwise to retract the deadbolt. At least that's what makes sense to me, but it would appear I am wrong based on this chart:



Here's a nice chart which does a good job showing what you meant with reaching hand across body, I can actually follow this chart:

[Big Jesse]

understood squelchtone, i guess we all think about it differently, and your charts help, my diagram i had to keep on me while a locksmith was based off of the same diagrams you provided.

at my work, they have schlage locks with lever handles, they only retract the latch when turned down, or clockwise, which is more natural in the right hand, but i really like the hinge description previously given, which is on the right as well. as for door knobs only turning one direction, your right, and i could be wrong on that, its been a few years since i knew what i was talking about, good catch!

[DOORDOCTOR]

Hello there wrench214 and Jburgett2nd.

when its locks/handlesets, they "hand" the door based on what side the lock will go on, if the lock will be on push side or pull side (secured side)

in my eyes (I mostly deal with door closers) there are application specific ones that cannot he rehanded as its hand is assigned at factory, the secret with how I hand a door for those, use the "butt-to-the-butts" method, stand with your back to the hinge jamb on PUSH side, extend your arm to the doorknob with your shoulder on hinge side, if you swing your arm to the right, the door is a right hand, if to the left, it's a left handed door,

if its indicated the door is a RHR the closer and hinges will be set up as a left hand door, if LHR, it will be setup/installed as a right hand,

Allegion made a video about how to hand a door (the easy way) for lock (LHR and RHR compared to LH and RH

the video,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pe4or0H-9I


hope this helps, and welcome to the world of door hardware and lockpicking!

-Jess the door closer doctor

[allan501]

dont sweat it, when i was a locksmith in training, it took 2 different locksmiths to explain this to me, and one of them had to make a diagram on a note card, that i kept in my tool box for month till i got it right. lol. but at the end of the day, 'the hand you use to open the door, is the handing'. however some people reach across their bodies, to open a door, this is abnormal, but people do it. if you can open a door, and close a door with your right hand, without reaching across your body, its a right-handed door. THAT is where the term 'handing' comes from. its a term designed to reference the placement of a knob, for the convenience of the customer/user and installation of the lock.
the hinge placement is just another way of explaining it, which i never heard of before till your youtube video.

That is IT!!! Using which hand opens the door just made everything click together.

[nick08037]

Hello there wrench214 and Jburgett2nd.

when its locks/handlesets, they "hand" the door based on what side the lock will go on, if the lock will be on push side or pull side (secured side)

in my eyes (I mostly deal with door closers) there are application specific ones that cannot he rehanded as its hand is assigned at factory, the secret with how I hand a door for those, use the "butt-to-the-butts" method, stand with your back to the hinge jamb on PUSH side, extend your arm to the doorknob with your shoulder on hinge side, if you swing your arm to the right, the door is a right hand, if to the left, it's a left handed door,

if its indicated the door is a RHR the closer and hinges will be set up as a left hand door, if LHR, it will be setup/installed as a right hand,

Allegion made a video about how to hand a door (the easy way) for lock (LHR and RHR compared to LH and RH

the video,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pe4or0H-9I


hope this helps, and welcome to the world of door hardware and lockpicking!

-Jess the door closer doctor

Thanks for the video link, it was very informative and easy to follow. Concepts like door handing seem simple enough but are often difficult to explain well.

[billdeserthills]

Reading through all this makes it seem more difficult than it needs to be. I like to stand on the outside of the door, if the hinge is on the left, the door is Left Handed
If the hinge is on the right, well I'm sure You can see where I'm going with this...Rarely I have used Squelchtone's diagram for left hand reverse and right hand reverse

[Jburgett2nd]

Reading through all this makes it seem more difficult than it needs to be.

That is pretty much what was tripping me up making it seem a heck of a lot more intricate than it really was.

[cledry]

It is simple sometimes. Yes, door handing is simple. From the outside the hand the hinges on is the hand of the door. If the door pulls toward you then it is a reverse. All very simple.

To confuse matters more, things like pivots and closers are handed from the push side of the door. So if you have pivots on a storefront and it is a RHR you use LH pivots.

[Lakes]

Being ambidextrous, the issue is moot for me.
However, it seems to matter a whole lot to my wife - who just had 11 doors replaced in a property she owns.
The contractor did a terrible, slip-shod job and there is no rhyme or reason to the random and mixed way the doors open in her triple-wide manufactured rental home.

[shutterstuff]

Then there are people like me that use their right hand no matter where the door knob is... so yes, I had issues learning this handing thing too. Especially since my house doors are left handed doors and I use my right hand all day long! But the above diagram looks like what I saw a few years ago that made sense finally.

[ltdbjd]

9 months late to the party, but this was the way I learned it:

Hand / Hinge - both start with "H." Whatever side the Hinge is on is what Hand it is. If the hinge is on the right, it's right handed. Hinges on the left, left handed.

Handing is determined when you are outside the door looking at it. If you open the door, and you need to back up (go in reverse) because you're pulling the door to you, it's reverse.

This is the general rule. There are lots of exceptions. And it only applies to doors. Mounting a safe lock is the opposite. It's handed as if you're locked inside the safe looking out.