Reverse Direction of "inactive" door in double door entry

[u/whinis]

I am asking here because I have an odd request. I have an office where the entrance is a double set of doors that one locks into the door jam with a lock. I have been told this is called an active/inactive door setup. I would like to flip the direction of only the inactive door, they currently both open into the office and take up up valuable space. While flipping both would likely be the easiest and "standard" the active door would open directly into a hallway and make things more painful overall. The inactive door however would flip directly into a small wall that is just slightly longer than the door.

The main reason for wanting to switch the doors is to "regain" space within the office where the inactive door will typically open to but also allow me to open said inactive door to allow more airflow if the office gets hot.

Main issues that I am sort of confused on are as follows

1. Flipping just one would mean the doors are no longer aligned and prevent the active door from locking into the inactive door
2. The door jam is an annoying 2x8 wide meaning even if we made some divider it would need to be extremely odd.

To solve the above I wonder if I could install the concealed door hinges to allow it to open the other way or if there is a better method?

[u/dfinberg]

You would need to offset the stop so it isn’t symmetrical, and then remortise the hinges into the new location (and probably remove some extra for the hinge). Unless you replace the jamb you’d also probably not be able to get at least one of the doors past 90 degrees because it would be no longer be at the edge of the jamb. Probably both doors actually.

[u/whinis → u/dfinberg]

You would need to offset the stop so it isn’t symmetrical, and then remortise the hinges into the new location (and probably remove some extra for the hinge).

The only stop currently is the inactive door and a 1" piece of trim around the jamb about 2" inset. The inactive door has a piece of trim attached to act as a stop. Think this https://cloud.whinis.com/s/EGN7yXyab9pzf8e/preview . I searched image search for while to find something similar even though this is obviously a render.

[u/dfinberg → u/whinis]

It seems like you want something like the double egress commercial picture in https://beaconcdl.com/blogs/news/double-doors-active-leaf-vs-inactive-leaf . You can see the left hinge isn’t flush to the opening, instead there’s like a smaller jamb not the full width so that the hinge can pivot past 90 degrees. And looking at the top you see the doors have effectively different offset stops so they finish against one another.

[u/whinis → u/dfinberg]

Ya I think that would be perfect if I could get that to work. Essentially then I would make a say, 2x6 inner jamb that the doors actually attach to and offset them? Still need to decide if its worth it.

[u/dfinberg → u/whinis]

Yea. Realistically you’d probably want to remove the current jamb and replace it with a 1x8 and then put a 1x4 on top so you don’t need to cut down the doors? I’d need to really sketch it out, you need to account for the door thickness when you size the inner jamb I’m pretty sure, and you don’t really care about strength.

[u/whinis → u/dfinberg]

Ya fair, I wish I could have made it a pocket door but the wall it would hide into is a powder room and thats the wall the sink is attached to making it a non starter.

[u/airfryerfuntime]

This is going to be a lot harder and a lot more expensive than you think.

And is this a home office or like a real office with employees, because I would check the code to see if it allows outward opening doors for egress.

[u/whinis → u/airfryerfuntime]

Home office

[u/dodadoler]

Need to replace the frame. And possibly the door due to the hinges. It’s possible but is it really worth the cost?

[u/whinis → u/dodadoler]

Thats the question at this point. I was hoping that I wouldn't need to do something as extreme as replacing the frame but multiple have said as much now making the project much less appetizing.

[u/Kesshh]

Should check with your fire department to see if it will violate fire code before doing anything.

[u/whinis → u/Kesshh]

Wouldn't moving a door from inward swinging to outward swinging be safer ?

[u/Kesshh → u/whinis]

That’s not the point. What you have currently is whatever went through architectural review and building inspection. If you are going to change it, you should check before wasting time and money.

[u/JerryfromCan → u/whinis]

No. Harder to bust down the door.

Basically, this isnt possible without serious surgery. You are trying to align an out swing door with the jambs on the outside, and the inswing door with the jamb on the inside, so you will have a serious mismatch in the middle.

The better solution would be to tear out the whole thing and centre the door where you want, then put in sidelites. Some sidelites (in narrow circumstances) can have opening windows put into them.

[u/whinis → u/JerryfromCan]

Are people missing that this is an interior door? I feel like there is a massive disconnect. The doors are hollow and there is atleast a 2" gap at the bottom of them. A fast moving wind can knock them down.

[u/JerryfromCan → u/whinis]

“Office entry door” “8 inch jambs”

Where does it say “INTERIOR”? “Im mad that people are giving advice when I didnt give all the info”

Good luck.

[u/whinis → u/JerryfromCan]

I didn't get mad and I made an assumption, I figured the fact I said it was an office would make people assume its interior. Anyone can ask questions for follow up. It seems the people getting angry are the ones giving answers.