changing door swing from right to left

The door to my laundry room swings to the right into the room. Ideally I would like to switch it to swing to the left into the room. How difficult is it to do this?

thanks,
Karen in New Hampshire

 

Karen, it will entail remortising the hinges on both the frame and door, repairing the mortises left by the removal of the door. If you want a simple solution, go buy a framed door set (lefthand) in the size you need, and remove the one you have, give it to charity, and install the new one in the hole. We can guide you through it and it will be alot less of a hassle than trying to cut new mortises and repairing the old frame and door. NOW, with all that said, if you can live with the door opening out into the hallway on the left side, all you would have to do is remove the door and frame, spin it in the frame and reinstall it.

 

Chandler, thanks so much for the reply. I think I will go with your simple suggestion! And I can use the old door on top of sawhorses for some workspace in my garage, bonus. :-)

Incidentally I can't have the door opening into the other room as part of the reason for wanting to change the swing is to "hide" the ugly water heater/furnace behind the door when it's open ... switching the door to open into the other room won't solve that.

Thanks again! Have learned so much from these forums ... it's fun just to browse & see other people's questions.

-Karen in New Hampshire

 

I have a very similar situation: I want to switch an interior door to the other side of the frame. It would swing the same direction as currently (right), just out of the room instead of into the room.

I'm barely more than a novice, but it seems it wouldn't be that hard for me to re-install the hinges and lock strike on the other side of the frame, and then just remove the door from one side and re-attach it to the other side. The frame appears symmetrical, identical on both sides. BIggest work would be chiseling new notches for the hinges. Am I missing something? I definitely want to avoid creating a huge hassle for myself. Thanks in advance!

 

Billy44,
You would probably have to remove and replace the door stop (what the door closes against). Unless your frame is thinner than normal, one side will be the exact thickness of the door, and the other will be about 1/2" wider. This is for a common 1 3/8" interior door. Measure it, don't eyeball it.

Then you have to fill the hinge and latch mortices.

 

Makes a new framed door unit all the more practical, huh? Now, if you have the time, go for it. We do it for a living and are looking for a good looking finished product, fast, economical labor wise, so a new door would be in the works for us.