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Storefront Door Handing

Storefront Door Handing

To people new to the door and hardware industry doors and their components seem very simple. After all, it's just a door, right? The process is usually, "I need a new front door." They look online and that is when they fall down the long rabbit hole of door types, door hand, door thickness, door application, etc. All of a sudden what seemed to be a simple hunt for a front door has become the realization of an elaborate and complex trade. Well don't get scared off. Doors and their hardware are usually very simple once you understand the tricks of the trade and what to look for.

Today, we are here to shed some light on one of the most popular topics when ordering a storefront door, and that is the door handing.

Storefront door handing is the terminology referring to the direction of the aluminum door's swing as it opens.

Why Is Door Handing Important

In the most obvious form, door handing is important because you want to make sure you install a door that will swing away from the building in the right direction. If you are following an architect blue print, or maybe just replacing an existing storefront door, you will want to match the door hand. Especially, if you plan to reuse some existing door hardware. Most commercial door hardware is handed. For example, you would not want to order left hand door hardware when your storefront door is a right hand. The hardware would not be compatible for your door, but instead would be a mirror opposite. Another very important aspect is that commercial doors including storefront doors are all manufactured per order. As you might have guessed as you began researching doors, there is an unlimited amount of options with commercial doors such as door width, door height, door finish, and then their are still the door hardware options. For this reasons, commercial doors and storefront doors are all customized per order, and as a result, they are not returnable. This means you need to be certain of the door hand you need, so that there is no mistake.

Storefront Door Handing

Storefront door handing is actually very simple. There is either a left hand door or a right hand door. The illustration below shows this.





How To Determine Storefront Door Handing


Step 1: Look at the door from the outside of the building

Storefront door handing is always determined from looking at the door from the exterior side of the building.

Step 2: Identify Pull Handle/Lock Side

From the outside of the building determine which side the pull handle and lock is on. If the pull handle and lock is on the right side of the door, then the storefront door is a right hand. If the pull handle and lock is on the left side of the door, then the storefront door is a left hand.

Storefront Door Handing Vs Commercial Door Handing

Storefront doors are much different than other commercial doors such as hollow metal steel doors or solid core wood doors. Unlike other commercial doors, storefront doors are used as front entry doors only. This means that they are only available as left hand or right hand because they must swing out away from the door. Whereas, other commercial doors are offered in left hand, right hand, left hand reverse, and right hand reverse configurations because those doors can also be used for interior door applications. There are aluminum doors that can be used as interior doors too, but the term "storefront doors" refers to strictly commercial glass aluminum doors used as front entry doors in retail stores or similar.

Conclusion

With our easy to use storefront door handing chart, what seems to be a difficult topic, is now simplified. We are a manufacturer of Comanche storefront doors. If you are a building owner or contractor and are in need of doors please contact us. We can customize our storefront doors to any size rough opening. And if you have any other questions about how to order storefront doors we would love to help! Contact our sales department today ([email protected])




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