ray613•2mo agoMost Upvoted

My neighbor's kid asked why my shed door opens out, not in

I was finishing up a small garden shed project last weekend, this 8x6 thing I've been piecing together for months. My neighbor's boy, maybe 10 years old, was watching me and just asked, plain as day, 'Why does it swing out into the yard? Won't you hit it with the mower?' I gave him my whole spiel about saving interior space and shed doors always doing that. He just shrugged and said, 'But your rake and shovel are inside. Now you have to walk around the door to get them.' I stood there for a full minute holding my drill. He was totally right. I'd just copied plans without thinking. I spent the next two hours re-hanging that door to swing inward. Has anyone else had a simple question from a non-builder totally upend a project assumption?

4 comments

4 Comments

derek_ross2mo ago

That kid's logic works until you need to get a wheelbarrow out. An outward door gives you the full width of the opening. Thompson.julia's snow point is real too, but a quick shovel fixes that. An inward door just trades one hassle for another when you're moving big stuff in and out.

the_eric2mo ago

Kid's got a point, but @thompson.julia wins on the snow.

thompson.julia2mo ago

What if snow piles up against an inward door?

zarag1717d ago

and honestly I tried the inward door thing once and ended up snowed in for two days because I couldn't push it open. had to climb out a window like an idiot. @derek_ross is right about the wheelbarrow though, I learned that the hard way when I tried bringing in a new couch and had to take the door off its hinges to squeeze it through. there's really no perfect solution, just different types of annoying.