Widening doors for walkers and wheelchairs

People name doors by the number on the slab. A "32-inch door" is not a 32-inch opening. The clear width is what is left when the door is open 90 degrees, measured from the face of the door to the stop on the other side. Hinges, the door thickness, and the stop eat inches. Section 404.2.3 of the 2010 ADA Standards sets the minimum clear width at 32 inches. In ordinary house carpentry, a 36-inch slab in a properly set frame is how you get there. A 32-inch slab almost never does.

Houses are full of 28- and 30-inch doors, especially bathrooms and bedrooms from mid-century plans. A walker fits until the hands and the wheels arrive together. A wheelchair does not fit. This page is about getting a real clear opening without pretending every wall can spare four inches.

Measure the clear width you have

Open the door to 90 degrees. Measure between the face of the door and the stop. That number is the clear width. Then look at the usable width, which is worse if the door does not open a full 90 because a closet or a toilet blocks it. A door that opens 70 degrees has a smaller effective opening than its hardware suggests. Write both numbers down for every door on the route from the entrance to the bathroom and the bed.

The hallway is the other measurement. A passage of 36 inches clear is the ADA walking-surface minimum in section 403.5. Many older halls are close to that and feel narrower once a door swings into them. If the hall is 32 inches between trim, widening one door does not create a route. You are looking at a different plan: a different room for sleeping, a different bathroom, or a wall moved at real structural cost. AARP's 2015 cost article quoted a remodeler who put widening a hallway, in his market, in a range that could reach the tens of thousands because of structure, ducts, and wiring. That is a dated local example, useful only as a warning to price the wall before you fall in love with a door.

Ways to gain inches, from small to large

Offset hinges, sometimes called swing-clear hinges, move the door out of the opening as it opens. They can pick up an inch or more of clear width without a new frame. The gain depends on the hinge and the existing stop. Have the installer show you the clear width after the hinges are on, with a tape, before you pay. If you need four inches, hinges will not do it. If you need one, they might, and they are the right first try on a rental where you must leave the frame.

A new slab in the old frame helps only if the old frame was built for a wider door or if you accept a door that barely fits and still misses 32 inches clear. Usually you need a new frame. A new frame means opening the wall to the studs, possibly moving a stud, and patching drywall and trim. On an interior wall that is not structural, this is a straightforward carpentry day plus paint. On a wall that carries the ceiling, or that hides a stack of pipes, it is a different project. The bathroom door is the classic surprise, because the wall beside it often has the vent stack or the shower valve. Look before you promise a weekend.

Pocket doors give you the swing back. They need a cavity in the wall twice as interesting as a normal wall: no wires, no pipes, no tight studs you cannot move. A pocket door that rubs and is left half-open is a new hazard. Use a quality track and a pull the user can work, within the reach and grip ideas of ADA section 309. A barn door, the surface-sliding kind, does not need a cavity. It needs wall space beside the opening for the slab to park, and the track and the parked door reduce how much of the doorway you can use if you size them badly. Measure the clear opening with the barn door fully open, not the rough opening behind it. Barn doors also leave a gap, which is a privacy and sound issue for a bathroom. They are a good bedroom or laundry door and a careful choice for a toilet.

The swing direction is a safety choice. A bathroom door that swings in can trap a person who has fallen against it. Swinging it out, or using a pocket, lets a helper open it. Confirm the new swing does not block the hall or hit a person standing at the sink. Section 603.2.3's idea, that the door should not swing into the fixture clear space, is the right test even in a house the ADA does not govern.

Hardware, force, and the threshold you just revealed

A round knob asks for a grip and a twist. A lever does not. Section 309.4's benchmark is one hand, no tight grasp, 5 pounds or less. Lever handles, and a latch that does not stick, are part of widening. So is the closer, if you have one. Spring hinges that slam are a hand injury and a balance hit. Interior door force in ADA section 404.2.9 is 5 pounds maximum, with fire doors excepted. A house door should be easy. If it is not, plane the rub, fix the hinge, and stop adding spring.

Widening exposes the floor. The threshold that was hidden under a narrow door becomes the thing the walker wheel hits. Keep the level change within the quarter-inch vertical limit, or bevel it, as the threshold guide spells out. A new wider door with the old marble saddle is an unfinished job.

Locks matter on the bathroom. A lock that can be opened from the outside with a simple tool or a coin is safer than a lock that requires a search for a key while someone is on the floor. Privacy locks with an emergency slot are ordinary hardware. Use them.

Renters, condos, and permits

Interior door swaps in a house you own rarely need a permit, until you touch a bearing wall or the electrical in the jamb. Ask the building department if you are unsure whether the wall is bearing. In a condo, the association may own the door or the wall finish. Read the declaration before you cut. In a rental, widening a door is a modification. HUD's reasonable-modification guidance under the Fair Housing Act is the legal framework for a tenant with a disability who needs the change. It is not permission from this page. The landlord may require a licensed installer and, at the end of the tenancy, restoration. Get the agreement in writing. A swing-clear hinge is sometimes the modification that solves the problem without a new frame, which is an easier conversation.

Covered multifamily housing built for first occupancy after March 13, 1991, was supposed to have usable doors, generally the 32-inch clear idea, on the accessible route. If your door is narrower, the building may have been built wrong, or it may not be covered. That is a fair-housing question, not a carpentry guess.

A door-by-door list

On the route you actually use

• Measure clear width at 90 degrees, and note whether the door can open that far.
• Target at least 32 inches clear. Plan on a 36-inch slab when you replace the frame.
• Try swing-clear hinges first if you need about an inch and the frame stays.
• Check the wall for pipes, wires, and bearing loads before you cut a wider rough opening.
• Prefer an out-swing or a pocket at the bathroom so a fall does not block the door.
• Levers, not knobs. A privacy lock that opens from the hall side.
• Fix the threshold in the same visit. No new saddle taller than one-half inch, and no vertical edge over one-quarter inch.
• Walk it with the device the person uses. A tape measure does not have footrests.

Do the bathroom door and the bedroom door on the floor where the person will live before you do decorative doors. The first-floor bedroom and the toilet transfer depend on this opening. A stairlift to a floor of 28-inch doors has moved the problem upstairs, intact.

Sources

• U.S. Access Board, 2010 ADA Standards, sections 309, 403, 404, and 603.
• HUD, Reasonable modifications and accommodations and the Fair Housing Act Design Manual.
• AARP, Home Remodeling and Improvement Costs (2015) and the HomeFit Guide.
• National Institute on Aging, Home safety tips.
• CDC STEADI, Check for Safety.