Room door hinges that will open to 270 degrees?

September 4, 2016 11:44 PM

Where to find pivot room door hinges that will open to 270 degrees?

We are remodeling and want to put a door at the top of the stairs so that sounds from downstairs don't penetrate so easily to the upstairs bedrooms. Ideally we want hinges that would allow the door to swing flat against the railing of the upstairs hallway, rather than open just 90 degrees and be in the way of the stair landing area.

Does anyone know where we can buy such hinges? We do appreciate your help.

posted by ragtimepiano to Home & Garden (18 answers total)

Hospital or industrial door hinges may give you more range.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:08 AM on September 5, 2016

Check the Rockler catalog's hinges section for 270 degree hinges.
posted by metaseeker at 12:20 AM on September 5, 2016

I think the search term you want is "Double acting hinge".
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:22 AM on September 5, 2016

I can't be sure without a sketch of the floor plan, but it sounds like you might be getting the number of degrees wrong as you think about this. Assuming the stairway is perpendicular to the hallway/railing where they meet, then the door only needs to open to 180 degrees, which any standard butt hinge will do. 270 degrees is three-quarters of a circle, and a hinge that has that much travel would have virtually no architectural purpose that I can think of.
posted by jon1270 at 4:14 AM on September 5, 2016

(To be precise, butt hinges by themselves are often capable of moving through roughly 270 degrees of travel. It's the door, door frame and wall that get in the way.)
posted by jon1270 at 4:26 AM on September 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Jon1270, 270 would allow for the door to go flat when going up the stairs and then open down the staircase when going the other direction which is a lot easier than fumbling around, squeezing by at the top of the stairs
posted by raccoon409 at 4:57 AM on September 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes, this is definitely a double acting hinge, assuming you are looking for a hinge that opens both ways. You'd have to get a little tricky with the mounting to get close to 180 on one side, but it should be nearly possible.
posted by ssg at 7:42 AM on September 5, 2016

I think that having a door open into the stairway might be a building code violation unless there's a landing there.
posted by jon1270 at 9:11 AM on September 5, 2016 [3 favorites]

Another thought: a door that swings through the doorway will necessarily lack a stop strip inside frame, so there will be a gap all the way around, which won't make for great sound isolation.
posted by jon1270 at 9:32 AM on September 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Not sure if I'm understanding correctly, but I know sometimes for wheelchair accessibility it's helpful to have a hinge that lets the door get fully out of the way, and those are swing-away hinges or swing-clear hinges.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:46 AM on September 5, 2016

Or possibly these might be what you're looking for?:
wide throw hinges
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:51 AM on September 5, 2016

"long leaf" butt hinges is another term for these -- the long leaf shifts to pivot point of the hinge far enough away from the face of the door (and associated trims etc) that it has clearance to swing to 270 degrees.
posted by misterbrandt at 10:09 AM on September 5, 2016

Response by poster: To clarify: Jon1270, I appreciate your thought as I had considered that also. The door will open onto the upstairs landing, rather than having it open onto the stairway which might be hazardous. Our desire is to have it swing complete out of the way, to rest against the railing of the hallway landing. Otherwise it will stick out into the fairly narrow hallway at the top of the stairs so that people will have to walk around it when it is open.
posted by ragtimepiano at 12:24 PM on September 5, 2016

It would be helpful if you could put up a photo or quick sketch on some image hosting site, and give us a link to it. If you don't want the door to swing into the stairway then it's not clear what you want to do that can't be done with standard door hinges.
posted by jon1270 at 12:48 PM on September 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Be careful about the shape of the molding and the doorframe; I have a door that doesn't open as far as the hinges would allow because it runs into the doorframe molding first.
posted by aimedwander at 2:13 PM on September 5, 2016

it seems to me like you're going to have trouble closing this door unless I misunderstand how you plan to install it. A drawing would be helpful.
posted by Nerd of the North at 3:22 PM on September 5, 2016

Would it be possible to get a door that opens the other way (that is, not obstruct the stairs)?
posted by ethidda at 4:20 PM on September 5, 2016

I too am not able to visualize the layout that you are talking about. None of the versions that I can come up with in my head make any sense, or would require a door that could swing that far. For a door to swing 270 degrees, it would need to swing through the wall in which the door is installed or else the layout would have to be kind of weird. Also there's a railing involved somewhere? I don't get what you're trying to do, so I can't come up with any productive suggestions.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 5:55 PM on September 6, 2016