How to Determine Door Handing

Most lever locks are handed because they have a high quality, "European" style mechanism that provides a firm feeling, spring supported rotation downward and a solid stop at the top of the movement. Since the levers do not rotate upward, we must assemble the levers with prior knowledge of which will be on the outside and which on the inside.

When ordering lever handles or handlesets, we'll need to know the handing of your door. If you order the incorrect door handing you will either have locks on the wrong side of the door, levers that are upside down, or levers that point in the wrong direction and keep the door from closing properly.

Door handing is the direction in which your door swings. If the hinge is on the right, it's a right handed door, and you need a right handed lock. If the hinge is on the left you need a left handed lock. Alternately if you stand in the doorway with your back to the hinges, the direction the door opens is the handing.

Please refer to the illustrations below to determine which handing your will need before ordering your door hardware.






Exception to the Rule: If you have a locking door that swings outward, you'll need to order your lever handle in the opposite handing so that the lock is on the correct side of the door.

Example: Fred has a patio door that he wants to install a locking lever handle on. Refering to the illustration above and to the left, he stands in the door and the door swings out to his right side. However, since Fred's door swings out onto his patio, rather than into his home, he'll need to order the opposite handing than he generally would so that the lock is on the correct side. So, Fred orders a left handed lever handle.

This same rule applies to doors that use privacy levers. If the door swings out of the room, order the opposite door handing so your lever handle has the lock on the right side.

You do not need to determine door handing when ordering doorknobs, deadbolts and even some levers that are non-handed. Any lever handles that need to have their handing indicated will have the option upon checking out.

Now that you understand handing, check out these locks