Door handing explained: LH, RH, LHR, RHR (and why you keep getting it wrong)
Handing trips up new estimators every week. Here's the rule that actually works, with a flowchart and the situations that break it.
More returned doors get sent back because of bad handing than any other reason. The terminology isn't hard — it's just easy to second-guess. Here's the one rule to remember.
The rule
Stand outside the room — on the side where the door swings away from you, the side where you'd push to enter. Look at the hinges:
- Hinges on the LEFT and door swings AWAY from you → Left-Hand (LH)
- Hinges on the RIGHT and door swings AWAY from you → Right-Hand (RH)
- Hinges on the LEFT and door swings TOWARD you → Left-Hand Reverse (LHR)
- Hinges on the RIGHT and door swings TOWARD you → Right-Hand Reverse (RHR)
"Stand outside. Hinges tell the hand. Swing tells the reverse." If you have to think harder than that, you're overthinking it.
Why "outside" matters
"Outside" is the secured or public-facing side of the opening. For a corridor-to-office, it's the corridor side. For a building entry, it's outside the building. For a closet, it's the room (not inside the closet). When in doubt, it's the side where the keyway is — locks always face the secured side.
Why handing matters for hardware
Hinges are usually non-handed (they work either direction), but almost everything else is handed:
- Locksets: the latch bevel must face the strike, so the lockset has to be ordered for the correct hand.
- Closers: parallel-arm vs regular-arm mounting depends on which side the door swings.
- Panic devices: rim and mortise exits are handed; surface vertical rods are reversible.
- Continuous hinges: handed for most applications.
Pair doors
On a pair, identify the active leaf first — that's the one with the lockset. The handing of the pair is the handing of the active leaf. The inactive leaf is held closed by an astragal and flush bolts; it doesn't have its own hand designation.
If a door is going into a non-rated interior opening with a passage or privacy function, the architect may spec "reversible" hardware. This means the lockset can be flipped on site — but the door itself still has a hand. Order the door for the most likely hand and you'll save yourself a return trip.
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