Changing Direction Internal Doors Open

Black Hole

Black Hole

May contain traces of nut
EEPhil said:
Not quite "ethics" but a tale of not being kept informed.
My mother fell in the toilet on Friday and wasn't found until I delivered the shopping (10:15am). Of course, there was no way into the toilet and eventually I had to saw the door off. This was after I'd sent for an ambulance. Lucky I did because it took over three hours to arrive. By then I'd got the door off, couldn't lift her off the floor. She decided to walk on her bum from the toilet to her bedroom despite being told not to. I still couldn't lift her and with various chairs footstools etc. couldn't get her to lift herself up. Ambulance arrives with crew of three (one each paramedic, technician and trainee). They get her onto a chair, do some tests and decide to take her into hospital mumbling about UTI and possible sepsis. Of course with coronavirus I can't go in the ambulance nor, I'm told, can I go to A&E myself either. I'd given all known details to the ambulance crew and yet I get a call from the ED (A&E to me) asking me some of the same questions. Nobody has given me any contact details, so I look up QMC (Nottingham's rather large hospital) on t'net to find the telephone number. Ring the number on the landline (7pm now). First thing is a load of blurb about covid-19. Then get the operator, who transfers me to patient admissions. I'm then told that the patient is in A&E Majors. I'm given the extention number and also transferred to A&E Majors. Oh she's just been transferred to ward D57 (Older persons assessment). But, fortunately, I managed to get some information out of A&E Majors (UTI and cellulitis requiring IV antibiotics) before I was transferred to D57 (and given the extention number). Except I wasn't, after 15 minutes listening to the same "music" repeated, I gave up.
Saturday: Try to ring D57 via landline - except I can't get the system to recognise the extention number from the phone (still managed to get coronavirus blurb) . Switch to mobile and ring D57 again (Coronavirus blurb) and find out what's going off - fine, you'd think.
Today (Sunday): Ring D57 via mobile (Coronavirus blurb) and ask how she's doing. Oh she's been transferred to D51 - I'll transfer you (no extention number given). Phone rings and rings for over 5 minutes. Give up. Go on the net again and look up ward D51. There isn't a ward D51. Ring up admissions via mobile (Coronavirus blurb) and ask them where she is. C51 "I'll transfer you, the extention is 69001, oh, no it isn't it's 69051". Get through to C51 and talk to a nurse who after a lot of quizzing transfered me to the nurse who was dealing. Except this didn't work, the phone just kept on ringing. Then, the landline rings. The nurse I'm being transferred to on the mobile has rung me back on the landline. Apparently there is a fault with their phone. It seems that things are improving and some discussion of discharge will take place tomorrow - when the correct staff (those that can make decisions) are working. Let's see how much phone fun I have tomorrow. Another ward switch? All this and trying to make a repair to the toilet door. :frantic:
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Ouch!
 
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Don't bathrooms have those locks you can open from outside with a coin? Still, if she fell behind the door, what can you do?

Lady next door fell at the end of her garden, and nobody knew she was there. Of course, she didn't have her panic button on her.
 
Ah, interesting. If you replace the locks or handles on the doors, there is usually an option to have these. Perhaps old doors and locks don't allow them.

Well worth getting, though, if you have the option.
 
Mike2 said:
there is usually an option to have these
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Usually? It depends on the style of the door furniture, which will no doubt have been chosen to suit the decor and match throughout the house. "Usually" would require a survey of the door furniture available on the market, and the proportion of them with that option.

As a very crude test: a search on diy.com for "door handle" produces 172 hits - but a search for "bathroom door handle" produces 19 hits. Do the maths.
 
Mike2 said:
Don't bathrooms have those locks you can open from outside with a coin? Still, if she fell behind the door, what can you do?
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This is just a toilet. Normal to smaller the size of your average public toilet cubical. No bath involved.
Black Hole said:
In a domestic situation? I would hazard a guess at "rarely".
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The lock wasn't on. No, it was the behind the door that was a problem. Open the door about 9 inches. Can't get in. How the hell she fell at right angles to the bog I can't work out. Time to break out the jigsaw and make a mess of the door (and the saw). Made a temporary repair that gives some privacy when doing the business. Only hope I haven't got to "blow the bloody doors off" again. What I need is a door that either opens outwards or concertinas up.
Black Hole said:
It depends on the style of the door furniture, which will no doubt have been chosen to suit the decor and match throughout the house.
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The house was built around 1946 and has the original door furniture. Oh the joy of bakelite door knobs!
 
Black Hole said:
As a very crude test: a search on diy.com for "door handle" produces 172 hits - but a search for "bathroom door handle" produces 19 hits. Do the maths.
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26 marked door handle, but the 172 hits include plain handles and lockable ones, possibly also sets, so I am not so sure. A search for interior door handle gives over 500 hits. Something funny going on.
 
EEPhil said:
How the hell she fell at right angles to the bog I can't work out.
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I did that a year or so ago. I was getting up from the toilet and low bp must have made me pass out. I fell at right angles and my forehead and glasses hit the edge of the bath. One specs lens popped out and almost gouged me eye. Instead, it gouged my forehead.

14 hours later, I left A&E.
 
Mike2 said:
26 marked door handle, but the 172 hits include plain handles and lockable ones, possibly also sets, so I am not so sure. A search for interior door handle gives over 500 hits. Something funny going on.
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Why would anyone search for handles when looking for locks :)
 
trog said:
is it possible to simply rehang the door so its outward opening?
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With extreme difficulty. The frame the door hangs from has an overlapping surround that stops the door swinging too far and prevents peeping through the cracks.
 
@ EEPhil I assume you mean the door stop, the timber baton that the door butts up to, its usually just nailed in and after running a knife down its painted edge should prise off to be positioned to suit outward opening, even if it breaks it can be replaced for a minimal cost far less than repairing a door. The other alternative is to replace the hinges with a loose pin type, if the door opens a little way you should be able to push the hinge pins out to remove the whole door.
 
trog said:
@ EEPhil I assume you mean the door stop, the timber baton that the door butts up to, its usually just nailed in and after running a knife down its painted edge should prise off to be positioned to suit outward opening, even if it breaks it can be replaced for a minimal cost far less than repairing a door.
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Yes that's what I meant - couldn't remember the name of it. Don't think it's nailed on - here's a badly taken picture:
doorstop.gif
A=2.5", B=0.5". A is parallel to C and B is parallel to D (really!) B is the stop. D is the frame inside the room.

The other alternative is to replace the hinges with a loose pin type, if the door opens a little way you should be able to push the hinge pins out to remove the whole door.
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Now that is worth a look! :thumbsup:
 
trog said:
Why would anyone search for handles when looking for locks :)
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Because a door latch mechanism is inside a door, with the handle being the exterior operating part. Privacy mechanisms (which work by preventing the handle/knob being operated) can be buttons in the handle itself, or a turn button on the baseplate, with an override mechanism (such a a screwdriver slot) for the exterior handle/baseplate.

I think you must be talking about a bolt, not a lock.
 
Black Hole said:
Because a door latch mechanism is inside a door, with the handle being the exterior operating part. Privacy mechanisms (which work by preventing the handle/knob being operated) can be buttons in the handle itself, or a turn button on the baseplate, with an override mechanism (such a a screwdriver slot) for the exterior handle/baseplate.

I think you must be talking about a bolt, not a lock.
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I see what you are getting at but most of those rely on a bathroom lock being fitted first and more for lever handles and usually with knobs its a standard knob with the addition of turn lock. The lockable privacy knob type you see in hotels would be fine but I suggested the indicator bolt as a cheaper easier fix for the problem.
 
EEPhil said:
Yes that's what I meant - couldn't remember the name of it. Don't think it's nailed on - here's a badly taken picture:
View attachment 5119
A=2.5", B=0.5". A is parallel to C and B is parallel to D (really!) B is the stop. D is the frame inside the room.


Now that is worth a look! :thumbsup:
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Its a long time since I've seen an avocado bathroom :). Not sure what A is but it appears to prevent outward opening being an option, Usually a door frame is about 4" to 6" or so wide with a door stop pinned on at a doors depth in from the side it opens to rather than a one piece frame and its quite easy to just more the door stop and re-hang the door. Its not possible to see the construction of A and B from your pic so thats about all I can say.
 
So how would a bolt prevent someone from falling behind an unlocked door?
 
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