At my current rental rehab, the bathroom door opens inward as most interior doors would normally do. When this door swings inside the bath, about halfway if makes contact with the corner of the vanity and does not open any further. There is room for a person to walk through this partial opening (tight squeeze), however, there would even more room if this door opened outward (into the hallway) instead of inward.

To make this change, the hinges (w/steel pins in middle) that are attached to the inside jamb,..need to be relocated about 2 inches to the left so they attach to the part of the jamb near the hallway.

My question is: do the relocated hinges need to be reversed (flipped) before I re-mount them? Also, do the hinge halves attached to the door need to be flipped over?

I hope I do not have to figure out this door hinge mystery the hard way,..ie. trial and error. This is an original solid wood door and it is very heavy.

Roy, If you don't care if the swing of the door is reversed you can just;

remove the screws going into the jamb

reverse the knob's latch

screw the hinges into the exterior of the bathroom jamb's door stop

install the knob's strike in the correct location.

Now the door should be hinged on the opposite side of the jamb. It's a little confusing to explain but rather simple to do. This door use to be hinged on the jamb furthest away from the vanity & swing in. Now it's hinged on the side closest to the vanity & swings out.

Since the existing door & jamb may not longer be square or have been planed, trimmed etc, before you actually do this I suggest you try the door in the new position to be sure it fits OK.

As far as holding a heavy door in place while working on it we usually open the door 90 degrees & place supports under it. I find that 2 pairs of wedges, one near the hinge edge & the other near the knob do the trick. Using these wedges in pairs allows you to slip one in from the front & the back side of the door which helps prevent tipping. You could also use 1 or 2 of the air wedges to do the same thing. HD sells a blow up heavy duty rubber bag that can lift 300 pounds. They are about 6"x6"x1/2" and have a squeeze bulb to blow them up. My local HD has them in the tool section & sells them for $15.00 each.

I forgot to add that if you want the door to still swing from the side of the jamb furthest from the vanity, you will have to remove the hinges from the door & reinstall them so the hinge barrel is now on the exterior of the door instead of the side which facing into the bathroom. This is slightly more work.

Yep, make adjustment in Vanity. Your light switch may end up on the wrong side after the door is moved.

(I didn't follow exactly what you were doing)

I changed a door to an outswing because I changed the bowl in one bathroom to elongated. That little extra did not allow the door to open.

The fixture was a 10" back and not the standard 12" so I didn't have an option at the time.

Standard, DIY project.

Reverse Everything. (Swing, door, hinges, stop trim, latch)

Maybe now is the time to get rid of the heavy door and get a nice light one. Don't do this but I have seen corners of vanities cut off to accommodate a door.

The last shack we did the bathroom door swung out. In a narrow hallway full of doors. With the bathroom door open, you couldn't get past it to the bedroom. About made my head explode. But there wasn't enough clearance in the bathroom to swing it the correct way. Even changing the vanity size, moving everything over including the lighting.

Vee,

My plumber told me to NEVER put a wall mounted pedestal sink in a Class C rental house. Tenants will sit on it until it pulls away from the wall. You of all people, should know this. :)

My current vanity measures 25 inches deep (front left corner to the wall) by approx. 24 inch wide. Moving this is not a option. It would be much easier to change the swing of the door!

Right now, with the door open (inward), you only see 1/2 of the bathroom. After I removed the door from the hinges (for easier painting purposes), I was amazed at how much larger bathroom looks with no door on the hinges.

I would love to just leave the door off the hinges but that will never pass a rental inspection.

A pocket door is a great suggestion, however, that means opening up the wall and removing some studs which could be load bearing. I do not want to open a can of worms here but a pocket door would seem to be the perfect solution.

Roy,

If the original carpeneter installed it correctly you will have to do some minor chisel work to properly seat the hinges in the other direction. Minor.

In tight bathrooms we use the shallow vanity with the sink bowl that sticks out a bit. It allows more room for doors.

homedepot.com/p/Glacier-Bay-Chelsea-26-1-2-in-W-x-17-5-in-D-Bath-Vanity-in-Charcoal-with-Porcelain-Vanity-Top-in-White-CH24P2-CL/206925822

Looks kinda like am old fashioned pedestal sink. Only about 11" deep at the corner.

Or install a pedestal sink.

BRAD

Nicole,

This bath has a light fixture/vent fan wired together. If the light is switched on, the exhaust fan is running too. Plus, this house now has Central H/A with a register in the bathroom ceiling blowing 'dry gas heat' in there. I have done all I can do keep moisture at a minimum.

Brad20K - I will check out the sink you mentioned. The existing vanity has now been removed (bottom rotted out) and will need to be replaced with something.

When I get this house done (2 weeks), I will post some progress (rehab) photos of it. Actually, this house was the first fixer-upper I bought in 2006. Back then, I spent 6 weeks rehabbing this house and now the time has come to "do it all over again".

If you really need a small vanity, check out IKEA. We've resorted to that in a couple of places. The look nice and are holding up as well as anything from Lowe's.