Door Hardware Buying Guide
Help and information to ensure accurate ordering.
Backset: Backset is the distance from the center of the door knob bore to the edge of the door. This distance affects what size latch you will receive with your hardware.
A backset of 2-3/8” is standard for interior applications while 2-3/4” backset is standard for exterior doors.
Door Swing: All doors are either Left Hand swing or Right Hand swing. Interior passage and privacy knobs are inter-changeable to either swing. The swing is extremely important on interior passage and privacy levers and exterior entry sets that have a lever for the interior mechanism. Below are the ways to determine the swing of both interior and exterior doors.
Interior: Stand in the doorway with your back to the hinges. You will be standing sideways in the opening, looking at the part of the opening where the door latches into place when closed. Which side of you is the door on? If the door is on your right hand side, it is a right handed door. If the door is on your left side, it is a left handed door.
Exterior: Stand in the doorway with your back to the hinges. You will be standing sideways in the opening, looking at the part of the opening where the door latches into place when closed. Which side of you is the door on? If the door is on your right hand side, it is a right handed door. If the door is on your left side, it is a left handed door. If the door swings into the house it is an “In-swing” door, if it swings toward the outside of the house it is an “Out-swing” door.
Hardware Handing: When purchasing a lever set or an entry set with a lever for the interior mechanism, use the diagram below to determine the handing of the hardware set ONLY. This does not affect the actual swing of the door. The hardware handing is determined differently to make sure that the lever points AWAY from the jamb.
Function:
Passage: Passage sets are non-locking and generally used on doors where privacy is not a main concern such as closet doors, hallway doors etc.
Privacy: Privacy sets differ from passage sets in that they are able to be locked by use of a small thumb turn on the inside. These are typically able to be unlocked from the outside by using a small unlocking tool.
Dummy: Dummy sets do not have a latch; hence they do not actually hold the doors closed. These are typically mounted to the surface of the door and are used on doors that have an alternate means of latching. For example a double door that has ball catches would use dummy knobs.
Keying:
Single Keyed: Single keyed sets have key access from the outside and a thumb-turn on the inside.
Double Keyed: Double keyed sets have key access from both the inside and the outside. Both inside and outside locks would require the same key.
NOTE: When purchasing more than one entry set, ALL entry sets will be keyed alike unless you otherwise request.