Door Handing Chart: LH, RH, LHR and RHR for Commercial Orders

A door handing chart identifies a commercial swinging opening by the hinge side and the direction of travel, viewed from a defined reference side. Use the outside or key side before assigning a hand, rather than switching viewpoints between the drawing and the field. The designation belongs in the order information for the opening, alongside the hardware configuration it needs.

Quick answer: Establish the key-side view, then record hinge location and whether the leaf moves toward or away from that position. Viewed from the key side, LH and RH swing away from you (inswing), and LHR and RHR swing toward you (outswing). Confirm the designation against the selected manufacturer's drawings before releasing an order. Mills & Nebraska has an Architectural Hardware Consultant on staff for commercial hardware specification support, so send the marked plan with your question rather than an abbreviation alone.

How do you read a commercial door handing chart?

Read the following four designations while facing the opening from its outside or key side. Keep that position fixed for the entire comparison. Allegion's handing reference sheet, revision October 2014 illustrates the same regular and reverse arrangements.

• LH, left hand: the hinges are to your left, and the leaf travels away from you.
• RH, right hand: the hinges are to your right, and the leaf travels away from you.
• LHR, left hand reverse: the hinges are to your left, and the leaf travels toward you.
• RHR, right hand reverse: the hinges are to your right, and the leaf travels toward you.

These entries describe the opening from that reference position. The building's designer determines the required arrangement. If the plan and the proposed order disagree, ask for clarification instead of choosing whichever abbreviation looks familiar.

A reverse designation changes the toward-or-away part of the description, not the reference side. Write the full term beside its abbreviation during review if the recipients may use different terminology. Maintain the same viewpoint when comparing designations.

Which side is the outside when the door is inside a building?

For an interior opening, identify the key side or the designated reference side from the project documents. Outside in a handing diagram does not necessarily mean outdoors. A corridor-side view of an office opening can be the relevant outside view even though both spaces are within the building.

The VT Industries door-handing bulletin, with revisions dated November 2018 and June 2025, describes the outside of an interior door as the key side or means of egress, and the outside of a closet door as the side opposite the closet. Its swinging-door illustrations provide a manufacturer reference for those conditions.

If a passage opening has no cylinder, mark the intended reference side on the plan and have the project team confirm it. Without a cylinder on the reference face, the reviewer may need another documented cue to identify the intended view. For unusual arrangements, send the manufacturer's drawing with the question instead of relying on the word outside by itself.

Mills & Nebraska supplies both commercial hollow metal doors and architectural wood doors. Select the applicable manufacturer's handing instructions for the material and configuration being ordered; do not treat a familiar chart as a substitute for the product documentation.

What should a plan mark or field photograph show?

Show the opening identifier, the reference-side location, the hinge edge and the intended swing. That information can help a remote reviewer understand where the photographer stood; request further detail if the orientation remains unclear. A close-up of a lever alone leaves the opening orientation unresolved.

For a field review, consider an overall photograph from the agreed reference side with the leaf partly open, plus an opposite-face view if it would clarify the hardware arrangement. For a drawing review, annotate the plan's swing arc and reference-side location. Label the evidence with the same opening mark used on the order.

Include the requested hardware function and the door and frame details with that evidence. The Steel Door Institute's SDI 111D-24 scheduling guidance includes a handing chart keyed to the lockset's key side, and its suggested schedule gives hand a separate column from hardware group and other opening information. This is coordination guidance, not a rule that a photograph alone establishes code compliance.

Flag any mismatch between the architectural swing and purchased hardware for the designer and supplier. Keep the confirmed answer with the order revision so a later reviewer can see which opening arrangement was accepted.

How does handing work on a pair of doors?

For a pair, document the arrangement of both leaves and identify the active leaf where the configuration has one. Use the selected manufacturer's pair detail to identify which leaf it designates as active. A bare double-door notation may need an accompanying detail before the reviewer can compare it with the manufacturer's pair diagrams.

SDI 111D-24 illustrates active-leaf pair arrangements as well as single openings. Use the relevant pair detail instead of extending a single-door shortcut to every configuration. If the leaves swing in opposite directions, show that geometry explicitly and request the corresponding manufacturer detail.

Record which leaf receives each hardware item and whether a removable mullion or other coordinating component is specified. Treat those as information to confirm, not assumptions based on a photograph. Commercial door hardware for Florida buildings covers the broader hardware package; this check concerns orientation within that package.

Does a handing designation tell you the hardware preparation?

No. A hand identifies orientation, while the selected hardware documentation identifies the required preparation. Preparation means the holes, cutouts or other provisions made to accommodate hardware. Confirm both before treating a proposed door and hardware package as coordinated.

Compare the named model, function and template with the opening's confirmed hand. Ask whether the supplied configuration is handed, can be reversed under its instructions, or is non-handed. Confirm reversibility in the selected model's instructions.

Mills & Nebraska performs frame fabrication and door preparation in house. For that shop scope, send the agreed orientation together with the applicable hardware details to its fabrication service, so the shop has the machining information as well as the hand. Frame selection itself is addressed separately in the hollow metal frames article.

What should you confirm before releasing a handed opening?

Resolve any disagreement among the plan, the schedule, the manufacturer detail and the field evidence before release. Keep the confirmation specific to the opening under review. A general instruction such as match the adjacent door is not a recorded designation unless the referenced opening is also identified.

• Match the opening mark across the plan, order and photographs.
• Identify the reference side on the marked plan.
• Compare the leaf's swing with the chosen hand description.
• For a pair, identify each leaf and its assigned hardware.
• Confirm the product's handing and reversal instructions.
• Retain the approved clarification with the order documents.

This is an order-coordination checklist, not a determination of accessibility, fire-rating or egress requirements. Refer those questions to the project designer and the applicable opening documentation. A correct hand does not establish that the entire assembly is appropriate for its location.

FAQs

Is RHR another name for LH?

Not when the same key-side viewpoint is maintained. Those designations describe different hinge-and-swing combinations in the reference above. If two people assign different names to one opening, first compare the sides from which they are viewing it, then reconcile the manufacturer diagrams before ordering.

What if a supplier writes LHRB instead of LHR?

The B means bevel, as in left hand reverse bevel (LHRB) and right hand reverse bevel (RHRB). SDI's chart uses those abbreviations, and its glossary defines reverse bevel as the hand of a door or lock on outswing doors. Steelcraft's handing diagrams, page revision October 2018, explicitly pair the full reverse-bevel terms with LHRB and RHRB.

Can this chart determine the hand of a sliding door?

Use instructions for the actual sliding configuration, not a swinging-door hinge-and-arc test. VT's bulletin separates swinging arrangements from sliders, pocket doors and bifolds. Send the applicable manufacturer diagram with the opening description so the reviewer can use the appropriate reference rather than translating this chart by guesswork.

Contact Mills & Nebraska with your marked opening detail and confirmed orientation for a commercial door order.