Before you reframe anything, change the hinges

What is door widening?

Door widening increases the usable opening so a wheelchair, walker or wheeled shower chair can pass through. The number that matters is clear width with the door fully open, not the size of the frame - an open door leaf and its hinges take a real bite out of the gap. Because of that, the cheapest fix, swing-clear hinges, sometimes solves the whole problem without touching the wall.

Signs you need door widening

• Knuckles, hands or wheel rims catch on the frame every time the chair goes through
• A walker has to be turned or folded to get through an internal door
• The bathroom door is the one that is not wide enough, which is the one that matters most
• The paintwork on both sides of a doorway is scuffed at wheel height
• A carer cannot walk beside the person through the opening
• A wheeled shower chair fits everywhere except the room it exists for
• A new chair is wider than the previous one and doors that used to work no longer do

Seeing something not on this list? Browse aging in place problems by symptom →

How door widening actually works

1. 1

   Measure the chair, then measure the opening

   The chair's widest point in use includes the hands on the rims and any elbow movement, and it is wider than the catalogue figure. The opening is measured with the door fully open, from the door face to the stop on the other side. Those two numbers tell you how much width you actually need to find.

   Watch forUsing the manufacturer's chair width. People propel with their hands outside the wheels, and the gap they need reflects that.

2. 2

   Try swing-clear hinges first

   Swing-clear or offset hinges let the door swing completely out of the opening instead of standing in it. They recover the width the door leaf was occupying, they take an hour, they are inexpensive and they are entirely reversible. On a good number of doorways this is the whole answer.

   Watch forA contractor going straight to reframing. Ask explicitly whether offset hinges would give enough width. If the answer is no, ask by how much it falls short.

3. 3

   Consider removing the door, or changing what kind of door it is

   Some interior doors are not doing anything and can simply come off. Where privacy is needed, a pocket door, a barn-style sliding door or a curtain removes the swing entirely - which also frees the floor space the door was sweeping, often as valuable as the width itself.

   Watch forA sliding door specified for a bathroom without checking it can be operated and latched by the person. Some sliding hardware needs a pinch grip and a sideways pull that is harder than a lever handle.

4. 4

   Establish whether the wall is load bearing

   If the frame has to be widened, everything depends on whether the wall carries load from above. A non-bearing partition is a comparatively contained job; a bearing wall needs a properly sized header and temporary support while it is opened, which is structural work with an engineer or a qualified contractor and an inspection.

   Watch forA confident answer given from inside the room. Determining this properly means looking at what runs above - joists, trusses, the floor above, the roof - and it is not a guess anybody should make casually.

5. 5

   Find out what is inside the wall

   Widening an opening frequently means relocating electrical cable, switches, a duct, or plumbing that runs in the same stud bay. Those are separate licensed trades and they are the usual source of the difference between the quote and the invoice.

   Watch forA price quoted without anyone checking the panel, the switch positions or where the pipework runs. On bathroom doorways in particular, there is often something in that wall.

6. 6

   Rebuild the opening properly and make good

   A widened opening needs the framing done correctly, a door and casing that fit it, flooring made good across the threshold, and finishes matched. The making-good is a real part of the cost and is where cheap quotes tend to be silent.

   Watch forA level change or a strip of unfinished floor left in the new opening. It becomes exactly the catch point the widening was meant to remove.

7. 7

   Check the approach as well as the gap

   A wide door is no use if the chair cannot line up with it. Doorways at the end of a narrow hallway need turning space to approach square, and that constraint frequently decides how wide the opening really has to be.

   Watch forA widened bathroom door opening off a narrow hall with no room to turn. Push the actual chair through before the work is finalised, not after.

What does door widening cost?

This spans a very wide range. Swing-clear hinges are a small hardware cost; reframing a non-bearing opening is a contained job; a load-bearing wall with a new header, relocated services and finishes is a substantially larger one. Establish which of the three you are in before budgeting. See the Cost Guide.

See the full door widening cost guide - by material, size and region →

If the number is the problem, here are the ways people pay for it →

Work out how much width you need → Measure the chair in use, not from the brochure.