European nerd here
Maybe I got the wrong impression, but after watching hundreds of American movies, the impression is that every house has a backdoor, something we see quite rarely in Europe.
European nerd here
Maybe I got the wrong impression, but after watching hundreds of American movies, the impression is that every house has a backdoor, something we see quite rarely in Europe.
Comments
But like how do you go into the backyard?
Most single-family homes have some sort of a backyard, and the backdoor’s a direct entrance into the backyard.
…How do you get to your backyard? Never mind fire codes (there have to be at least two egresses, and if it’s an apartment at least some of the windows have to be usable to evacuate.)
Fire codes
Do do do, lookin’ out my back door.
I don’t think I’ve ever been in a house that didn’t have a back door of some sort. It never occurred to me that this is an American thing.
England calls bullshit on this one
what if the front door is on fire?
If I remember correctly, having only one entrance/exit/method of egress violates fire code.
Might actually be a fire code thing. As far back as the early 80s in a single wide mobile home, literally the least “house” you can get in America, it had a front and a back door.
My current house has 3. The front door, a back sliding glass door, and the door to the garage.
European fire codes allow for a single point of egress?
Many houses do, mainly because most houses have a second yard in the back. Easier to have a door for that than to go out the front and around the house, especially since that yard is usually fenced off
How do you escape when thugs are at your front door?
Fire codes
Backyard/alley access and is a safety feature in case of a fire to have another exit.
I’m a little confused, because every house I’ve ever stayed in while in Europe has had a back door. What is it about our back doors that seems different?
How do you get out back? You have to go out the front and walk around every time? How do you let the dog out?
I’ll be honest we haven’t used the front door in like over a decade. Everyone goes through the back door since that’s where the driveway ends.
I’ve been in some Victorians in my area that have 4 – 6 doors to get outside.
I like choices in case I need to get out of a burning building.
A lot of houses have 3 around here. Front back, and possibly garage.
I live in an apartment building. It has the main entrance and a back exit through the basement, which however does not function as an entrance (unless you have a special key, which residents don’t). There are also a few first-floor apartments with an entrance door from outside.
Backyard space
Yes, most homes have a front and back entrance. I do not know exactly why. It’s just standard here
I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but I’m pretty sure that the majority of US houses (at least those that were built in the last 50-70 years) have three doors – A front door that is only used by guests, a garage/side door that the residents and family/friends use, and the back door to go out into the back yard.
Do you not have backyards?
Because we are all big believers in Feng Shui.
I’ve been in a lot of European homes, and I’ve never noticed a lack of rear entrances.
A lot of them have a side door too.
There should always be more than one way into or out of a building. A single point of entry or exit seems to be asking for trouble.
Every European house I’ve been in also had a back door, I call bullshit.
Three actually, there’s also a side door in many suburban houses.
American houses are build like front yard, house then backyard, sometimes connected by side yard that can be small. When I was in Europe I noticed at on someone’s plot of land that house might be build anywhere within that plot of land, so it could be less uniform with the yard/garden blending together rather than front and back. Usually people come in through the front or an attached garage and go to the backyard via the back door.
ETA- on top of that, I’ve heard the US has very strict standards of building codes comparatively, having two exits is probably one of them.
Back doors aren’t rare in Europe.
What are you talking about? Every house I’ve been to in Europe that has a yard (as in not an apartment) has a back door.
I’m not sure where in Europe you are, but I’m going to blow your mind, my house has 5 doors to the outside.
I’m curious to know where you’re from OP because in the UK back doors are insanely common and every other country I’ve been to in Europe also has a back door so the claim that they’re ‘rare’ in Europe is questionable
European houses only have 1 door?
We often have backyards and the backdoor lets out into the backyard for ease of access.
If there is no backyard there might be a side door that is closer to the driveway, again for ease of access. Also there’s safety in having more than one exit
Baby, I also have two entrances
🫦🫦🫦
I’ved lived in Europe and I can’t think of a single house I saw or was ever in that didn’t have a back door.
I know England and my experience doesn’t represent all of Europe but every house I’ve been in has had a door leading to the back yard.
My grand parents and one of my aunts also has a side entrance as well as the front and back door (so 3 entrances)
How do you get to the back of your house without a back door? Go out the front door and walk all the way around your house? What if your house is connected to other houses on the sides?
There is an interesting type of row house called back-to-back, prevalent in certain areas of England during a certain time, where each apartment only has a front entrance. The back wall of my apartment is also the back wall of your apartment that fronts onto the next street. This type was deprecated as slummy, but it has some fans in the urbanist community.
Anyway, a highly specific exception that may prove the rule of back doors to most residential building types.
I’ve lived in ten different European houses, all of which had (at least) one back door. Several have had more than one.
I don’t recall ever visiting a European house without a back door (though it’s certainly possible).
This is a very strange question, predicated on something frankly incorrect.
My husband and I have family all over Europe and I can’t think of a single home that I’ve been in that DOESN’T have a back- or side- entrance.
This has to be satire. That or it’s the latest in the “I saw x in an American movie, so Americans are the only ones in the world who do this.” But also.. European houses have a back door
I’m not a historian, but my guess would be for practicality and safety. In terms of safety, if there was a fire blocking one exit, I would go out the opposite door. For practicality, my driveway is by the back of my house. I’m not going to park and walk all around my house, especially if I’m unloading stuff. As a side note, I have a 3rd door that leads to the outside from my basement stairwell.
Confused. All the Euros I’ve met make liberal use of the back door.
I mean, I’ve only been in a few English and Scottish homes (that weren’t flats) and they had front and rear doors too. Can’t say anything for the rest of the places I’ve visited as I didn’t Air BNB homes in Netherlands and Germany.
How else are you supposed to get to your backyard, however small it may be?
Why?
Of course, the usual: really weird question = no response from op.
I’m wondering if they mean it literally, like they’ve watched something on tv where people ENTER the house frequently from both sides of the house, which is possible in other countries (or pretty much everywhere) but not common use.
It is slightly more common in the US depending on where you live or where your garage/driveway is located.
A Brit here, front and back doors are very very normal. I don’t know what part of Europe is ‘back door less’.
Most Building codes require two egresses…so like, we gotta