Home, moving & space
How to Measure a Doorway’s Clear Opening
Ask someone how wide a door is and they will usually measure the door itself, or the frame from edge to edge. Neither is the space furniture can use. What matters is the clear opening — the gap left when the door is open as far as it goes — and it is noticeably smaller than either. This guide explains where to put the tape, what reduces the opening, and how to note it down.
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Width: measure with the door open
- Open the door fully, as it will be on moving day.
- Measure from the face of the open door — or the hinge side stop if the door swings well clear — straight across to the door stop on the latch side.
- Measure at the height the furniture will pass, and again near the floor and the top, and use the smallest.
- Check for anything that sticks into the opening: a door closer, a handle on the open door, a weatherstrip.
Height: from the floor or threshold
Measure from the top of the threshold, or the floor if there is none, up to the underside of the stop or frame at the top. Do it at both sides and the middle; old houses settle, and floors and frames are rarely perfectly square.
Why the frame measurement misleads
Suppose the frame measures 32 in between the jambs, but the open door’s face stands 1.75 in into the opening and the stop on the other side is 0.5 in deep. The clear width is 29.75 in. A desk 30 in deep that would clear the 32 in frame upright with 2 in to spare is a quarter-inch too wide for the real opening.
| What you measure | What it includes that furniture can’t use |
|---|---|
| The door slab | Nothing about the opening at all |
| Frame edge to frame edge | The stops, the hinge side, and the open door |
| Jamb to jamb with the door off | The stops only — the real opening if you take the door off |
| Open door face to the opposite stop | Nothing: this is the clear width |
Write it down properly
- Note clear width, clear height, and which door it is.
- Note what is in front of and behind the door: a hallway, a wall, a step.
- Note whether the door can come off its hinges, and the opening without it.
- Use one unit for everything — mixing inches and centimeters is the most common measuring mistake.
Doorway Clear Opening FAQ
- What is a doorway’s clear opening?
- The unobstructed gap when the door is open as far as it goes: the width and height furniture can actually pass through.
- Is the door’s width on the label the same as the opening?
- No. A door sold as 32 in is the slab’s width; once it is hung and open, the opening it leaves is smaller.
- Should I measure the opening at the floor or the middle?
- At several heights, and use the smallest. Frames are rarely perfectly square.
- Do I count the threshold?
- Yes — measure height from the top of the threshold, because furniture has to clear it.
- How deep is a door frame, and does it matter?
- The frame’s depth matters for long items turning into a door, because they have to clear both sides of the frame as they pivot. For a straight carry, width and height are what count.
Related guides
- Standing Furniture Back UpWhy a tall bookcase or wardrobe laid down to get through a door may not stand back up: the arc it sweeps, the ceiling height it needs, and what to do when the room is too low.
- More Width From a DoorwayWhere the hidden width in a doorway is, the reversible changes that recover it — door off, stops off, handles off — and how to check each one before you start.
Open the tool
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