Is a South-Facing House Bad in Vastu? The Myth and the Rule
Is a south-facing house bad in Vastu? The myth and the rule
The belief
Ask around and you will hear it stated as fact: a house that faces south is bad Vastu. Some buyers will not view one. Some sellers discount the price. The belief is so widespread that many people who know nothing else about Vastu know this.
It is worth taking seriously, because it costs people money and peace of mind. It is also not what the practice says.
What the practice actually says
Vastu does not score a building by the direction its front wall faces. It scores the main door, and it does so precisely: every wall is divided into eight equal entrance positions, numbered from the left-hand corner as you walk round the building clockwise from the north-west.
On the south wall the positions run from S1 at the south-east corner to S8 at the south-west corner.
| Position | Zone behind it | Verdict for a main door |
|---|---|---|
| S1, S2 | South-east, south-south-east | Neutral |
| S3, S4 | South-south-east, south | Good |
| S5 | South | Neutral |
| S6, S7 | South-south-west | To correct |
| S8 | South-west | To correct |
So a south-facing house with its door in S3 or S4 has one of the best entrances a building can have. The same house with its door three metres further along the wall, in S7, needs correcting. Same wall, same direction, opposite verdicts.
Why the belief spread
Partly because the south is the zone of fire, and fire sounds dangerous. Partly because the south-west, the zone of savings and stability, is the one corner the practice wants solid and closed, and a door near it is a real fault. Over generations "a door near the south-west is a problem" seems to have shortened to "south is bad", which is a much simpler rule and a much less accurate one.
There is also a climate reason. In hot regions a south-facing opening lets in the fiercest sun of the day. In a British or northern European house the opposite is true: south light is the light people pay extra for.
How to check your own door
- Find the true bearing of the building. A phone compass is easily thrown off by steel and wiring indoors; the free Direction Finder takes the bearing from a satellite view of the roof instead.
- Mark your front door on the plan. The tool names the entrance position it is in, the zone behind it and the verdict.
- If the door straddles two positions, judge it by the one most of the opening falls in.
If the door is in a position to correct
Nobody is asked to move a front door. The practice corrects it at the threshold, with a 3-inch tape or a metal strip laid across the full width from one wall to the other, in the colour or metal of the zone the door sits in. For a door in the south-south-west or south-west, that is a yellow tape, or a brass or lead strip.
That is the whole correction. No demolition, no new door.
The short answer
A south-facing house is not bad Vastu. A door in the wrong position is a fault, on any wall, and it is a fault with a simple correction. The full method, wall by wall, is in main door Vastu and the 32 entrance positions, and the zones behind each position are described in the sixteen Vastu zones.