Hinges are one of the most frequently ignored parts of a door. People call me out all the time to fix their lock when the problem is actually that the screws are coming out of their hinge preventing the door from shutting or the hinge pin has worked its way out and the door is sagging as a result. They do need to be replaced from time to time though. They bend, the metal wears away, and ball bearings seize.
Replacing a hinge can be easy or it can be hard. Those who perform this service are no stranger to stripped out screws, stripped holes, and hinges that don’t conform to common standards. Hinges on a bedroom door can be easy for the homeowner, provided that the exact same type of hinge is used. I’ve seen people try to replace hinges that don’t have the same measurements and this causes problems. For one, larger hinges will require mortising more material from the door and doorframe to install. If you don’t mortise them in properly the door might not close. All kinds of issues crop up if you don’t mortise hinges in correctly. There might be drafts, for example.
Fortunately most hinges have certain hole patterns and sizes. I deal with a lot of 5″ hinges most of the time and have them in my van ready to go. Residential hinges are usually smaller, less than 4″. Even so it is no big deal to take a hinge to the hardware store and find one that looks exactly the same, go home and screw it in.
I can come out and replace your hinges or fix stripped screws at your location. I charge a fee to come out which is dependent on how far from Green Lake you are, and the cost of the hinge. Some of my commercial hinges are expensive, $100 each. They have ball bearings and don’t wear out easily. I like the Lockt hinges that have adjustable screw holes, it is really a step forward in hinge tech.
If you want to do it yourself I will take no responsibility for what you might do after reading this spurious fish wrapper of a website. My legal team advises you to consider the following fiction for entertainment purposes only.
If you have hinge problems, identify the problem first. If the hinge is not secured to the door and the frame, try tightening the screws. If the screw spins in the hole and won’t tighten, you either need longer screws in the case of wood or a welder/door company if it is a metal door with metal tabs that are threaded.
If the hinge is loose but the screw head is stripped then I have to remove the screw by either modifying the head to work with a flathead screwdriver such as cutting a slot with a dremel tool, using a screw extractor that drills into the screw head and pulls it out, or drilling the screw head and then after removing the hinge unscrewing the remaining screw with pliers.
If the screws are tight but the door still seems to sag, it may be a problem with the door frame. Fire fighters love to pry door frames away from doors and fixing this problem is above DIY level. On the other hand if you pull the door up and see the two parts of the hinge moving in ways they shouldn’t, you should replace the hinge.
The correct way to replace a hinge is to first support the door so that it doesn’t sag and mess up the other hinges once you remove the top hinge, the most likely hinge to have problems. You can put a bunch of books under the door or even shove a door stop wedge under it. Just make sure that it is really nice and firmly secure so the door doesn’t slip. Also make sure somebody doesn’t come along and try to move the door. Put some obstructions in the way like ladders. Take it from me, people rarely read signs advising not to use the door.
(At this point if you are a giant cheapskate you can save money by moving the bottom hinge to the top of the door and put the top hinge on the bottom. The top hinge will wear far more than the bottom hinge usually and if there is a middle hinge you can swap hinges fairly safely on a door that weighs less than 200Ibs)
Now take your worn hinge and go get a replacement hinge at the hardware store. You will probably want one with the same hole pattern but you definitely want one with the same dimensions. If you want to splurge and replace all two or four, do it now and forget about it. While you are at the hardware store think about how tight the screws were to unscrew if it was a wood door. If they were easy to unscrew you might want to get longer screws. Make sure however that the head shape of the screw is the same. If the head is too big, the hinge can’t close all the way and your door will bounce open and your hinge will fail prematurely. If the head is too small it may slip through the hinge hole and the door can fall off the hinge. I’ve seen people use deck screws, drywall screws, and even button head screws that all caused greater problems than they were trying to solve because of these problems.
If you use longer screws you can attach the hinge to the stud behind the door frame. If you use an impact driver and nice screws you could actually drag the door frame over and out of alignment. It is important that the screws tighten and you stop. If you keep tightening the screw you will actually pull the door frame over so far that the door no longer latches and maybe you will see sunlight when the door is shut (not good!)
So at this point you should have screwed the hinge in, now is the moment of truth when you must remove the support and let the door hang on your handiwork and see if it shuts. It’s not a bad idea to tape over the latch at this point to make sure the door doesn’t lock when you shut it. Locks can malfunction if the door is slightly higher or lower than it is supposed to be, or closer to the frame than it was…
If the door shuts and opens successfully remove the tape and try again. If it worked better than before, magnifique! You saved over $100.