How to adjust the hinges on a door that rubs or will not close

What you need

• Phillips or Pozidriv screwdriver to fit the screw
• Drill with a 3 mm bit
• Tape measure
• Wooden wedge
• 20 mm chisel (optional)
• Small hammer
• 4 x 40 mm wood screws (Spax or similar)
• Wooden matchsticks or dowels
• White wood glue
• Thin card for packing
• Fine lubricating oil
• Replacement hinges of the same size, in brass or stainless steel (Leroy Merlin, Bricodepot)

Step by step

1. 1

   Watch how the door closes

   Close it slowly and notice what happens: if it rubs on the top corner on the handle side, the top hinge is loose. If the latch does not enter, the door has dropped or the striker plate is out of line.

2. 2

   Tighten every screw

   With the door open and wedged, tighten the screws on all three hinges, starting with the top one. If any of them spins freely, go on to the next step.

3. 3

   Fill the hole that will not grip

   Remove the screw, push in 2 or 3 matchsticks with white glue until the hole is full, cut off whatever sticks out and leave it for 2 hours. Then screw back into the same spot.

4. 4

   Or use a longer screw

   If you do not want to wait, swap the short screw for a 4 x 40 mm one. In the frame, a 40 mm screw reaches the wall behind and grips much better. Check first that it does not hit the partition.

5. 5

   Pack out a sunken hinge

   If the hinge sits deeper than the recess, loosen the screws, slip a strip of 0.5 mm card behind the leaf and tighten again. With 1 mm of packing the door rises just enough.

6. 6

   Check the play in the pin

   Lift the door by the handle. If there is more than 1 mm of play, remove the hinge pin, clean it and oil it. If the pin is worn out, replace the hinge.

7. 7

   Replace a worn hinge

   Remove one hinge at a time with the door wedged. Fit the new one of the same height, width and thickness in the same recess, and screw it down. If you are changing all three, do it one by one.

8. 8

   Check the striker plate

   Close the door and see whether the latch touches the edge of the striker plate. If it sits too high or low, loosen the plate and shift it, or file the opening with a flat file.

9. 9

   Oil and test

   Put a drop of fine oil on each pin. Open and close the door 10 times. It should swing shut by itself when released 15 cm from the frame, with no noise.

What goes wrong with a hinge: loose, worn or out of line

An interior door weighs between 15 and 25 kg and hangs from three hinges. Over the years the load always works on the same parts. The faults repeat and it is almost always one of these three.

Screws that spin freely. The timber in the frame, especially pine and chipboard, breaks up around the screw. The door drops a few millimetres, the latch no longer lines up with the striker plate and it starts to rub. This is fault number one.

Play in the pin or the leaves of the hinge. If you lift the door by the handle and feel 1-2 mm of movement, the hinge is worn. It makes a noise, the door wobbles and no screw will fix it.

A hinge that is badly seated. If the hinge sits deeper than the recess, it pulls the door towards the frame and the door rubs on the handle side. If it sticks out, it leaves a gap on the hinge side and the door does not close properly.

Hinges on chipboard doors and furniture

Wardrobe and kitchen doors made of chipboard and melamine have cup (concealed) hinges, the kind you adjust with screws. If a cupboard door will not close or hangs crooked, you do not need to remove anything: they have three adjustment screws. The front one moves the door in and out, a side one shifts it left and right and a height one raises or lowers it. Turn a quarter turn at a time and test.

The typical problem is that the cup pulls out of the chipboard because the compressed board crumbles. In that case, take the hinge out, fill the hole with a wooden dowel and glue or with epoxy wood filler, and screw it back in. If the hole ends up too big, the cleanest solution is to move the cup a few centimetres with a 35 mm hole saw and use branded replacement hinges, such as Hettich or Blum, or to call a carpenter.

Common mistakes when adjusting hinges

• Simply tightening a screw that spins freely. Every turn destroys more of the timber. Fill the hole first.
• Loosening the screws on all three hinges at once. The door drops and is hard to put back. Work on one at a time, with the door resting on a wedge.
• Packing with anything to hand. Use thin card, from a cereal box, in 0.5 mm layers. A washer or folded paper gets squashed.
• Replacing hinges without measuring. They come in 80, 90 and 100 mm heights and with different corners, rounded or square. If they do not match, you have to chisel out the frame.
• Taking the door off without supporting it. It is heavy and can fall on you or scratch the floor. Get someone to help hold it.
• Painting over the hinges. The paint thickens the recess and the rubbing comes back. Protect them with masking tape before you paint.

When to call a carpenter, and prices

You can do simple adjustments yourself with a screwdriver and a little time. Ask for help when the frame has to be chiselled out, when the timber is broken and needs a repair piece, when the door is heavy (solid oak, 30 kg or more) or when it still will not close after adjustment. In that case the frame may have moved, and that is carpenter's work.

At Manitas Costa adjusting a door that rubs or will not close costs €40-70, and replacing three hinges costs €50-90. We give you a fixed price on WhatsApp from a photo of the hinges and of the spot where it rubs. There is more information on carpenter at home and on how much a carpenter costs.

This guide is about hinges that are loose, have play or do not close properly. If the door rubs on the floor or the frame and needs planing, see door rubbing on the floor. If it is the door leaf itself that is damaged, there is how to repair a wooden door. And if the problem is a loose handle, here is the guide. We work as a carpenter in Valencia and a carpenter in Alicante.

Damp, swelling and flat doors on the coast

On the coast, timber moves more than inland. Damp swells the door in autumn and winter, and in summer, with the air conditioning on, it shrinks. That explains why a door that closed perfectly in August rubs in November, and why screws loosen with the seasons. Do not reach for the plane straight away: adjust the hinges first and see whether the rubbing disappears once the door has dried out.

In second homes that are closed for months, damp and salt air rust untreated steel hinges, which seize up or squeak. Replace them with brass, stainless steel or nickel-plated steel hinges, and put a drop of fine oil on the pin every year. On timber balcony and terrace doors, zinc-plated steel hinges last a very short time on the seafront, so choose stainless steel.