The Complete Guide to Replacing Door Hinges for Homeowners

Do you have damaged door hinges on some of the doors in your home? Or do you have door hinges that are on the older side and in serious need of door hinge replacements?

Either way, you should know that replacing door hinges isn’t difficult to do at all. You should be able to get old door hinges off and go through the process of installing new hinges in no time at all.

That being said, you should take the time to learn how to put new door hinges into place before you attempt to do it. Here is a complete guide to replacing door hinges for homeowners.

Decide Which Type of Door Hinges You Need

Prior to replacing door hinges in your home, you’re obviously going to need to get your hands on new door hinges. You should be able to find a large selection of door hinges at almost any home improvement store.

Generally speaking, most of the door hinges on interior and exterior doors in a home will have the same basic design. You should be able to find door hinges that look exactly like the ones that you already have in your home.

You might also want to explore some of the other types of door hinges that are out there. These types of double action hinges, for example, could work well in your home if you have the right kinds of doors hanging up in it.

Look for Door Hinges With the Right Finishes

In addition to searching for the right type of door hinges for your home, you’ll also need to carefully consider which finish your door hinges have on them. Ideally, you want the finish of your door hinges to match the finish on your doorknobs to keep everything looking uniform.

Some of the finishes that can be found on door hinges include:

Rubbed bronze
Satin nickel
Flat black

You’re welcome to mix and match different finishes throughout your home if you would like. But many homeowners opt to go with the same finish when installing new hinges to tie the interior design of their homes together.

Make Sure Door Hinges Are the Correct Size

One thing that you will want to keep in mind when shopping for new door hinges is that they do come in different sizes. There are 4-inch door hinges on most exterior doors and 3.5-inch hinges on most interior ones.

You can see how big your home’s door hinges are by measuring from the top of a hinge to the bottom of it. You should also pay close attention to the corners of your door hinges. You’ll need to buy new hinges that match these corners.

Most door hinges will have one of these three kinds of corners on them:

Square corner
1/4-inch radius
5/8-inch radius

Your job will be to inspect your door hinges to find out which types of corners they have on them so that you can buy new ones that will fit accordingly.

Remove Your Old Door Hinges One at a Time

Once you’ve obtained the new door hinges that you’ll need to go through with replacing door hinges, you’ll have to start to remove your old door hinges. You should steer clear of removing your doors altogether and instead focus on replacing one door hinge at a time.

To do this, grab a Phillips-head screwdriver and unscrew each of the screws holding an old door hinge in place. You should continue doing this until you’re able to remove an old door hinge completely.

As long as you have three hinges on each of your doors, you won’t have to worry about your door going anywhere while you do this. But you might need to get some help if you only have two hinges on some doors since removing a hinge could cause gravity to take a toll on it.

Put Your New Door Hinges in Place of Your Old Ones

After an old door hinge is out of the way, you can pick up one of your new door hinges and put it into position. It should fit right into the space that your old door hinge used to occupy.

You can then take the screws for it and screw it into both your door and your wall nice and tight. Your new door hinge should be secure as long as you followed all the steps leading up to this one.

You can repeat this same process over and over again while replacing door hinges all throughout your home. It won’t be long before you have brand-new door hinges all over the place.

Test Out Your New Door Hinges

Your new door hinges should look immaculate once you have them all installed. But are they going to deliver the kind of performance that you need from them?

It would be a good idea to walk around inside your home and open and close all of the doors with new hinges on them. These doors should open and close freely without any problems.

If, however, you find that some doors are difficult to either open or close, that is going to be an issue. You may have installed small and large hinges in your house that aren’t the right size. You might have to replace some of them again to ensure that they work the way they should.

Replacing Door Hinges Is Way Easier Than You Might Think

The mere thought of replacing door hinges is enough to scare some homeowners off. They’re often under the impression that doing it will involve removing a bunch of doors throughout their homes.

But as you’ve seen here, you can replace door hinges with ease by taking the right steps. Follow along with the steps here to replace your home’s door hinges quickly.

Look for other practical home improvement tips by checking out the rest of the informative articles that have been put up on our blog.