How to fit door hinges

Video by Tommy’s Trade Secrets. This walk-through is based on the video “Tommy’s Trade Secrets — How to Hang a Door” from Tommy’s Trade Secrets, a long-running UK trade tutorial channel. It covers the full process of fitting hinges and hanging an internal door, and the section on getting the hinge recess depth consistent is particularly worth watching before you pick up a chisel.

1. Choose the right hinges for the door

Most internal doors in UK homes take 75 mm (3-inch) steel butt hinges, fitted in pairs. Heavier or taller doors — fire doors especially — need three hinges. Check the door manufacturer’s guidance if you have it, but for a standard 35 mm thick internal door, a pair of 75 mm hinges in brushed or polished steel is the right starting point.

Avoid cheap pressed-steel hinges if you can. They bend slightly under load and the door starts dropping within a year. Solid steel hinges cost a little more but stay true. If the rest of the ironmongery in the room is a particular finish, match it — it is one of those details people notice without knowing why.

2. Mark the hinge positions on the door

Standard hinge positions on an internal door are 150 mm down from the top and 225 mm up from the bottom, measured to the centre of each hinge. That said, some joiners go 175 mm from the top — it depends on the door style and the height. The important thing is consistency across all the doors in the house.

Use a sharp pencil and a combination square. Mark the top and bottom of each hinge leaf clearly. Then use the hinge itself as a template — hold it in position and score around it with a Stanley knife. A scored line gives you a crisp edge to chisel to; a pencil line alone is too vague.

3. Chisel the recess in the door edge

The recess needs to be exactly as deep as the hinge leaf is thick — typically around 2 mm. Too shallow and the hinge will stand proud, forcing the door off the frame. Too deep and the door will bind on the latch side. It is fiddly to get right first time, but worth taking slowly.

Make a series of shallow cuts across the grain within the scored outline first, then pare the waste out carefully with a bevel-edge chisel. Work with the grain where you can. Test the hinge in the recess regularly — it should sit flush with the door edge, not recessed below it. A couple of minutes checking as you go saves a lot of filling later.

4. Screw the hinges to the door

Once the recess is right, hold the hinge in place and mark the screw holes with a bradawl. Pre-drilling the holes prevents the timber from splitting, especially near the ends of the door where the grain can be short. Use the screws supplied with the hinge if they are decent quality; cheap cross-head screws with soft heads are a nuisance as soon as you need to adjust anything later.

Drive all the screws in fully but do not overtighten. The hinge should sit flat and not rock. Check the knuckle of the hinge is pointing outward — facing the room the door opens into. It is easy to fit a hinge back to front when you are working quickly.

5. Transfer the hinge positions to the door frame

With both hinges screwed to the door, offer the door up into the opening and wedge it at the correct height using a couple of timber offcuts or a piece of card under the bottom to create the clearance gap. Get someone to hold it steady if you can — this is the awkward bit of the job.

Mark the top and bottom of each hinge leaf onto the door lining, then score around them with a knife just as you did on the door edge. The positions must line up precisely or the door will bind or spring open. Take your time here; the frame recesses are no different from the door edge — same depth, same method.

6. Fit the door and check the swing

Chop the recesses in the frame, offer the door back up, and hang it on the hinges. Drive the screws in lightly at first — just enough to hold — before tightening everything up. Open and close the door slowly. It should swing freely without touching the frame, and the latch side should have an even gap from top to bottom.

If the door rubs on the latch side, the hinges may be slightly too deep on one side or the other — packing with a sliver of card behind a hinge leaf is the traditional fix. If the door springs open, the hinge recesses on the frame are probably a fraction too deep, creating what joiners call a “hinge-bound” door. A thin cardboard packing piece sorts it without any more chiselling. Mind you, if the frame itself is out of square, no amount of hinge adjustment will give you a perfect result — that is when a plane comes out.

When to call a handyman

Call Richard if the door frame is twisted or badly out of plumb, if you need to trim the door to fit a non-standard opening, or if you are replacing several doors and want them all hanging consistently. Fitting hinges is achievable for a careful DIYer, but the margin for error is small and a door that does not sit right is something you notice every single day.