How to replace kitchen cabinet hinges

Video by Tommy's Trade Secrets. This walk-through is based on the video "Tommy's Trade Secrets — How To Replace Kitchen Unit Hinges" from Tommy's Trade Secrets, a long-running UK trade channel that covers exactly these kinds of household jobs in plain, no-nonsense terms. Worth a watch before you reach for the screwdriver — the bit on measuring the cup hole diameter is easy to miss but matters.

1. Work out which hinge you actually need

Concealed hinges — the sprung, clip-on type fitted to almost every kitchen cupboard made in the last forty years — are not all the same. The most important measurement is the cup diameter, which is the circular recess drilled into the back of the door. The most common size in UK kitchens is 35 mm, but 26 mm cups do exist on some older or cheaper units, so measure before you order anything.

You also need to know the overlay. That is how much the door overlaps the cabinet carcass when closed. Full overlay doors sit almost flush with the frame edge; half overlay doors are used where two doors share a central upright. A standard full-overlay hinge will not work properly in a half-overlay situation. To be fair, most replacement hinges sold in DIY sheds state the overlay on the packet — just double-check yours matches.

2. Remove the old hinge from the door

Modern clip-on hinges simply press off the mounting plate with a push of a button or lever on the hinge arm — no screwdriver needed. Older screw-fixed hinges need a cross-head screwdriver or a Pozidriv bit. Either way, support the door with your knee or a wedge while you work, especially on heavy solid-wood doors. Let a heavy door swing free and it will take the remaining good hinge with it.

With the hinge arm free, the mounting plate stays screwed to the carcass. Leave it in place for now unless it is bent or damaged — if you can reuse it, you save yourself the bother of re-drilling pilot holes.

3. Check the cup hole in the door

Hold the new hinge cup against the existing recess in the door. It should sit flush or just proud of the surface — if it rocks or does not seat fully, the hole may be the wrong diameter or slightly too shallow. A 35 mm Forstner bit in a drill will clean up a shallow cup hole in a few seconds. Go carefully: drill too deep and the cup will sit below the surface and the hinge will not close properly.

If the old hole is damaged or the wood around it has split, fill with a two-part wood filler, let it cure fully, then re-drill. It sounds like extra work but it is worth doing rather than fitting a hinge into crumbling chipboard.

4. Fit the new hinge to the door

Push the hinge cup into the recess. The two fixing lugs should sit flat against the door face. Drive in the screws — most concealed hinges use small cross-head screws, usually 3.5 mm × 16 mm. Do not overtighten into chipboard; snug is fine. If the screws spin without biting because the old holes are enlarged, dip a wooden cocktail stick in wood glue, push it into the hole, snap it off flush, and re-drive the screw once the glue has set. Old trick, works every time.

On clip-on hinges, the arm simply clips onto the mounting plate once the cup is fixed. Line up the clip and press firmly until you hear a click. Give it a gentle tug to make sure it has seated.

5. Rehang the door and check the alignment

If you are reusing the existing mounting plate, clip the hinge arm back on and close the door gently. Concealed hinges have three-way adjustment — in/out (depth), side to side, and up/down — all via small screws on the hinge arm and mounting plate. You do not need to get everything perfect before you hang the door; adjust with the door in place.

Start with the side-to-side gap between this door and its neighbour. There should be a consistent gap of around 2 mm. Then check the front-to-back alignment to make sure the door face sits flush with the ones either side. Finally, if the door is sitting at an angle — higher on one side than the other — use the height adjustment on the mounting plate. That said, some older plates do not have height adjustment, in which case you need to reposition the plate itself.

6. Fit soft-close dampers if needed

While you have the doors off, it is worth fitting soft-close dampers if the old ones are noisy or the hinges do not have them built in. Most branded concealed hinges now include soft-close as standard, but older kitchens often pre-date this. Clip-in dampers are cheap — a few pounds for a pack — and they simply press into a slot on the hinge arm. It makes a surprisingly big difference to how the kitchen feels day to day.

Once all the doors are back on and adjusted, open and close each one a few times. If a door springs back or does not close flush, the hinge spring tension may need adjusting — a small screw on the hinge body controls this on most brands. Mind you, if the carcass itself is out of square, no amount of hinge adjustment will fully compensate, and that is a bigger job.

When to call a handyman

Call Richard if the carcass fixing points are damaged and the doors keep dropping, if the hinge cups in the doors have pulled through and need rebuilding, or if you have a full kitchen's worth of doors to sort in one go. Doing six or eight at a time with the right tools and a bag of spare fixings is straightforward enough — doing it one hinge at a time with a domestic screwdriver is surprisingly tedious. Get in touch and Richard can run through the kitchen in a couple of hours.