Is your door catching on the carpet when you open and close it? Or is it not closing properly? Door misalignment disrupts your daily life, especially if it’s a door that experiences a lot of traffic, like a kitchen, bathroom or living room door.

The great news is that it’s straightforward to fix a misaligned door by adjusting the door hinges. We’ll walk you through different methods of adjusting door hinges, all of which require minimal effort and tools.

Are My Door Hinges Misaligned?

There are three easy ways to check door alignment and identify whether that’s what causing your problem. Here’s how to do it:

• Check the gaps: If there are slight gaps between the door and frame that are larger than the rest, you have an alignment issue.
• Check the level: Open the door and place a spirit level on top. If the bubble is in the centre, it’s not an alignment issue. If the bubble isn’t centre, then there is a problem with the alignment.
• Check the mitre joints: These are the pieces of wood that connect at the corners of the door. If these aren’t properly aligned, that could be what’s causing your problem.
• Check for compression marks: Unscrew the bottom hinge and look out for compression marks on the mortice (the part of the door where the latch sits when closed).

If you’ve checked all these and there doesn’t seem to be a problem, it’s likely not a door alignment issue or something that will be fixed by adjusting your door hinges. But don’t worry, we can help. Take a look at our piece on common door problems and how to fix them.

But for now, let’s assume you did identify an issue with your alignment. The next step is to confirm what type of door hinges have been installed.

What Type of Hinges Do I Have?

Unfortunately, there’s not one hinge type that’s used on every single door universally. In fact, we’ve listed 13 different kinds in our post covering door hinge types. Take a look so you can know your butt hinges from your offset hinges, and that’ll help you get started.

Now you’ve done your detective work, you can fix the issue.

How to Adjust Internal Door Hinges

There are three ways to adjust internal door hinges to resolve alignment issues, such as:

1) Swap to longer screws

What you’ll need: Screwdriver, 3-inch screws.

The top door hinge has to take a lot more strain than the others. If your door is dropping or sagging, then a simple fix could be to swap out all the screws holding the top hinge for longer screws. We recommend trying screws that are three inches long.

This will pull the door closer to the door frame and realign it.

2) Pack out the door hinge

What you’ll need: Screwdriver, excess cardboard.

Rather than the hinge needing to be adjusted closer to the door frame, it may be that the hinges are too close. Don’t worry though, this is as easy a fix as swapping out the top door hinge screws for larger ones.

All you have to do is loosen the door hinge (one at a time) and slip cardboard between the hinge and the frame until the hinge is sitting properly. Then tighten the screws and your problem should be fixed. You can do this for the top hinge, middle hinge and bottom hinge if needed.

3) Widen the gap between the door and the frame

What you’ll need: Screwdriver, cutting equipment (like a utility knife), and chisel.

If, when you were carrying out your ‘gap check,’ you noticed that there wasn’t a gap at all between the door and the frame, this could be the cause of the problem. This issue is caused by the hinges not sitting properly in the mortice.

This is perhaps the most difficult fix of them all, but still not overly complicated. To fix this problem, unscrew and remove the hinge that’s attached to the door frame. Then, cut along the edge of the compression marks and chisel away at the wood to create a deeper cavity for the hinge to rest in properly.

Reapply the hinges and your work is done.

How to Adjust uPVC Door Hinges on External Doors

Some modern uPVC doors make use of flag hinges, which need to be adjusted with an Allen key. In some instances, a 5mm Allen key should be all you need to complete the adjustments, in others, you may also need a screwdriver. Let’s explore:

How to Adjust Door Hinges with an Allen Key

Here’s what to do if you need to adjust a uPVC door with flag hinges:

Adjust the height

You may need to adjust the height of the uPVC door if it is too high or low consistently across the door’s width; you can use your Allen key to adjust this until it’s in a more natural position.

Simply insert your Allen key into the hinge and turn it upwards (clockwise) to lower the door by moving the hinge away from the door, or downwards (anticlockwise) to shift the door higher by moving the hinge towards the door.

For example, if the gap between the door and the floor is thinner on the bottom right than it is on the bottom left, you’d turn the Allen key in a clockwise motion for the bottom hinge and an anticlockwise motion for the top hinge to resolve the issue.

Adjust the door laterally

Take a look at the handle side of your uPVC door. It the gap between the door and the frame is too wide or too narrow compared to the rest of the door, it will need lateral adjustment.

The lateral adjustment may be positioned behind a plastic cover or plug. You may need to use a screwdriver to remove the cover and then you can insert your Allen key to make the required adjustments.

If you want to close the gap, turn the Allen key clockwise. Alternatively, if you need to widen the gap, turn it in an anticlockwise motion.

Adjust the compression

If your door isn’t closing properly even though you’ve adjusted laterally and the height, then your next resolution will be to adjust the compression.

Again, you’ll probably have to remove the plastic covering using a screwdriver first. You can then use your Allen key to tighten the hinges, resulting in a tighter seal between the door and the door frame.

What to do if the door has dropped

If your uPVC door is tilting or has dropped, then unfortunately you’ll have to do all three of the aforementioned adjustments to solve the problem.

It’s much easier than you may think to adjust uPVC doors and internal doors to make them last longer and perform properly. Over the years doors will start to sag, drop or drag on the floor, by adjusting the door slightly, you can get your door back to good working order.

Vibrant Doors are suppliers of high-quality internal and external doors and door furniture at fantastic prices with swift delivery. If your doors have seen better days, you can shop our range of stunning doors from trustworthy and reputable brands. 

Main image: Photo by Ksenia Chernaya on Pexels