Hinges for Dummy Landlords

door hinges, butt style

Every once in a while one of our staffers runs across a freelance post that, on the surface, seems to contain useful information but – once you've actually read the thing – is the usual freelancer-generated bull. That's what you'll find today, in a HomeSteady.com post by one Kevin McDermott entitled "How to Hinge a Door."¹ The house grammar curmudgeon wants to make certain you know that "hinge" as a transitive verb is not his doing, by the way. He'd be inclined to use the term of art, "hang" a door.

McDermott begins, as eHowians (HomeSteady is one of the many niches constructed by Leaf Group for old eHow.com posts) must, with an introduction; in which he informs his readers that,

"Setting the hinges into a new door and hanging it in a doorway isn't the easiest home project you could pick, but it's not as hard as you might think. Mostly it's a matter of knowing where everything is supposed to go, and how to attach it. Make sure to buy reversible door hinges, which simplifies the project because you don't have to figure out whether you need right-handed or left-handed hinges."

Well, at least the EIU J-school grad agreed with our curmudgeon that "hinge" isn't a verb (though perhaps that was the other J-school grad in the content editor chair). We were amused to think that "handed" hinges are common enough that one needs to be careful to "buy reversible door hinges." None of our DIYers, who've installed many a door, has ever even seen non-reversible hinges: they're either spring-loaded or fancy asymmetric varieties. But, moving on... Kevin then informs his readers to...

"Place one of your hinges on the edge of the door about six inches from the top... The top of the hinge pin should be pointed at the top of the door."

A) the standard is 8 to 10 inches, B) measure to the top, middle, or bottom of the hinge? and C) since the hinges are reversible, what difference does it make? Kevin has more "interesting" instructions to follow, including,

"Drill pilot holes through each of the screw holes in the plate and into the wood of the door. Then sink hinge screws into each of the holes."

While there are such things as hinge screws, shouldn't you use the screws that came with the hinges you bought??? And... once you've installed all three hinges on the door, Kevin tells you to

"Hold the door in place in the doorway, in the open position, and set the hinge plates where they will go on the door jamb (the flat vertical span of wood that faces the inside of the doorway)."

First, that's not what a door jamb is and second, McDermott makes a mistake here by not telling his readers to adjust the clearance so the door will swing. That's a pretty serious mistake, Kevin... another is that, although McDermott obliquely mentions that the open end of the pin should face upward, he never bothers to mention that, when closed, the leaves of a properly installed hinge lie flat against each other. Oops – we'll bet our Dumbass of the Day didn't know that would be important.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_5184480_hinge-door.html

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