What are Hinged Doors?

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Hinged doors can be mounted vertically or horizontally and can swing into or out of the room.

Hinged doors are doors that swing open in a direction, unlike sliding or pocket doors that slide, fold, roll, or are pushed or pulled in order to open. Hinged doors use hinges to swing. You can also choose double doors (also called French doors) that also swing on hinges, while there are other range of hinged doors available.

How do I choose between hinged door styles?

The most important aspect of choosing between various hinged door design options is what type of hinge you're going to purchase for the door, budget and use of the door. To make the choice easier and for more information on a hinged door let's break it down into two most common type: surface mount hinges for a door and reveal (inset) hinges for a door. Reveal hinges in a hinged door allow you to recess the hinge mechanism about 3/4" deep within the face frame for a clean look without requiring any additional space behind the doorway. The opposite is the surface mount hinge for a door, where the hinges of the hinged door are mounted to the surface of the doorway and can be placed about 3/4" in from each edge to allow for clearance. Once you have chosen between reveal or surface mount hinges for a hinged door, then you will choose your suitable hinged door style. Consider how you intend to use the room with respect to traffic flow when making your choice of the door. If high traffic is required, opt for solid wood doors rather than plywood core doors (you may want a veneer at that point). If security is desired, consider steel hinged doors with locking mechanisms instead of latch hardware alone. Doors with light falling on them give a glazed look. The glazed look is best visible on aluminium and glass door (with windows or without windows). Glass doors have high maintenance, though.

Where are hinged doors used best?

Hinged doors are best used in the rooms that receive the most traffic. Kitchens, bathrooms, laundry/utility rooms and mudrooms (entry closets) are very good examples of where hinged doors would function well. The advantage of such hinged doors is that they can be opened or closed with one hand while holding items or pushing a cart with your other hand. The hinged doors can also be placed at 90-degree angles to hallways to maintain a clear passageway.

What are the most common hinged door styles?

The four most common types of hinged doors are: bifold hinged doors, sliding hinged doors, folding hinged doors and barn hinged doors.

Bifold hinged doors

Bifold hinged doors provide access to closets or storage areas by stacking two or more panels side by side between two tracks. These hinged doors are available in many different materials and various price range including engineered hardwood, MDF (with or without veneer), PVC Sheet (with wood grain patterns) and Stainless Steel for high humidity areas like laundry rooms.

Sliding hinged door

These sliding doors roll on a track mounted on the floor and ceiling of the room into which they are installed. Contemporary hardware allows for concealed mounting within your custom cabinetry that can be released with just one finger.

Folding hinged doors

Folding hinged doors are usually mounted at 90-degree angles to allow for passage through narrow doorways. These folding doors are available in almost every material including engineered hardwood, MDF (with or without veneer), PVC Sheet (with wood grain patterns) and Stainless Steel for high humidity areas like laundry rooms.

Barn hinged doors

Barn hinged doors are traditional farmhouse style slat-style doors that are popular in both residential and commercial installations. These hinged doors are usually installed on track systems so they can be easily rolled open when needed but these hinged doors provide privacy otherwise. You'll also find aluminium hinged doors, patio doors, timber doors, French doors, etc. Most hinged doors are single doors but a range of hinged doors that swing open can be found. There are glass options are well.

What is the best way to install hinged doors?

The best way to install hinged doors depends on which type of hinge for the hinged door you've chosen. If you have decided on a surface mount hinge, then configurations for the hinged door should follow these steps: Determine whether you are going to install the hinges on the face frame or the cabinet itself. Mount the surface-mounted hinges in each door so that they are centred between each edge of the cabinet/face frame. Test fit the hinged door to make sure they are pushed and pulled to open and close properly. Secure the hinge leaves into place using screws, pocket hole screws (for MDF) or nails (for hardwood). For reveal hinges, follow these steps: If you will be installing your reveal hinges directly to your cabinets, secure them with screws through their self-closing feature while leaving them loose for now. Measure between your concealed hinges starting at 36" up from the bottom of the door opening. Once you have determined this height (36"), mark it onto all exposed faces of your hinge leaves. If you are using pivot hinges, mark the point where both pivots align. Adjust your hinge leaves so that they rest on their tops, measure for height and secure with screws through self-closing feature. This will allow for one side to be higher than the other in order to accommodate the space between cabinets. Test fit doors until each door swings without rubbing or binding against cabinet faces/backsplashes, then tighten all screws securely into place.

How do I space hinges?

Doors hinged incorrectly are troublesome. For superior security, every hinge should be spaced evenly apart on the door, because doors hinged in such way leave a consistent space between the left and right doors.

Install your hinge leaves to your cabinets (or the door) loosely with the self-closing screws. Adjusting them will allow you to catch small differences in details of cabinet face or back splash widths. You want to make sure that both doors swing freely without rubbing against the cabinet faces.
Once you have caught those differences, tighten down all screws securely on both leaves of each hinge. This is now where you'll mark the point for your pivot or screw hole depending on which type of surface mount hinge you use. For concealed hinges, if it's not already drilled out, drill out the pivot holes while leaving both leaves loose from their respective cabinets.
With your marking pencil, make a mark at the screw or pivot poi you are going to use. This is where both leaves will meet if open fully.
Check the height of your hinge on the door by aligning the point on your exposed leaf with your marked location. Now that you have found that correct height, measure up 36" from the bottom edge of each door opening and mark this onto all exposed faces of your hinge leaves which will correspond with the same 36" marks you made on all exposed faces of both doors so they can match up evenly when closed. For concealed hinges, drill out the holes for both hinges using pilot bits while leaving both leaves loose from their respective cabinets.
Once all pilot bits are drilled, set hinge leaves in place and secure with screws on the door using your self-closing feature. Hinges should now be securely attached to the doors and cabinets so they do not move when opening or closing.
For cabinet knobs, use a 90° angle ruler to measure between the cabinet edge and door edge of both doors where you want them to meet up for configurations of your hardware. Mark this onto the exposed face of each knob then remove these pieces for final installation.

Hinge spacing is easy and functional. One thing you need to keep in mind though is that once installed correctly, the only visible part on display will be the hardware which includes the knobs/pulls, hinges and pivot plates since all others are hidden by either the door frame or face frame.

The above steps are for when you are installing both doors at once which is ideal when planning out your kitchen cabinets to save time, but if you only need to install one door in particular make sure to adjust your hinges accordingly so they align properly after the installation. Also remember if there's glass installed in the window, ensure the glass doesn't break. The windows in the door can also have aluminium or other material such as metal screens. Not every door has an in-built window, which means there's a huge range of doors you'll find.

If not going for standard sizes, contact a service provider to learn about the product availability. Tell the service provider about your house design, project requirements, the requirement of windows (door with windows or without windows), slide requirements, wall structure, wind direction, outwards or inwards swing, etc. They'll give you the information of any door that match or suit your requirements. The Australian Government's My Skills website has some great information about courses to install and replace windows and doors.