Why Won’t My Kitchen Cabinet Door Close? (Quick Fix)

It’s one of the most annoying problems in our daily episodes in the kitchen; When the cabinet doors refuses to shut all the way. There are many reasons why this actually happens.

Here Are Some Of The Reasons Why Your Kitchen Cabinet Door Won’t Close

Kitchen cabinet door might refuse to close all the way because of an underlying problem with the hinge. The hinge may be broken, bent or have screws that have loosen up. It might also be that the doors have distorted from steam or heat of everyday cooking, or the track area has an obstruction that is preventing the door from shutting all the way.

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The Reasons Why Your Cabinet Door Won’t Close

Hinge problem

Oftentimes, the reason why your kitchen cabinet door isn’t closing is because of an existing problem in the hinge: either in its adjustment or installation.

If your hinges have screws that are loose, that can cause the doors to actually fall out of alignment. You can have doors that sag and wont close, you can have doors that sit lower in alignment compared to adjacent doors, and also doors that just won’t fully close.

What to do in this case, is to actually open the door, inspect the hinge and try to see if there are any screws that have begun to loosen up.

Tighten these screws using an appropriate screwdriver and if that doesn’t solve the problem, then move on to the next fix on this troubleshooting guide.

Bent screw

Sometimes a loose screw really isn’t the problem, and all there is, is really a hinge that has bent over due to rough handling of the doors, or the everyday wear imposed on them through constant opening of the doors.

Check to see if there’s a bend on your hinge and try to fix that by detaching the hinge from the door and bending it back to shape.

Note that hinges typically come in different shapes, and some, like the overlay hinges are actually designed to be bent, so do not mistake these for a bend.

When you’re done fixing the bend, install the hinge exactly in the position where it was and close the door to see if it shuts all the way. If it doesn’t, then you should move on to the next fix on this troubleshooting guide.

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It may not be a loose screw, or a bent hinge, it may be a broken hinge, and in this case, there really is no option but to get a new hinge to replace the previous one. Make sure to get the exact type of hinge so the replacement project runs smoothly.

Hinge Adjustments

You can also try adjustments. European style hinges come with screws that can adjust/shift your doors in different directions. The first screw adjusts your doors in and out (or right and left when we consider the door in a closed state).

Your door might just simply be sitting far too right or too left and needs to be aligned to a proper position. So test the screws and see what happens afterwards.

The screw at the far end (closest to the back of the cabinet) adjusts the projection of the door from the surface of the cabinet frame (or the side of it, for inset doors). Most at times, for doors that aren’t closing fully, it’s this depth screw that needs adjustment. Adjust the screw so that the door is pushed away from the surface of the cabinet at the hinge end and that should stop the door from popping right back when you try to close it.

The last adjustment screws to talk about are the screws that adjust the door up and down. You can find these positioned on the hinge plates (top and bottom), or embedded in the hinge design itself, typically in the middle of the front and back screws.

Typically, these screws are rarely the cause of a door that refuses to close, but it’s not certain until it’s tried, so go ahead and adjust the doors up and down using the screws to see what happens. Do this only when the previous adjustments haven’t solved your problem.

Swelling

Sometimes the issue may be far from the hinge. It may be that you have a swollen substrate board from moisture (steam) that evaporates from cooking and settled on the board, building up overtime and causing a swell.

Boards that are very susceptible to moisture problems are particle boards, if you have one, inspect it closely to confirm it’s swollen.

If your particleboard is swollen and you’ve confirmed that’s the reason why the door isn’t closing, there are two possible courses of action you can take.

The first is to sand off the part that protrudes and is causing the issue, and second, is to simply replace the door (if that is what is swollen and not the cabinet carcass itself)

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You can rely on a magnet catcher or a roller catcher as a temporary fix pending when you have a new door or cabinet installed.

Heat

Steam or moisture isn’t really the only thing that can cause wood to distort. Heat also can cause them to expand, to wrap or even change shape and that can be the reason why your doors aren’t closing.

The sources of heat in your kitchen can be the cooktop and also appliances that are positioned directly under the upper cabinet.

They way you can battle this problem is to use a heat shield on the bottom of the upper cabinets, and to actually make sure you position the steam generating appliances in such a way that the heat they emit does not always endup on the exposed side of the cabinet.

Cabinet doors that have wrapped or shrunken from heat can also be repaired by sanding. You should sand the face that is affected until it perfectly fits into the track.

An obstruction

An obstruction can also be the reason why your cabinet doors aren’t closing. It may be a tiny stone on the track or something in the hinge that is preventing it from functioning properly. It could even be a chip on the edge of the door!

Make sure to really inspect the area to make sure there is no obstruction whatsoever.

Help! My Cabinet Doors Aren’t Closing After Painting

When you cabinet doors that aren’t closing after painting, the following are likely the issue.

Paint on the hinge

It’s very common to paint cabinets and find that the doors aren’t closing completely. The most likely cause for this is that you refused to detach the doors from the cabinet and therefore hardware (like the hinge) from the doors before painting, and as such, you have paint residue that made their way into the hinge and is actually causing some resistance to occur.

You can go ahead and inspect the hinge and clear off any residue you find in there, and also make sure to lubricate the hinge afterwards.

Depth of paint on the side of the door and door track

It could also be that you have some depth of paint on the sides of the door which is preventing it from closing properly. This is typically the result of doing many layers of paint on your doors. One thing that can also worsen things is if you painted the inside of the cabinets too, including the tracks for the door. It can all build up extra layer of paint that would serve as an obstruction. So the best solution is to sand the door track area as well as the sides of the door in order to reduce the depth of paint.

Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Kitchens