Short answer
A cabinet door that will not close properly is almost always hardware, and the box stays. Watch which corner touches first as you close it. A door that rubs at one corner and lifts when you pull up on its edge has loose or worn hinges, and that is an adjustment or a new pair of hinges. A pull-out that lands crooked a different way each time has no hinge fault at all, because the bin frame has worked loose on its slides and gets re-squared and refastened.
Tell a worn hinge from a loose box in five minutes
- Empty the cabinet. Weight changes how every door and slide hangs.
- Close the door slowly and watch the gap. Note which corner touches the frame first.
- Grab the outer edge of the door and lift. A door that rises more than 1/8 inch has worn hinge cups or loose screws.
- Put a screwdriver on each hinge screw and turn it gently. A screw that spins without biting has stripped its hole.
- Press the cabinet stile beside the hinge. Wood that moves means the face frame is loose, not the hinge.
- On a pull-out, push it closed by hand and feel the last 2 inches of travel. A bump means something catches. A smooth glide that ends crooked means play.
- Load the pull-out and run it again. Faults that hide when the bin is empty show up under weight.
If one corner touches first and the door lifts, the hinges are worn or loose and that is the whole job. If the door or pull-out lands crooked a different way each time with every screw tight, the hinges are fine and the frame has lost its square.
Repair or replace
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Door rubs at one corner, hinges firm | Repair. Turn the hinge adjustment screws until the gap runs even top to bottom. |
| Hinge screws spin without biting | Repair. Plug the stripped holes with glued dowel, then redrive the screws. |
| Door drops when the shelf is loaded | Repair. Replace both hinges on that door, same cup size and same overlay. |
| Pull-out lands crooked a different way each time | Repair. Re-square the bin frame on its slides and drive the slide screws into solid wood. |
| Under-sink doors worst, others fine | Repair. Damp swells those stiles first. Reset that pair of doors and seal the bare wood. |
| Door face warped or the core swollen | Replace the door only. The box and the other fronts stay. |
| Box racked, sides pulling apart at the corners | Replace the cabinet. New doors on a box that has moved go back out of line. |
Can I do it myself?
Yes for most of it. Hinge adjustment takes one screwdriver and about 10 minutes per door, and stripped hinge holes take a glued dowel and an overnight wait. Buy hinges by cup size and overlay, not by brand, and change both on a door so it hangs level.
Hire someone when the pull-out frame has to come off its slides, when the face frame itself is loose, or when nothing you can see is wrong and the door still lands crooked. That last case is play in a pivot, and it only shows when a person loads the door and watches it travel.
What a contractor will ask you
Have these ready and you skip the back-and-forth.
- A wide photo of the whole cabinet front with the door or pull-out partly open, so the fronts, tracks and brackets all show at once.
- Whether the closed front sits crooked in the opening, or sits proud but still level.
- Whether the looseness is in the whole pull-out box on its slides, or only in the front where it meets the bin frame.
- How old the cabinets are, counting from the original install.
- Whether the front hits a bump near the end of travel, or slides smoothly and still ends up crooked.
- Whether either metal slide looks bent, cracked or pulled away from the cabinet wall, comparing left against right.
- Whether any screw or bracket at the slides or hinges is missing, loose or sitting in a stripped hole.
- How many doors are affected, and which one is worst.
Common questions
- Why does my cabinet door close crooked a different way every time?
Play in a pivot has no fixed position, so the front settles wherever it lands. A worn hinge cup or a worn slide still looks straight and still feels tight by hand. That is why everything checks out and the door still misses.
- Can cabinet hinges be adjusted or do they have to be replaced?
Most of them adjust. A European cup hinge has two or three screws that move the door side to side, in and out, and up and down, and that covers almost every rubbing door. Replace the hinge only when the cup is cracked or the door drifts back out of line within days.
- Do I have to replace the whole cabinet if the doors won't close?
No. The hinges, slides and screw holes are the parts that wear out, and the box usually outlives all of them. Replace the cabinet only when the box has racked or the sides are separating at the corners.
- My cabinet doors have sagged for years, is it worth fixing now?
Yes, and it is one of the cheapest fixes in a kitchen. A sagging door keeps working its own screw holes wider, and a stripped hole costs more to repair than a loose one. Start with the under-sink doors, because damp reaches those first.
- Everything on my pull-out looks tight and it still will not close, what now?
Get it looked at in person. Play in a slide does not show in a photo and does not feel loose when you wiggle it by hand. A contractor loads the bin and watches the travel, which is the only way to see which side is giving.