Hinges carry the whole weight of a door and decide whether it closes cleanly or drags on the frame. Fit them a millimetre too deep and the door binds. Fit them shallow and it will not shut.

This guide covers both methods joiners use: chisel and screwdriver, or router and jig. It also covers what changes when the door is fire rated, because that part is regulated and the rest is not.

Quick reference

What you need before you start

Two routes exist. The chisel takes longer and costs nothing beyond hand tools. The router with a hinge jig cuts faster and cleaner, and pays for itself if you are hanging more than one or two doors.

Tools

• Marking knife or a sharp carpenter’s pencil. A scored line stops the timber splintering when you chisel to it.
• Bevel-edged chisel, sharpened. A blunt chisel tears the grain and slips.
• Cordless drill with a torque setting, so you do not overdrive the screws.
• Combination square, tape measure, hammer or mallet, screwdriver, spirit level.
• Wedges or a door lifter to hold the leaf while you hang it.

Materials

• Hinges sized to the door’s weight and thickness
• The screws supplied with the hinges
• Wood filler and fine sandpaper for corrections
• Safety glasses and gloves

If the door needs trimming to fit the opening, do it before you cut any hinge recesses. JELD-WEN allow up to 4mm off each long edge and 6mm off the bottom of a moulded or flush door unless the door says otherwise. Take more than that and you cut into the lock block or the rails.

Check the door’s handing before you buy anything. Stand outside the room, and if the hinges sit on your left it is a left-hand door. Check the frame is square too, because a frame out of true will fight every measurement you take afterwards.

Match the hinge count to the door, not to its weight. JELD-WEN specify two 76mm hinges on a standard non-fire door, and three where humidity swings (a bathroom or kitchen) or where the door is glazed. Every fire door takes three. If you are unsure what your door is made of, our guide to door cores explains how to tell.

How long it takes

Allow two hours for your first door if you are cutting the recesses by hand. The second takes half that. With a router and jig, twenty minutes a door once the jig is set.

Two things are worth stopping for. If the frame is out of square by more than a few millimetres, hanging a door in it will not close the gap, and you are into frame work rather than hinge work. And a fire door’s rating depends on the whole installation, so if you are unsure about the gaps, the seals or the certified hardware, pay someone who fits them for a living.

Choosing the right hinge

Common types

• Butt hinges. The default for internal doors.
• Ball bearing hinges. For heavy leaves and doors that get used all day.
• Parliament hinges. Let a door fold flat against the wall.
• Rising butt hinges. Lift the door as it opens, useful over thick carpet. Never fit these to a fire door.
• Concealed hinges. Hidden when the door is shut.

You can see the full range in our ironmongery collection.

Internal, external and fire doors

An internal door in a heated house sits in stable conditions. Steel or brass butt hinges will last.

An external door faces rain, frost and daily slamming. Choose stainless steel or galvanised hinges, and consider security hinges with non-removable pins.

A fire door is a different job, and the rules are specific. The BWF Fire Door Alliance sets out what a fire door hinge must be:

• Three hinges minimum
• A CE or UKCA conformity mark
• Compliance with BS EN 1935, Annex B
• Materials with a melting point of at least 800°C
• Fixing screws of at least 30mm
• No rising butt hinges and no spring hinges. Neither is permitted.

That last point catches people out. A rising butt hinge is a sensible choice on a bedroom door over carpet and a prohibited one on a fire door.

The 3mm gap in the table above applies to ordinary internal doors. Fire doors work to their own figures, usually a maximum of 4mm to the sides and head and 8mm at the threshold, and the certified doorset specification overrides any general rule. If you need the inspection schedule, we cover it in how often fire doors need to be inspected.

Size

JELD-WEN specify 76mm (3″) hinges on their moulded and flush doors. Heavier leaves take 100mm (4″). Check the weight rating printed on the hinge packaging rather than working back from the size, because two hinges of the same length can carry very different loads.

Ignore any rule of thumb that sets the third hinge by a weight figure alone. The manufacturers do not work that way. JELD-WEN add the third hinge for glazed doors and for rooms where humidity swings, and every fire door takes three regardless of what it weighs.

Finish

Satin nickel, polished brass, antique bronze and matt black all work. Pick the finish first and buy handles, latches and escutcheons to match, or you will end up with three shades of chrome on one door.

How to fit door hinges with a chisel

1. Mark the positions

Measure 150mm down from the top of the door and 225mm up from the bottom. For a third hinge, find the midpoint between the two.

Those two figures are not arbitrary. At 150mm the hinge lands in the top rail, which is the solid part of the leaf, so the screws bite into timber rather than into a hollow section. Sources vary on the bottom hinge, from 175mm to 230mm. Wickes use 225mm and so does this guide.

Hold the hinge leaf against the door edge and score around it with a marking knife. Use the combination square to carry the lines across. Measure twice. Once you have removed timber you cannot put it back.

2. Set the depth

Every instruction to cut “to the depth of the hinge leaf” is useless until you can see that depth on the timber. Set a marking gauge to the thickness of one leaf, not the two together, and run it along the door edge between your knife lines. That gauged line is the floor of the recess.

No gauge? Stand the hinge leaf on end against the door edge and pencil along it. Less precise, still better than judging by eye.

3. Cut the recess

Pick a chisel narrower than the hinge is wide. A 19mm chisel suits a 76mm hinge. A chisel wider than the recess will cut past your lines every time.

Chop the outline first. Stand the chisel on the knife line with the bevel facing into the waste and tap it down to the gauge line with a mallet. Light taps. Work around all three sides.

Now break the waste up. Make a row of parallel chops across the recess, four or five millimetres apart, each one down to the gauge line. The waste then lifts out in ribbons instead of fighting you as one block.

Turn the chisel bevel up and pare those ribbons out from the open edge of the door. Then turn it bevel down, lay it flat on the floor of the recess, and level it with hand pressure. Put the mallet down for this part.

Drop the hinge in. The leaf should sit level with the door edge. Proud, and the door will not close. Sunk too low, and the knuckle takes the strain instead of the timber.

4. Drill pilot holes and fix the hinges

Mark the screw centres through the hinge holes. Take the hinge off and drill pilot holes slightly narrower than the screw shank.

On a fire door, use screws of at least 30mm. Short screws in a fire door are a genuine failure mode, not a detail.

Refit the hinge and drive the screws in gradually. Stop when they seat. Overtightening strips the thread in the timber and distorts the leaf.

5. Mark and cut the frame, then hang the door

Hinges go on the door first, then the frame. Ask ten people and half will tell you the opposite, but marking the frame from a door that already carries its hinges is what keeps the gaps even.

Stand the door in the opening on wedges, packed up so the top gap is 3mm and the hinge edge sits against the frame. Knife around each hinge leaf onto the frame. Cut those recesses the same way you cut the door: gauge the depth, chop the outline, break the waste, pare it flat.

Then hang it. Fix the top hinge first with a single screw so the door hangs but still moves. Check the swing and the gaps down all four sides. Drive the rest once you are happy.

If the frame already has recesses in it from an old door, skip this step and see Fitting a new door into an existing frame below.

How to fit door hinges with a router

A hinge jig and router give a cleaner, more repeatable recess. Worth the setup time from about three doors onward.

1. Clamp the jig to the door edge, aligned with your marks. Check it sits level before you switch anything on.
2. Set the depth. Fit a straight morticing bit and set the cut to the exact thickness of the hinge leaf. Test on offcut timber first.
3. Route the recess. Guide the router around the template at a steady pace. Let the bit cut. Forcing it burns the timber and leaves a rough face.
4. Square the corners. A router leaves them rounded. Take them out with the chisel and test-fit the hinge.
5. Check the fit. Flush leaf, no raised edges, no gaps at the ends. Brush the dust out before you drill.

Test your depth setting on scrap every time you change hinge type. Two minutes of testing saves a ruined door.

Fitting hinges to an exterior door

Weather and security change the specification.

Use stainless steel or ball bearing hinges. Seal or prime every cut face, including the mortice, before the hinge goes on. Bare timber inside a recess is where rot starts.

Security hinges with non-removable pins resist someone knocking the pins out from the hinge side. Check the compression seal closes against the frame without the door having to be forced.

Leave 3mm clearance around the edges. Timber moves between a wet January and a dry July, and a door fitted tight in winter will jam in summer.

Getting the frame fixings right

Cutting the frame recess is the easy half. Where the screws go matters more.

Drive them into the structural framing behind the lining, not into the lining alone. A door hung off 15mm of softwood lining will pull itself loose inside a year, and no amount of retightening brings it back.

Standard hinge screws often stop short of the framing. If yours do, swap them for longer ones on the frame side. Keep the supplied screws for the door side, where the leaf is what you are fixing into.

Fitting a new door into an existing frame

Most people reading this are replacing a door, not building an opening. The frame already carries recesses. Leave them where they are and work the other way round: mark the door from the frame.

Check three things before you cut.

Hinge size. Measure the recesses already in the frame. If someone cut them for 100mm hinges and you have bought 76mm, either buy hinges that match the frame or fill the frame recesses and cut them again. Matching the frame is the shorter job.

Door thickness. A 35mm door hung in a frame set up for 44mm sits further back and may miss the stop. Hold the old door against the new one before the old one goes in the skip.

Door size. Offer the new door up to the opening. Trim for a 3mm gap at the top and down the hinge side, and a little more on the latch side if the frame runs out of square. Stay inside JELD-WEN’s allowance of 4mm per long edge and 6mm off the bottom.

Then transfer the positions. Stand the door in the opening on wedges, packed so the top gap is 3mm and the hinge edge sits against the frame. Knife the top and bottom of each frame recess straight onto the door edge. Take the door out and cut those recesses as above.

Fixing common hinge problems

The door sags or catches on the frame. Tighten every screw first. If the screws spin, replace them with longer ones that bite into the stud behind the frame.

The hinge squeaks. Put a drop of light oil on the pin and swing the door to work it in. If that fails, tap the pin out, clean off the paint and grit, and refit.

The door binds against the frame on the hinge side. The mortice is too deep. Cut a shim from thin card, sit it flat in the recess behind the leaf, and refit.

The recess is too deep or ragged. Fill it with timber veneer or filler, let it dry fully, sand it flat, then refit.

Replacing hinges without taking the door off

You can usually do this one hinge at a time.

Wedge the door so it cannot drop. Take the screws out of one hinge only, swap it, and fix it before you move to the next. The remaining hinges hold the door in position, which keeps your alignment.

If the screw holes have worn loose, glue hardwood dowels into them, let the adhesive cure, then cut them flush and re-drill. A matchstick will not hold a door.

If the door still sags after new hinges, the frame fixing is the problem, not the hinge. Go to longer screws that reach the stud behind the lining.

Working safely

Wear safety glasses. Chisels throw chips and drills throw dust.

Keep your free hand behind the chisel edge, never in front of it. A sharp chisel that slips will go straight through a hand.

Clamp the door. A door that shifts mid-cut ruins the recess and takes the chisel somewhere you did not intend.

Sharpen your tools. A blunt chisel needs more force, and more force is what turns a slip into an injury.

The other two stages

Hinges are one of three jobs in hanging a door. Our guides to fitting a door frame and fitting a door handle cover the rest.

FAQs

How do you fit door hinges?

Mark the hinge positions on the door edge, 150mm from the top and 225mm from the bottom. Score around the hinge leaf, cut the recess to the exact depth of the leaf, drill pilot holes and screw the hinge to the door. Hang the door in the frame, fix the top hinge first, check the gaps, then fix the rest.

Do the hinges go on the door or the frame first?

The door. Fit both hinges to the leaf, then offer the door up to the frame and mark the frame recesses from the fitted hinges.

How many hinges does a door need?

Two on a standard internal door. Three on a glazed door, an external door, and a bathroom or kitchen door where humidity swings. Every fire door takes three, and that one is a requirement rather than a recommendation.

Is there a wrong way to fit door hinges?

The two common errors are cutting the mortice too deep, which makes the door bind on the hinge side, and screwing into the door lining instead of the structural framing, which lets the door sag. Fitting a rising butt or spring hinge to a fire door is a third, and it is not permitted.

Can you fit door hinges without a router?

Yes. A sharp bevel-edged chisel and a mallet will cut a clean recess. Score the outline, make a series of shallow cuts across the waste, then pare it out and check the depth against the hinge as you go.

Can I use the hinge recesses already in my door frame?

Yes, and you should. Measure them first to check they match your new hinges. If the frame was cut for 100mm hinges, buy 100mm hinges rather than filling the frame and starting again. Stand the new door in the opening on wedges with a 3mm gap at the top, then mark the door from the frame recesses.

How long does it take to fit door hinges?

Around two hours for your first door with a chisel, and about half that for the second. A router and hinge jig brings it down to roughly twenty minutes a door once the jig is set up.

What hinges do fire doors need?

Three hinges minimum, carrying a CE or UKCA mark, compliant with BS EN 1935 Annex B, made from material with a melting point of at least 800°C, fixed with screws of 30mm or longer. Rising butt and spring hinges are not permitted on fire doors.

Sources

• BWF Fire Door Alliance, fire door hardware:
  https://firedoors.bwf.org.uk/knowledge-centre/fire-door-hardware/
• BWF Fire Door Alliance, Best Practice Guide:
  https://firedoors.bwf.org.uk/app/uploads/sites/3/2025/10/Fire-Door-Alliance-Best-Practice-Guide-2023-8-1.pdf
• Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, fire doors fact sheet: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-england-regulations-2022/fact-sheet-fire-doors-regulation-10
• JELD-WEN, moulded and flush door fitting instructions (hinge count, 76mm size, trimming allowances): https://www.jeld-wen.co.uk/getmedia/566ee1e7-72f1-4e3c-9419-1ede12bea07c/Moulded-and-Flush-Door-Fitting-Instructions.pdf.aspx?ext=.pdf
• Wickes, how to hang an internal door (150mm/225mm positions, 3mm gap):
  https://www.wickes.co.uk/how-to-guides/home-maintenance/hang-an-internal-door