How to Fix a Loose or Sagging Kitchen Cabinet Door
Nine times out of ten a loose or sagging kitchen cabinet door is fixed with a screwdriver in under five minutes. Almost every UK kitchen uses concealed “euro” hinges, and those have adjustment screws built in — you rarely need to remove anything. The trick is knowing which screw does what.
Work through this in order. Each step is quicker than the one after it, and most doors never get past step two.
Step 1: Tighten what is already there
Open the door and check every screw on both the hinge cup in the door and the mounting plate inside the carcass. Hand-tighten them with a screwdriver — not a drill, which will strip chipboard in a second.
If a screw spins and never bites, the hole is stripped. Skip to step 4; tightening will not help.
Step 2: Adjust the hinge
This is the step most people miss. A concealed hinge has three separate adjustments, and each one moves the door in a different direction:
| Screw | Where it is | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Side to side | Nearest the door, on the hinge arm | Moves the door left or right. This is the one that closes an uneven gap between two doors. |
| Depth | Rear screw, in a slotted hole | Moves the door in or out from the carcass. Use it when the door sits proud or rubs on the frame. |
| Height | The two screws holding the mounting plate to the carcass | Raises or lowers the whole door. This is the one that fixes a sagging or dropped door. |
To fix a sagging door: slacken the mounting plate screws on both hinges by about a quarter turn, lift the door square, and retighten while holding it in position. Do not undo them fully or the door will drop off.
To fix a door that will not sit flush: use the depth screw on both hinges, a quarter turn at a time, checking the gap after each.
To fix an uneven gap between two doors: use the side-to-side screw on the door that is out. Adjust the top and bottom hinges separately if the gap is wider at one end than the other.
Always adjust in small increments and close the door to check between each one. Chasing a big adjustment in one go is how you end up worse off than you started.
Step 3: Check the door is not the problem
If the hinges are tight and adjusted and the door still will not sit right, look at the door itself. Solid timber doors move with humidity, and a door beside a hob, kettle or dishwasher can swell enough to catch. In a new kitchen this often settles on its own after a few weeks. In an older one, a slight depth adjustment usually buys the clearance you need.
Step 4: Repair a stripped screw hole
Chipboard and MDF carcasses strip easily, particularly where a hinge has been working loose for months. Three fixes, in order of how well they last:
- Cocktail sticks or matchsticks and PVA — the quick one. Dip several in wood glue, pack the hole tight, snap them off flush, leave to dry, then drill a small pilot hole and refit. Good for years in a low-stress hole.
- A glued hardwood dowel — the proper repair. Drill the damaged hole out to 8mm, glue in a dowel, let it cure, cut flush and drill a fresh pilot. This is the one to use on a heavy door.
- Wood filler — the weakest option. Two-part filler holds better than the ready-mixed kind, but neither grips a screw as well as timber does. Fine for a light door, not for a pan drawer or a tall larder.
Whichever you use, let the glue cure fully — usually overnight — before putting a screw back in. And drill a pilot hole rather than driving straight into the repair, or you will split it.
If the hinge cup in the door itself has broken out, that is a bigger job: the fix is usually a repair plate, or moving the hinge and drilling a fresh 35mm cup a little further along the door.
Step 5: Replace the hinge
Replace rather than repair when the hinge is rusted, the arm is bent, the soft-close has failed, or the spring no longer holds the door shut.
Before ordering, note three things about the existing hinge:
- The cup diameter — almost always 35mm on UK kitchens.
- The overlay — full overlay (door covers the whole carcass side), half overlay (two doors share one side), or inset (door sits inside the frame). Fitting the wrong one will not let the door close properly.
- Whether it is soft-close, and whether the damper is built into the hinge or clipped to the carcass.
Most modern hinges clip on and off the mounting plate without tools, so the swap itself takes seconds once you have the right part. Browse our cabinet hinges if you need a replacement.
Step 6: Catches and bumpers
If the door closes but drifts open, the catch is the culprit rather than the hinge — on sprung hinges the spring has tired, and on unsprung doors the magnetic catch needs adjusting or replacing.
Self-adhesive bumpers will not fix a loose door, but they stop slamming and take the shock out of a door that gets used constantly — worth adding once everything else is square.
Keeping it from happening again
- Check hinge screws once a year, particularly on the doors that get used most.
- Tighten by hand. A power driver strips chipboard almost instantly.
- Do not let children swing on doors — it is what pulls hinge cups out of MDF.
- Deal with a door that has started to drop straight away. Left alone, a sagging door works its own screws loose and turns a two-minute adjustment into a hole repair.
Frequently asked questions
How do I fix a sagging kitchen cabinet door?
Slacken the two screws holding each mounting plate to the carcass by about a quarter turn, lift the door back to square, then retighten while holding it there. If the screws will not grip, the holes are stripped and need packing with glued dowel or cocktail sticks first.
Which screw adjusts a kitchen cabinet hinge?
There are three. The screw nearest the door moves it side to side; the rear slotted screw moves it in and out; the pair holding the mounting plate to the carcass move it up and down. Adjust one at a time, a quarter turn at a time.
How do you fix a stripped screw hole in a cabinet?
Pack it with cocktail sticks or matchsticks dipped in PVA glue, snap them flush and let it dry, then drill a small pilot hole and refit the screw. For a heavy door, drill the hole out and glue in a hardwood dowel instead — it holds far better than filler.
Why does my cabinet door not close properly?
Usually the depth adjustment, a tired spring, or a swollen door. Check the hinge is clipped fully onto its plate, adjust the depth screw a quarter turn at a time, and look for anything catching — a shelf, a bin, or the door next to it.
Do I need to replace the hinge or just adjust it?
Adjust first — it fixes most problems. Replace when the hinge is rusted or bent, the spring no longer pulls the door shut, or the soft-close has stopped working.
What size are kitchen cabinet hinges?
The cup is almost always 35mm in UK kitchens. What varies is the overlay — full, half or inset — so check which yours is before buying replacements.
Shop replacement cabinet hardware
Hinges, catches and handles for kitchen and cupboard doors — next-day UK delivery on in-stock orders.
Fitting new handles at the same time? Our cabinet handle placement guide has the measurements for every cabinet type.
