Door Hinges

A big part of switching a door is dealing with the door hinges. These are all part of the brass hardware that has to be relocated. First, you should measure how high they are located, since you want the door (once it is switched) to sit the same vertically in the door opening. You then pull all the hinges, fill in the old cut-outs with wood putty, use a chisel to make new cut-outs, and then re-attached the door. Sounds simple in practice, but there is a bit of craftmanship to the whole process in terms of getting it to line up just right ... and I was glad my father-in-law Larry was around to direct.

Measuring upper door hinge location

Paper braces door before removing hinges
measure door hinges brace door

Larry unscrews door hinges while Kyle looks on

Kyle says he can help too!
larry drill door hinge kyle drill door hinge

Larry with sharp chisel makes new hinge cutouts

Alek screws hinges back onto door
chisel hinges screw hinges

Strip the door weather stripping

Touchup work on the new hinge cutout
door weather stripping chisel door hinge

Use Wood putty to fill in the old hinge cut-outs

Tapping the hinge into place with a hammer
wood putty kyle hammer hinge


The door kick plate is applied next.