Everything you've always wanted to know about hinges but were afraid to ask.

Well, in my case, not really. I have never wondered about hinges. In fact, until a few weeks ago, I didn't even care about them... Until I got this phone call from my builder: "Can you go select the hinges you'd like for the interior doors as well as for the entrance door?... Me "O_O.... I didn't know that was part of the job description... Where do I start?". 


Yes, where do I start? Because it turns out that when you start exploring the world of hinges, you are in for many sleepless nights. It is almost like diving deep deep deep into the ocean and discovering all these weird species of fish and sea creatures that you never knew existed. Well, obviously, not quite... In fact, it has nothing to do with it. Hinges are sort of boring, they tend to pretty much all look alike but still there are books and books of reference for them. 
At any rate, I went to the hardware store and befriended one of the owners there, who knows everything about door hardware, hinges, locks and he sort of makes the whole thing interesting. I came in and told him what I needed and he went at the back of his store, brought back a few catalogues, told me what to look for and said "good luck, come back and see me when you have found what you like".... "Find what I like... Did you just hand me the last Anthropology catalogue, because I can tell you, I will find many things I like. "No, no he said. These catalogues are all about hinges...". Gulp... I can't believe this. Anyhow, I went home, and started to look at the catalogues... Pages and pages of hinges that looked almost identical. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack. 


Meanwhile, the phone is ringing... 


Builder: "So any luck with those hinges?"... 
Me: "Say the word hinges one more time, and you are fired"...
Builder: "Ha ha ha! Yes, hinges can be an exciting subject"...
Me: "You bastard!!!! You set me up for this, didn't you?".
Builder: "Ha ha ha ha! Good luck".




Anyhow, I finally took a good look at those catalogues and really, there are only a few things to consider: size (3"x3", 4"x4", 3.5" x 3.5", 4.5" x 4.5"...) ball bearing or plain bearing, extruded, heavy duty or not, finishes, shape square or radius corner, metal, plated steel or stainless steel, made in the US or made in China. In a nutshell, that's it. Once you have the size, thickness and weight of the door, it is sort of easy, you just pick the style you like. And all should work out...


Well, unfortunately, it is not that simple...


First set of hinges I picked and brought to the carpenter for the interior door: "No, they are too big, see the knuckle sticks out, I need smaller ones". Alright. Back at the hardware store, picked up smaller ones. Gave them to carpenter: "Yes, they are perfect". Phew! Mission accomplished. That wasn't so hard, it only required two trips.


Second set of hinges for the entrance door. Now, this is where trouble starts. The entrance door is a big mama, bigger than a standart entrance door (It is heavier and also thicker). Based on my hardware person recommendation, I got a few sets of the 4"x4" heavy duty ball bearing square corner, stainless steel madeintheUSofA hinges. Those babies were brought to the person who was prepping the door.  He said "no, these hinges are not strong enough for that door". Okay. Back to the hardware guy, who is now pulling out the big guns: the 5"x5"... very heavy duty hinges, that should do the trick he said. Builder brought the hinges back to the carpenter. I get an email "the hinges are too big!!!"... Holy cow... Seriously, is there someone in this town that can figure this out? This ain't rocket science for God's sake. I started to do a little bit of research. The ideal hinge for that door is a 5" x 4.5"... only available in the US. Bummer. I finally found a 4.5" x 4" stainless steel somewhere, so I went to pick it up. While reading the label, I realized that this hinge was made in china.  As expected, it worked like absolute crap. We are all standing at the house yesterday afternoon, looking at these hinges and trying them out. Quite a sight. 


Carpenter: "Yes, this one is the right size, but it doesn't work very well."
Builder: "Hummm, yes. But wow, check this one out. The Cadillac of hinges."
Me: "OMG, c'mon now guys...What do we do? Can we cut it down to the chase here, please?"
Builder, asking me: "Well, what do YOU think? You are our hinge expert now."
Me: "OK, that's it you are fired, both of you".
Builder and Carpenter: "Ha ha ha ha".


Yes, they both are really afraid of me! 


At any rate, after a few phone calls back to the hardware store, it seems like we have located the dream hinge. It required about five trips but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Holy shit, thank you. I just was about to give up on that one.