Replacing Door Hardware

With the ever-extending project of the master bath (current status: primed and ready for paint), I was getting a little down about the progress I was not making.  To try and jump start that enthusiasm again, I started replacing the hardware on the doors.  I had everything I needed – I bought everything way back when I started.  The handles and hinges have just been sitting and waiting.

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I had already changed the hardware on the front door and over time, I had changed out the handles on a few interior doors.  But that stalled as well.  Just as a note, the hardware I’m replacing is terrible, old, faded, builder-grade brass.  The handles are all very loose and wobbly.

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Along the way, I wanted to fix a problem I had with my office door.  At the end of the hall, there are three doors: the bathroom, dead ahead, and bedroom doors off to the left and right.  One of the bedrooms is my office and it has an issue when you close the door.  The door binds with the frame and when you open it up again, it makes a loud pop (actually like a bang).  I have been under the assumption that this problem exists because the wrong door was put on the hinges a long time ago.

Let me explain that dumbness.  When I first got the house 12 years ago, one of the first things I did was paint the doors.  Being inexperienced, I pulled all the doors off and painted them all at one time.  I didn’t mark any of the doors, so… I assumed I just mixed them up and the hinges or whatever weren’t cut the same.  I figured while I was updating the hinges to nickel, I might as well get the doors right this time.

I started by taking the office door off, then taking the bathroom door off.  Since I was working with three doors, if swapping these two didn’t make an improvement, the correct door would obviously be the remaining one.  I put the bathroom door on the office hinges and closed the door.  The result was not what you would expect.

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The bathroom door is a totally different size.  Ridiculous.  So the door comes back off the hinges and goes back to the bathroom.  So now I know that the two bedroom doors are just swapped.  Simple.  I take the bedroom door off and slide it across the hall to the office.  But… it won’t fit either.  One bedroom door opens on the left side and the other opens on the right side.  There’s no way to swap any of these doors.

I guess I had it all correct the first time (there wasn’t any way to mess it up).  So I continued with the hinge change-outs and the office door now closes and opens without any bangs.  Wonderful.  Every time I change out a door handle, I am always impressed with how solid the door feels when it opens and closes.  The vibration of the handle and latch in the old hardware, which would rattle slightly when the door would close, really gave a negative impression.  Aside from the improved looks and the ADA-compliant benefits, I would definitely say that updating the door hardware will make a big improvement on the quality of your house.  Let me clarify that.  The feel of operating the improved door hardware in the house will be what is expected.  The old hardware only hurts things by being loose and rattling.