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Cabinet door hinges are rather underappreciated but very essential parts of your cabinetry. While most people think a set of cabinet door hinges should last forever, life and usage can cause them to wear out long before their time.

Don't get me wrong, cabinet door hinges can be very sturdy pieces of hardware. Often times, the cabinet door fails long before the cabinet hinges give up their ability to work.

If you have children, you have likely caught them, at least once, trying to ride a cabinet door. They grab on to the top of the door, pick their feet up and ride the door closed. While this is great fun for them, it is causing great strain on your cabinets and cabinet hinges.

In many cases, the cabinet will put up with a few of these rides, but over time, and as your child grows, the abuse will become more evident. You may notice your door is sagging a little more than it used to be and won't stay closed or open on its own anymore. If they have really broken it, you may well notice a crack or break along the hinge area of the door. If the door was broken completely loose, you may see the cabinet door hinges have also bent in the process.

So, what do you do about these abused pieces? Start by looking at the cabinet door hinges. You need to know just what has suffered damage and how bad the damage is. Look at the holes where the cabinet door hinges attach to the door and the cabinet frame. Are they loose? It is possible a little tightening of the cabined door hinge screws will be enough to fix things if the screws have just come loose.

Often times it's a bigger problem. The screw has not twisted loose, but the weight has actually made the screw rip loose, making a bigger hole in the wood. Fixing this will involve filling the wood and re-drilling the holes or getting a new cabinet door.

Once you have looked at the screw holes, look at the cabinet door hinges. Are they as flat and flush with the wood as they used to be? Even though they are made of metal, metal can bend with enough weight and pressure put on it. Depending on the extent of the bend, you may be able to hammer it out, re-flatten and reinstall the cabinet door hinges. If the bend is bad enough that it's started to weaken the metal, you may want to purchase new cabinet door hinges to make sure they'll be strong enough to handle the jobs you need done.

Finally, make sure to look at the wood of the doors and frames around the cabinet door hinges. These areas may be showing signs of wear. If the wood is cracked or weakened, it may be necessary to replace the cabinet door, or at least try to mend the wood around the cabinet door hinges so they will work properly.