Bathroom cabinet doors sticking or not closing properly: what it means

The most common cause: hinge screws have worked loose

Cabinet hinges are usually screwed into chipboard or MDF carcass panels, and that material does not hold a screw thread as well as solid timber. Every time the door is opened and closed, there is a small amount of leverage on the screws, and over months this can be enough to loosen them slightly, especially in a bathroom where humidity softens the board around the screw hole.

The sign is a door that sags at one corner, drags along the bottom of the cabinet frame, or has developed a visible gap on one side while touching on the other. If you grip the door and lift or wobble it, you will often feel movement at the hinge itself rather than the door twisting as a whole.

This is the first thing to check before assuming the whole unit needs replacing, because it is by far the easier and cheaper fix, and it does not need any new parts if the screw holes themselves are still in good condition.

How to tighten hinge screws yourself, or repair a worn hole

Open the door fully and look at both hinge plates, the one screwed to the door and the one screwed to the cabinet side panel. Tighten each screw with a Phillips screwdriver, turning firmly but stopping the moment you feel resistance, since overtightening in chipboard strips the hole further rather than fixing it.

If a screw spins freely and will not bite, the hole has worn out. Remove the screw, pack the hole with a few wooden cocktail sticks or matchsticks dipped in wood glue, snap them off flush, let the glue cure for a few hours, then drive the screw back in. This gives the thread fresh material to grip and often holds for years.

Most cabinet hinges also have small adjustment screws, distinct from the mounting screws, that shift the door left-right and in-out without removing anything. Turning these a quarter turn at a time and checking the gap against the frame after each adjustment is the standard way to square a door back up once the mounting screws are secure.

• Tighten mounting screws on both hinge plates before adjusting anything else
• A spinning screw means a worn hole, not a fault with the hinge itself
• Pack worn holes with glued matchsticks and let the glue cure before refitting
• Use the hinge's own adjustment screws to fine-tune position, a quarter turn at a time
• Check the door gap against the frame at top and bottom after every adjustment

If the door hangs crooked even though the screws are sound

Sometimes both hinge plates are firmly fixed and the adjustment screws are already centred, yet the door still hangs out of true. This usually means the cabinet carcass itself has shifted slightly, often because it was not perfectly level to begin with, or because a wall fixing has loosened and the whole unit has dropped a few millimetres on one side.

Check this with a spirit level along the top and one side of the cabinet. If the carcass itself is out of level, no amount of hinge adjustment will fully correct the door, because you would be compensating for a tilted frame rather than a misaligned door.

In this case the fix is to re-secure the cabinet to the wall, which usually needs the original fixing points reassessed rather than just driven in tighter, since a loose fixing in a tiled wall often means the wall plug has failed in the substrate behind the tile.

How to tell if the board itself has swollen, not the hinges

MDF and chipboard swell when they absorb moisture, and the bottom edge of a bathroom cabinet door, closest to the sink and most exposed to splashes, is the part that swells first. A swollen door looks slightly thicker along that edge and will catch on the frame even when the hinges are correctly adjusted and the carcass is level.

Run a finger along the bottom edge of the door and compare its thickness to the top edge. A visible ridge, a rough or slightly puffy texture, or peeling laminate at the edge confirms swelling rather than a hinge problem. Once board has swollen this way it does not shrink back to its original size when it dries out, even though the moisture content drops.

Swelling is more likely on cabinets where the edge banding or laminate seal has come away, letting water into the raw board underneath, which is why a small chip or peeling edge is worth sealing early rather than leaving.

What is urgent and what can reasonably wait

A door that sticks but still closes is a cosmetic and convenience issue, not an urgent one, and can wait for a routine visit or a weekend of your own time. The same goes for slightly misaligned gaps that do not affect the door's ability to shut.

It is worth acting sooner if the door no longer latches at all and swings open on its own, since a heavy mirrored door left ajar in a small bathroom is a knock hazard, or if a hinge screw hole has failed completely and the door is at risk of dropping off. A door hanging by a single hinge should be supported or removed rather than left.

Visible mould or soft, crumbling board at the swollen edge is also worth dealing with promptly, since it tends to spread along the joint rather than stay contained to one corner.

When the cabinet as a whole needs reinstalling rather than repairing

If more than one door is affected, if the carcass itself is out of level and the wall fixings have failed in the tile substrate, or if several screw holes throughout the unit are worn beyond a simple repair, it usually makes more sense to take the cabinet down and reinstall it properly than to keep patching individual points.

This is also the point at which it is worth asking whether the cabinet is worth reinstalling at all, particularly with older laminated chipboard units where the swelling has reached several edges. A cabinet with widespread swelling is often not worth the labour of a full reinstall compared with fitting a new one.

Our shelves and mirrors service, from 39 € per hour, covers rehanging a cabinet properly onto sound wall fixings, and our furniture assembly service, also from 39 € per hour, covers building and fitting a replacement unit if that turns out to be the better option.

If you decide to replace parts yourself

Replacement cabinet hinges are sold by type rather than universally, so take the old hinge to a hardware shop or match it by the mounting hole spacing and the door overlay before buying a replacement, since a mismatched hinge often will not sit correctly even if it looks similar.

If you are replacing a door panel, measure the old one precisely including the hinge cup holes, since a new door cut slightly differently will need those holes redrilled in the right position, which is easy to get wrong without a hinge jig.

If the job turns out to involve more than swapping a hinge, for instance the carcass needs rehanging or several parts need replacing at once, that is a reasonable point to call in help rather than working through trial and error on a bathroom fixture.