Fixing squeaky door hinges

In short: Squeaky interior doors can usually be fixed quickly by cleaning the hinges and treating them with a suitable lubricant. If the door hangs crookedly or rubs, tightening screws or adjusting the hinges often helps.

In more detail: The noise comes from friction between metal parts that lack a lubricating film or where dirt and rust have built up. In Germany, most interior doors use lift-off hinges, where the door leaf sits on a pin.

In detail

• Find the cause: Open and close the door slowly and listen to whether the noise comes from the upper or lower hinge, the lock or the floor.
• Choose a lubricant: Spray grease, silicone spray, graphite powder or an acid-free machine oil are suitable; cooking oil is not, as it can go gummy and attract dirt.
• Lift off the door: With common interior doors, the opened leaf is lifted upwards off the hinges, ideally by two people, as doors are heavy.
• Clean: Remove old dirt and rust from the pin and the sleeve with a cloth, or fine steel wool if needed.
• Lubricate: Grease the pin thinly, rehang the door and move it several times so that the lubricant spreads; wipe off any excess.
• Check the screws: Tighten loose hinge screws with a suitable screwdriver; stripped holes can be filled with wood glue and slivers of wood and screwed again.
• Rubbing door: Many hinges can be adjusted in height and sideways; otherwise a thin spacer ring on the pin can raise the door slightly.
• Latch: If the door sticks or rattles when closing, a little lubricant on the latch or slightly moving the strike plate often helps (werkzeug-grundausstattung-fuer-zuhause, schrauben-arten-und-groessen).