How do I adjust sliding wardrobe doors so the gaps are even?

Sliding wardrobe doors hang from top-track rollers or sit on bottom rollers, and each roller has a screw that raises or lowers that corner. A door that looks crooked is nearly always two turns of a screw away from right.

What you'll need

• A screwdriver or Allen key to match the adjusters
• A spirit level
• A torch

Step by step

1. Reference against the frame, not the other door.Set the first door parallel to the side of the wardrobe frame. If you set it against another crooked door, both stay crooked and you will never converge.
2. Find the adjusters.On a bottom-rolling system they are at the bottom of each door edge, usually behind a small cut-out. On a top-hung system they are at the top of each carriage.
3. Work out which way to turn.Turning the adjuster raises that corner. A gap that is wide at the top of one side means that side needs raising, which closes the top and opens the bottom.
4. Adjust in small steps.Quarter to half a turn at a time, then look. The whole useful range is usually a few millimetres, and it is easy to overshoot.
5. Do the front door first, then the back.The front door is what you see. Setting it right first gives you a reference for the back one.
6. Check the overlap.The doors should overlap evenly down their whole height where they pass. A tapering overlap is a height error, not a track error.
7. Look at the anti-jump blocks.Most systems have small blocks or clips at the top that stop the door lifting off the track. If a door rides up or rattles, one of these is missing or out of position.
8. Clean the track before blaming the rollers.Hair, grit and carpet fluff collect in the bottom track and cause almost every 'stiff' sliding door. Vacuum it and wipe it dry.
9. Lubricate dry, not wet.A dry PTFE or silicone spray. Oil in a floor-level track picks up dust and makes a grinding paste within weeks.
10. Check the track is level.If both doors are adjusted to their limits and still taper, the track itself is out. Packing the track ends is the fix, not more adjustment.

Tips

• Take a photo before you start. It is genuinely hard to see whether you have improved a 3mm taper by eye alone.
• If a door has no adjustment left, take it off, check for a bent carriage, and pack the track rather than forcing the adjuster.
• Mirrored doors are heavy and awkward. Two people and a blanket on the floor is the sensible way to lift one out.

Common mistakes

• Adjusting both doors at once — You lose your reference. Every change moves what you are comparing against, and the doors converge on a matched pair of crooked doors rather than two straight ones.
• Lubricating the track with oil — The bottom track sits at floor level and collects fluff, hair and grit. Oil holds all of it and turns it into an abrasive paste that wears the rollers flat.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask