How do I take a kitchen cupboard door off and put it back on?

Doors come off constantly — for painting, for getting an appliance out, for replacing a carcass, for getting a wardrobe past them. The job takes seconds if you know which of the two systems you have, and it turns into a fight with a screwdriver if you do not.

What you'll need

• Cross-head screwdriver, for slide-on hinges (optional)
• Masking tape and a pen, for labelling
• A second pair of hands on tall or heavy doors (optional)

Step by step

1. Label before you touch anything.Masking tape inside the carcass and on the back of the door, numbered, with an arrow for which way up. Two doors from the same run are rarely interchangeable once they have been adjusted, and reassembly without labels means aligning the whole kitchen again.
2. Empty the cupboard if the door is heavy or tall.Not for the door's sake but for yours — a full-height larder door on two hinges is heavier and more awkward than it looks, and you want both hands free.
3. Open the door fully and look at the hinge from the side.Follow the arm back from the door to the plate on the carcass. The joint between arm and plate is where the release lives, and it is either a lever or a screw.
4. For a clip-on hinge, press the release.A small plastic lever, tab or button on the top or underside of the arm where it meets the plate. Press or pull it and that hinge releases. Support the door with your other hand while you do it.
5. Release the bottom hinge first, then the top.Releasing the top first leaves the door hanging on the bottom hinge, which puts all the weight on one plate and is how a plate gets pulled out of the chipboard. Bottom first, then top, holding the door.
6. For a slide-on hinge, slacken the screw across the joint.It is usually the rearmost of the visible screws, running horizontally through the arm into the plate. Slacken it two or three turns — do not remove it — and slide the arm rearwards off the plate.
7. Store the door on its edge, faces protected.Stand it on a folded towel leaning against a wall, face to face with the next door, not stacked flat where anything dropped on it leaves a dent.
8. Refit bottom hinge first.Clip-on: offer the arm onto the plate and press firmly until it clicks. Both hinges must click — a partially seated arm will hold the door and then drop it. Slide-on: slide the arm on until it stops, then tighten the screw.
9. Check the door against its neighbours before moving on.A clip-on door should land exactly where it was. A slide-on door will need the depth reset, because slackening the screw released the in-and-out adjustment.

Tips

• If nothing looks like a lever and there is no screw across the joint, look for a small metal spring clip that has to be lifted with a screwdriver blade. A few older Hettich and Grass patterns work that way.
• Getting a drawer or a door back on is always easier with the carcass empty and a light shining in. The plate is 15mm across and in shadow.
• If you are taking a whole kitchen's doors off to paint, photograph each run first with the doors on. It is the reference you will want when you put them back.

Common mistakes

• Unscrewing the mounting plate from the carcass to get the door off — It works, but it throws away the height and depth settings, and every time those screws come out of chipboard the hole gets a little looser. Use the release, which is what it is for.
• Not supporting the door as the last hinge releases — It drops, and it either damages the door edge or wrenches the remaining hinge plate out of the side panel.

Questions people ask