Our environment consists of various kinds of little things, to which we do not pay significant attention, but all these details make up the atmosphere in which we live and constantly find ourselves. Actually, these components form the surrounding interior, which our consciousness perceives in its entirety as a single whole.

If everything in the interior is harmoniously combined with each other, then there is a feeling of balance and completeness. In order to make our environment more beautiful, comfortable and practical, we need to learn how to competently select all the interior components. One of these seemingly insignificant elements is the door hinge.

Currently, there is a fairly wide variety of door hinges for different types of doors. However, it is worth noting the fact that almost all modern doors that are sold in stores, as a rule, are equipped with hinges initially; in such situations, the problem of choosing the right hinges disappears by itself. This is especially true for steel, aluminum and plastic doors; their design provides for the presence of all the necessary elements of door hardware, including hinges. The only type of doors where you can complete all the components yourself, according to your taste and discretion, are interior wooden or pseudo-wooden doors; they can be made independently or made to order; it is also possible to purchase the desired door leaf without any fittings. The bulk of hinges sold are intended specifically for interior doors, which will be discussed further.

Most often, ordinary card hinges are installed on interior doors. They consist of two plates - cards, sometimes they are called wings, which are movably connected to each other by a rod, each card has holes for self-tapping screws. In Russia, the production of such hinges has been established since the Soviet era, mostly these are mediocre and dull hinges, of various sizes and without any decorative coating. No one uses such hinges for installation on interior doors anymore; they are more suitable for street fences or some non-residential premises, or for poor government institutions.

Card hinges for interior doors come in two main height sizes - five and four inches, respectively 12.5 and 10 cm, the width of each card is 3 cm, the thickness is about 2.5-3 mm. Very often, people experienced in these matters call card loops, depending on their size, fives or fours. It is noteworthy that five-inch hinges have five holes for screws on each card, and four-inch ones have four. The choice of hinge size depends on the weight of the door; for heavy doors it is better to use larger hinges; for lighter doors, smaller hinges are suitable. Three hinges can be installed on very heavy doors; however, this option is also suitable for light doors; it will increase their performance properties.

The main materials for making card loops are brass, steel and stainless steel. Brass is considered the highest quality material; this material is more resistant to negative influences and, as a rule, has a very high-quality stable decorative coating; applying an unstable coating to such an expensive material is simply not economically feasible. Steel hinges are sometimes not much different in appearance from their brass counterparts, but they are still inferior to them in terms of wear resistance and quality of coating. Stainless steel hinges have the highest resistance to negative influences, such as moisture and temperature changes; they are suitable for use even in outdoor conditions. The only drawback of stainless steel hinges is that they come in only one color - the natural color of stainless steel, although experiments are being conducted in this area, but if colored stainless steel hinges have appeared, they have not yet become widespread.

The color range of card loops is not very wide, and basically it imitates shades of various metals; the predominant colors are: gold, chrome, nickel, bronze and copper; they come in both glossy and matte finishes; white is also quite popular. There are also more interesting colors, such as coffee, matte coffee or pearlescent nickel, but these are more exotic color options. When choosing a color, you need to take into account that matte shades are considered more practical, various kinds of stains and defects are less noticeable on them, and glossy hinges have a more pronounced shine, which can sometimes be very impressive.

Among other things, card hinges can be right-handed, left-handed, or universal; in the first two cases, you will need to know exactly how the door will open; in the latter version, this is not important. The only advantage of non-universal hinges is that after installing them, it is more convenient, if necessary, to remove the door leaf, but in practice this has to be done extremely rarely and this advantage is rather conditional. Universal hinges, in addition to the fact that they fit any door, can have two or four bearings, which significantly increase the service life of the hinge; simple hinges do not have more than one bearing. Sometimes you can see figured caps on the core of card loops; this is an exclusively decorative solution and is designed to decorate the appearance of the loop; however, sometimes, especially on cheap loops, they have the unfortunate property of falling off.

An interesting solution, for those who do not like unnecessary complications associated with inserting loops, can be a type of card loop - a loop without insertion or an overhead loop; it also has a third, popular name for the loop - “butterfly”. Her cards have an intricate shape, one of them looks like a butterfly wing, in fact, both cards seem to be cut out from one card. The ability of such a hinge to fold down to the thickness of one card makes it possible not to make a cut for it either on the door leaf or on the frame.

Another interesting type of card loops are double-sided loops - they differ from all other types of loops in their ability to open in both directions, both outward and inward. This loop has a more complex structure and consists of three cards connected to each other by massive rods. Each rod is surrounded by a spring, which tightly presses the cards to each other; the tension of the spring can be adjusted, this design allows you to keep the door in a constantly closed position. These hinges, as a rule, are installed in passage places, most often on double-leaf doors; in ordinary apartments they are used extremely rarely.

All of the above hinge options, alas, are not at all suitable for doors with a quarter; on such a door, at its end, a sample is taken along the entire or part of the perimeter, by three quarters of the thickness of the door leaf. The remaining quarter, also called the narthex, lies on top of the door leaf, so there are no gaps between the frame and the leaf, which significantly increases the warmth and sound insulation of such a door. It is because of this quarter that hinges with ordinary straight cards will not fit on such a door, but with curved cards they will be quite suitable. Such hinges were specially invented for quarter doors; each card is bent at an angle of 90 degrees, so they can be cut into a quarter.

Another, most common, type of hinge for rebated doors is screw-in hinges. For such hinges, one card is replaced by two rods, two holes are drilled for them on the door leaf and frame, one rod has a screw thread and it can rotate to get inside the hole; a socket wrench is used for this. The other rod has a smooth surface, it is integral with the main rod, and easily fits into its hole. These hinges have two adjustments: in height and in width, due to this, if necessary, you can align the door leaf with respect to the frame. The main core of the screw-in hinge is closed with two decorative caps, which, as a rule, can be purchased separately; they, like card hinges, have different colors. There are also varieties of screw-in hinges with two or three rods, but they are of little use for interior doors.

Connoisseurs of novelty and unconventional solutions should pay attention to hidden hinges; they are widely used on metal doors, but they began to be used for interior doors relatively recently. They have a rather complex design and require the most precise installation; their distinctive feature is secrecy; when closed on the door, they become completely invisible and hidden. Such hinges, like card hinges, can be right-handed, left-handed and universal; like screw-in hinges, they can have adjustments, but not in all models.

In addition to hidden hinges, there are other types of exotic hinges, but they are not widely used. Human imagination, as we know, is limitless, and sometimes it can bring to life the most interesting and sometimes very unexpected and unconventional door hinge designs.

Regardless of what type of hinges is suitable for your door, it is better that it be from a proven, reliable manufacturer; countries such as Spain and Italy are considered world leaders in this area. The most common Spanish brands in Russia are Archi and Amig, Italian Armadillo, AGB and MORELLI, their hinges will serve you faithfully for many years. Other brands will almost certainly be inferior in terms of their characteristics. However, for high-quality hinges you will have to pay several times more, and not everyone will agree to pay about 300-500 rubles for one good hinge, instead of 50-100 rubles for a cheaper analogue. The dilemma between value and quality remains relevant in this case. However, personally, being a maximalist, I recommend not saving, but installing three hinges from well-known companies.

Chepashev Evgeniy, rmnt.ru

Depending on the material from which door hinges are made, they can be brass, steel or brass plated.

• Brass-plated hinges are made from aluminum, zinc or steel alloys and have a thin brass coating that has anti-corrosion properties. A layer of brass on such hinges ensures good sliding of their moving parts.
• Brass hinges are the most common type of door hardware. Their material is durable, flexible and can withstand fairly high loads from the weight of heavy door panels. Brass hinges are often chrome plated or polished.
• Steel hinges can last an incredibly long time. This is the most durable, but also expensive fittings. When installing it on lightweight interior doors, the financial costs may not always be justified.

Door hinges are aesthetically pleasing due to their external coatings, which often imitate various metals: copper, gold, chrome, bronze and others. When thinking about which hinges are best to install and how to choose them, it is necessary to take into account the weight of the door, its design features, and then, based on these data, determine the type of fittings required.

Types and features of door hinges

Among the wide variety of door hinges, several main types can be identified:

• Overhead loops. They consist of two plates for fastening to the canvas with a box and a rod with a hinge. Such products have several design options. The oldest of them is two identical doors. Over time, the overhead loops were modernized and, for ease of fastening, one of their sides was made a little longer. Modern models consist of an axle and two sidewalls. They are made so as not to interfere with the operation of the doors and ensure a tight fit of the door leaf. Overhead hinges are easy to install using ordinary self-tapping screws.
  
  
• Mortise hinges belong to the card version of products similar to the previous type, but have a difference - they are recessed into the door end. To do this, several millimeters of material are removed from the door along the outline of the lining. Then the plates are placed in the resulting recesses and fixed with self-tapping screws. Mortise hinges are used when installing entrance and interior doors. The advantages of hinges are reasonable cost and ease of installation.
  
  
• Corner loops differ from straight card similar products in their appearance. It is not the plates that are attached to the central rod, but the corners. Such parts are installed in a mortise manner into the end of the door and secured with self-tapping screws. The shape of the corner hinges allows for their comfortable position and a tight door seal.
  
  
• Hidden hinges have a significant difference from card models in that they are installed in an array of door leaf and frame. Thanks to this installation, the camouflage of the fasteners is ensured, the door is aesthetically pleasing, and the possibility of attackers cutting off the hinges is eliminated. To place hidden loops, a deep niche is cut out at the end of the canvas and in the box. The hinge axis is hidden in the iron housing, avoiding the risk of damage. Hidden hinges are often used in entrance doors.
  
  
• Screw-in hinges differ in their structure. Several pins are attached to the hinge axis, which determine the main method of installation of such models. The hinges are screwed into the box and the canvas, and only the hinge remains visible. They are not recommended for use when installing doors made of soft wood and low-grade materials. This can lead to disruption of the structure of the canvas and cause distortions or cracks.
  
  
• Double-sided hinges are most often used when installing office entrance and interior doors. The reason for this is the design feature of such canopies. Hinges allow the door leaf to open in both directions, which is extremely convenient when passing a large flow of people. Such products are similar to card loops, but in addition to two plates they also have a third, equipped on the sides with two axes of rotation.
  
  

Card hinges, which are most often used for interior doors, are divided into universal, right and left. In the second two cases, you need to know the direction in which the door opens, and universal awnings make this unimportant. In addition to the fact that universal hinges fit all doors, they have a pair or two bearings, which significantly increase the durability of the models. Simple hinges for interior doors are not equipped with more than one bearing.

Loop selection

When wondering which hinges are best to install, when choosing, you must comply with the main condition - the high quality of their models. Cheap handicraft products can never replace certified products from well-known brands, which are almost impossible to render completely unusable. Therefore, when choosing right-handed, left-handed or universal door hinges, you need to give preference to models of predictable quality with the selection of suitable material. Brass hinges are corrosion-resistant and wear-resistant, but darken over time, steel canopies and metal-plated hinges are very strong, durable and also have anti-corrosion properties.

To select removable hinges, you need to determine the opening side of the canvas. To do this, you need to stand in front of the opening so that the canvas moves towards you. After this, the position of the right or left hand will help you choose the right loops.

To choose the right hinges, you need to foresee their sizes in advance. For hollow, frame and honeycomb-filled doors weighing 10-25 kg, the hinge dimensions are 7.5 cm in height. For standard doors weighing 25-40 kg, dimensions H = 10 cm are suitable; hinge dimensions H = 10 cm with D = 6 cm are intended for heavy doors weighing over 40 kg.

In addition, a preliminary determination of their location will help you choose the number of loops. The usual arrangement involves two universal, right or left hinges; for standard doors - two hinges are installed at the bottom and one at the top; for light doors - three hinges at equal distances. Heavy doors are equipped with four hinges, which are installed in pairs at the bottom and top of the leaves. The functionality of doors with a height of 2.1 m can be ensured by installing four hinges.

It should be taken into account that the reliability of entrance doors requires the selection of more durable and complex canopies. In other cases, you can rely on your taste and the correspondence of the fittings to the style and color schemes of the interior.

What types of loops are better? There are: rotary, mortise, non-mortise, remote, mounted and many others

Today we will talk about hinges for interior doors: we will analyze their types, functionality, attractiveness and installation methods.

Interior wooden doors are practically the only type for which you can independently select fittings. Typically, with aluminum, plastic and steel, all hardware is already included.

A door hinge is a small but very necessary element in a modern interior. It is due to this mechanism that the process of opening and closing occurs.

It also performs an important function - it holds the door. Naturally, how long the interior door will serve you depends on the quality of this product.

According to the principle of operation and installation method, there are the following hinges::

1. Card straight lines.
2. Card corners.
3. Screw-in (screw-in).
4. Hidden (see).
5. "Italian".

Let us consider in more detail the scope and installation features of each of these types.

Straight card elements

Mounted products photo

The most common are direct, card type. They are two cylinders.

A rod is inserted into one of them. To increase service life, a washer or bearing is usually inserted between the rubbing parts of the cylinders.

They are attached to the frame and door leaf using cards - rectangular plates. They are also called “wings”.

Based on the type of fastening, they are divided into mortise and overhead:

1. Mortise require sampling with a chisel or milling cutter. That is, during installation they are recessed into the box and tightly. This is necessary to ensure that the door closes tightly. The depth of their insertion can be 2 - 3 mm.
2. Invoices do not require special tools for installation. It is quite possible for anyone to install them with their own hands. They are made in such a way that when closed, both parts of the loop seem to be nested into each other. Therefore, they do not need to be recessed, but simply screwed to the surface of the canvas and box beams.

They are also universal, left and right. The advantage of versatile ones is that when using them, it will not be difficult to remove the canvas later.

It’s easy to determine whether you need a left or right one - when opening the structure, look at yourself on which side of you it should be. If it’s on the left, then the loop will be on the left.

Installation

Universal ones are mounted on any side. This complicates the process of removing the door (see). But in such models, bearings are often inserted instead of a spacer washer. And this increases the service life of the hinge mechanism.

Corner card loops

If you choose a door with a rebate, then card-type corner hinges are suitable for you. In such models, a piece of wood is selected at the end of the canvas. This provides a tight vestibule.

Angular ones differ from their straight counterparts only in shape. Their slats are an angle of 90 degrees.

Another option

They are made from various materials: brass, steel and stainless steel.

• Steel ones are the cheapest and less reliable than others. Often their decorative coating wears off quickly. They are afraid of high humidity.
• Brass is one of the highest quality. Their coating usually lasts a long time. In addition, the material itself is not afraid of the influence of external factors in the room.
• Stainless steel is the most durable. They are not afraid of high humidity and temperature changes. However, they have only one color – their native one.

Screw-in hinges with quarter

Screw-in, like card corner ones, are intended for doors with a closed quarter.

Instead of flat bars, they have two pins on each hinge part. One of them is carved. It is with the help of these pins that it cuts into the canvas and the box.

The advantage of screw-in ones is the ability to adjust them using a hex wrench. They are closed with decorative caps of different shades.

If you have no idea how to embed hinges (see), then it is better not to take on the ones you screw in yourself. Their installation requires great precision and care. Very often, if they are inserted incorrectly, cracking of the door leaf occurs.

Hidden, more recently began to be used for installation.

Despite this, they have already managed to gain confidence in themselves. Why are they so good?

• The peculiarities of their design allow you to hide all the hinge parts when the door is closed. This means that it is very difficult to hack.
• Thanks to its design features, the canvas can be adjusted in three planes.
• Also, interior designs with hidden hinges have an attractive and complete appearance.

The design of secret hinges differs from other “colleagues”. The hinge itself is mounted in the box. It is hidden in a metal case. The connection between the canvas and the hinge is achieved through a lever that is shaped like the letter P.

The lever consists of two parts, which are fastened together with a screw. When closing, the lever itself is hidden inside the recess (lutka).

Let's take a closer look at how they are mounted:

• The niche needs to be deep. Therefore, we discard the thought of a chisel and pick up an electric router.
• With its help we make recesses in the doors and in the box beams.
• We make a selection for the mounting strips.
• We separate the components into two parts. To do this, unscrew the fastening screw on the lever.
• We insert the hinge parts into their places: the smaller one into the door, the larger one into the frame. We fasten them with self-tapping screws.
• We connect the two parts of the lever and tighten the fixing screw.
• We adjust the structure using screws and close the hinges with decorative inserts.

Italian loops

They are not attached like everyone else. Typically, the hinge parts are located at the side end of the door leaf, and “Italian hinges” are mounted at the top and bottom.