# Door hinges and spraying



## AGpainting (Feb 24, 2015)

not quite sure if this is the right section to be posting this in; if it isnt, my apologies. 

when painting a newly built custom home, what do you guys do with the hinges on the doors? 

what i currently do is remove the hinges all together and replace them with cheap hinges that i buy until the trim is complete then i put the original hinges back on. this works great but i have problems when i go to put the hinges back. sometimes the doors, for whatever reason, wont close like they should. 

ive experimented with masking them off with tape but that proved to be too much of a pain in the ass because inevitably the masking will come undone when you close and open the doors. 

anyways, id love to hear some input from you guys. thanks.


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## mattpaints82 (Mar 7, 2013)

We remove all hinges and store them in a clean 5er with a lid to keep them clean. We spray all of our doors in one or two rooms accordion style tied together on top with paint sticks. reinstall hinges after, can be a bit of a pita to tweak them to fit right, but still easier than masking hinges imo. also it is impossible to properly caulk a door frame with the door still in place.


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## Zoomer (Dec 17, 2011)

Spray your doors like this. Hinges removed,numbered and stored.


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## Hines Painting (Jun 22, 2013)

I just put temp hinges on as well. There is a company that makes a magnetic hinge cover, but I've never tried it.


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## Repaint Florida (May 31, 2012)

AGpainting said:


> not quite sure if this is the right section to be posting this in; if it isnt, my apologies.
> 
> when painting a newly built custom home, what do you guys do with the hinges on the doors?
> 
> ...


when we take hinges off cabinets we place them in a zip lock baggie 
start by writing 1 A (door 1, top hinge ) 1 B ( door 1, middle hinge ) 1 C (door 1, bottom hinge ) each hinge go back to same place it came off
no adjustment needed :thumbup:

another advantage is only 1 hinge in each baggie and the baggie protects the hinges from scratches , put all screws in separate baggie as all screws are the same don't matter where they go and you don't want them scratching the hinges .... shows your a professional and put a little care & through into protecting them

dropping 50 hinges in a bucket without a numbered baggie is a no no for us


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## Zoomer (Dec 17, 2011)

We almost do the same. For each door or cabinet door we tape the 2-4 hinges together, number them of course and put all screws in a clean one gallon bucket.


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## Zoomer (Dec 17, 2011)

Hinges are put in zip lock baggies


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## mattpaints82 (Mar 7, 2013)

Repaint Florida said:


> when we take hinges off cabinets we place them in a zip lock baggie
> start by writing 1 A (door 1, top hinge ) 1 B ( door 1, middle hinge ) 1 C (door 1, bottom hinge ) each hinge go back to same place it came off
> no adjustment needed :thumbup:
> 
> ...



If we were doing a cabinet repaint we would take more care, on NC we try to balance speed and quality. Can be tough sometimes. Repaints in general we take extra precautions and time to achieve perfection. Plus we have tried labeling and numbering hinges for passage doors, seems like they need adjustment no matter what. Some have long screws, shims, etc.


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## woodcoyote (Dec 30, 2012)

We never remove hinges. The doors are aligned in a certain way when prehung and you risk getting the swinging action wrong by removing them. 

We pull the pins, mask off hinges with tape or tape/hinge cover combo. Stain (usually) or paint with door stands in the garage or large area. Then just stack then up in a corner of the garage until the final phase of the house. Works best that way, least for nc.

Edit:
For cab. doors we'd remove the hinges, bag them, numbers in cup holes and we're off and running.


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## AGpainting (Feb 24, 2015)

sorry for the late reply.



mattpaints82 said:


> We remove all hinges and store them in a clean 5er with a lid to keep them clean. We spray all of our doors in one or two rooms accordion style tied together on top with paint sticks. reinstall hinges after, can be a bit of a pita to tweak them to fit right, but still easier than masking hinges imo. also it is impossible to properly caulk a door frame with the door still in place.


ive tried the accordian style spraying before, i dont know if i want to try that with the current new construction homes im working on though. the doors are REALLY heavy and i dont want to risk any damage. as for the caulking, im assuming you mean the bead of caulking on the frame running along side the hinges? that bead i do when i replace the hinges.

pic of doors for reference:










these weigh at least 100lbs a piece.



Repaint Florida said:


> when we take hinges off cabinets we place them in a zip lock baggie
> start by writing 1 A (door 1, top hinge ) 1 B ( door 1, middle hinge ) 1 C (door 1, bottom hinge ) each hinge go back to same place it came off
> no adjustment needed :thumbup:
> 
> ...


thats more or less what i do lol. even with the numbering and making sure that each hinge goes back in the same place, more often than not my worker has a hard time getting them to fit. Maybe its due to the fact that these doors are so damn heavy and we only replace 3 out of 4 hinges on the door with a replacement hinge. maybe its causing the wood to warp??


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## Epoxy Pro (Oct 7, 2012)

We use these hing protectors. Pop the pin, toss it into a bucket, slap on the hing protectors, set up for spraying. I have used these a bunch, other than breaking a few of the lock tabs I have yet to have paint get under them.


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

AGpainting said:


> sorry for the late reply.
> 
> ive tried the accordian style spraying before, i dont know if i want to try that with the current new construction homes im working on though. the doors are REALLY heavy and i dont want to risk any damage. as for the caulking, im assuming you mean the bead of caulking on the frame running along side the hinges? that bead i do when i replace the hinges.
> 
> ...


I think they warped because of the construction of the doors. From the photo, they look like they're made of 5/4 tulip poplar or alder, hardly appropriate for doors that heavy.


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## STAR (Nov 26, 2010)

Gough said:


> I think they warped because of the construction of the doors. From the photo, they look like they're made of 5/4 tulip poplar or alder, hardly appropriate for doors that heavy.


The doors are made from poplar with mdf centers and are very heavy. It's quite typical here in Toronto with new custom homes.

AGpainting,

What I like to do is prime the bottom side of the doors before the carpenters install them. This way the doors will be completely sealed on all six sides from any moisture being absorbed. 

Also, the environment needs to be properly climatized. Make sure the builder is running the hvac and keeping the humidity between 30-50%.

If you have a good relationship with the builder have him tell the carpenters to not screw in all four screws per hinge...two or three would be enough. This way the holes don't get worn out when replacing the hinges and the unused holes will have some bite.

I've worked with builders who provide temporary hinges and I have sprayed doors in place. This works ok, but I prefer the doors be removed. For the heavy doors like yours I attach 1"x1" pieces of scrap wood at each corner on the bottom side. This will protect the door from damage when moving and also keeping it slightly off the ground for spraying. Pick a large room and set them up in the "w" configuration and spray away.

Oh, one more thing I do is tape where the hinges mount on the frame and door. Three coats of paint can add some mils and the doors could rub.

Hope this helps.


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## Gough (Nov 24, 2010)

STAR said:


> The doors are made from poplar with mdf centers and are very heavy. It's quite typical here in Toronto with new custom homes.


Thanks. The panels in the photos look more like hardboard than MDF. Are the stiles and rails usually a full 1 3/8 "? Those certainly look thin to me. 

With the second-growth tulip poplar that we're seeing now, I can see why warping would be a problem.


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## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

I pull the hinges. My10 year old son helped me on one last weekend. I dont always get a situation where I can bring him out on a job, but I was doing a cabin out in the woods and I was able to let him go to work with Dad for a few hours and make a few bucks. These photos are actually putting hinges and hardware back on after we delivered doors back to the job from my shop


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## SemiproJohn (Jul 29, 2013)

Your son looks like he's a lefty. He deserved an extra 10 bucks just for that. Left-handedness rules!


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## Gracobucks (May 29, 2011)

Always nice to bring the kid to work. I had mine vacuuming a floor last week before we painting it. He was excited and loved the money.

How did you get so much splatter on your door panel? You spinning rollers in there?


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## vajpaint (Jul 12, 2012)

we have done 8 foot solid core doors accordion style , no problem but it is two man job to set them up


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## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

Yes, he is a lefty


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## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

Lefty  As for the paint on the door panel? Very observant lol I actually tried to not get that in the photo. I guess I failed  I was packing up a job very late at night last summer and put a 5er of paint brushes, etc in the front seat. Didn't have a lid. My son gives me a hard time about that one still. Dad! Are you ever going to clean your truck? He's such an awesome kid
I love him very much and I'm very proud of him


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## playedout6 (Apr 27, 2009)

Woodland said:


> Yes, he is a lefty


 He might do better then with a baseball in that left hand versus a drill considering David Price just signed a 217 million dollar 7 year contract with the Boston Red Sox ....left handed pitchers make a good living if they have the goods !!!! :thumbsup: Left handed painters...living not quite as good....:thumbup:


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