How to install butterfly hinges on interior doors

The hinge mechanism, by and large, is extremely simple and is responsible for opening and, accordingly, for closing the door leaf, as well as ensuring that it adjoins the door frame as tightly as possible. In order to properly install the hinges on the interior doors, before proceeding directly to the installation process, you should pay special attention to their design. If it seems too complicated for you, then it is better to entrust the process of installing butterfly hinges on interior doors to professionals.

Hinge features

Butterfly loops are in two parts. During their folding, the smaller part is invested in the larger one. Therefore, installation of butterfly hinges on interior doors does not require fitting a groove. Canopies are fastened with hardware and this does not require the use of any professional tools.

What it is?

The most common of all types of door hinges are overhead hinges, since their installation is the simplest. The rest of the options are card, double-sided, it is required to embed, that is, to make grooves in the end of the canvas and the box.

There is no need to embed a butterfly. The loop cards seem to be cut from one plate and when the flap is closed, the smaller card fits exactly into the groove of the larger card. The thickness of the plate is only 2.5 mm, so it fits perfectly into the usual technical gap for the rebate - 3-4 mm.

The hardware cards are so reminiscent of butterfly wings that the door hinges were called so. Without a tie-in, installing them with your own hands is not difficult.

However, this design also has a disadvantage. The butterfly is one-piece, that is, it must be fixed simultaneously on the canvas and on the riser of the box. According to reviews, this is not very convenient. The question also arises of how to remove the sash from the hinges when taking out furniture, for example, or repairing it. Unfortunately, there is a difficulty here: the fittings will have to be unscrewed, since otherwise the door leaf cannot be removed.

Advantages and disadvantages of hinges

Before you hang an interior door on butterfly hinges, you should figure out what advantages they have in comparison with other types:

• High wear resistance. The fittings are made of stainless steel or brass. To increase resistance, the material is covered with an electroplated layer;
• Installation does not require the help of a specialist, the hinges are fastened without preliminary insertion;
• Butterfly-hinged canvas has a smooth running thanks to the bearings included in the hardware design;
• Fastened to both left and right sides;
• Perfectly combined with different styles in the interior thanks to the wide color palette of the hinges.

Before you put butterfly hinges on an interior door, you should watch a video with their review and take into account some of their shortcomings during operation. Among them it is worth highlighting:

• The door is easy to remove, since the hardware is on the outside;
• If the door is equipped with a feigned strip, the butterfly hinges cannot be screwed on;
• There is frequent formation of gaps, which is a kind of side effect.

When analyzing the disadvantages and advantages, it is worth deciding for yourself: fasten the butterfly loops or use more suitable fittings.

pros

• Since the butterfly hinges do not cut into the door leaf, but are attached from above, the preparatory work that is necessary when standard hinges are involved becomes unnecessary. Ease of installation allows you to hang the doors easily, quickly, and without much difficulty.
• Butterfly hinges have an interesting appearance: a little vintage, but very elegant, and giving a unique flavor to any door.
• The low cost of this fastener makes it affordable for absolutely everyone.
• The hinges are quite reliable and durable. With proper installation and careful operation, they can last for many years.
• Butterfly hinges make it possible to hang doors on both the right and left sides.

In general, this is the best option for interior doors: fast, convenient, aesthetic and quite reliable.

Installation of butterfly loops

How to fasten butterfly hinges to an interior door? The main thing is to follow the step-by-step instructions. Otherwise, there may be problems with the compatibility of the canvas and the box or with the key recess.

Before attaching the butterfly hinges to the interior door, it is worth preparing all the tools that will be needed during installation:

• Self-tapping screws;
• Awl;
• Screwdriver;
• Drills for wood;
• Roulette;
• Stationery pencil.

After that, you can proceed with the direct installation of awnings.

First of all, you need to decide on the side of installing the hinges on the door: on the right or on the left, after which you can make a markup. From the lower and from the upper edge of the canvas, 20-25 cm are marked, which will become the basis for attaching the accessories.

Since this type of mechanism does not require a tie-in, the loops are applied to the end of the canvas in a marked place and, using a pencil, mark the places with dots, which are then drilled with a drill.

If it is not very clear how to mark and hang the door on the butterfly hinges, then you should watch the video for an illustrative example.

After the holes are drilled, using self-tapping screws, the hinges are screwed to the door and to the box. It is required to hang the canvas and check the smoothness of its movement so that there is no extraneous noise. If any defect is detected, the web is removed and the problem is eliminated in order to avoid skewing in the future.

After the butterfly hinges have been installed on the interior door, all fittings are lubricated. At first glance, it may seem that everything is complicated, but in practice everything is much easier, more understandable and can be dealt with without the help of a specialist in a short time.

The main thing in the installation of loops is to correctly mark the canvas. As the saying goes: "Measure seven times, cut once."

Installation process

This is an ideal model for home use or for summer cottages Nevertheless, many craftsmen avoid it, preferring, as a rule, hardy and aesthetically more attractive mortise.

Note! Despite the fact that each option has its own installation algorithm, butterflies are distinguished by its almost complete absence: you can install it, with a little thought, even without the help of the Internet.

Installation process
Before starting work, you should check which tools from the list below are available, and, if necessary, buy:

• stationery knife;
• screwdriver / drill;
• fasteners;
• drill.

Actions begin with the determination of the attachment point. To do this, 20 centimeters recede from the bottom and top of the end and draw a line - this is, respectively, the lower and upper boundaries on which the edge of the overhead canopies will be located.

The annotation process

After that, notes are made at the end for future fasteners.In order to avoid the appearance of cracks, before starting to screw in the screws, they are passed along the marks with a drill. The depth of 3 millimeters is enough to avoid the annoying phenomenon.

The product differs from other types in that it is non-separable. This means that it is whole and cannot be divided. It must be applied to the box for notes along with the canvas.

On the box itself, the installation algorithm for overhead options is similar to the stages of attachment to the system. The only difference is that there is no need to make accurate measurements.

Difficulties during installation

During installation, some difficulties may arise, which are influenced by external factors. There may be a gap between the hinge and the door frame. In this case, the door will not close tightly, but the way out of this situation will be a small piece of cardboard or a match, playing the role of a kind of gasket. This way you can get rid of the gap.

Installation nuances

When fastening hardware between fasteners on different parts of the card, it is necessary to maintain the same distance. If this is not done, then in the future problems with operation may arise.

Installation of hinges is carried out in a safe place on the door, where there is a wooden beam. If this is done elsewhere, then you can only spoil the door leaf and in the future it will be necessary to replace it.

It is necessary to approach the fastening of parts of the canopies with all responsibility, so that as a result, both parts dock without problems. Butterfly hinges for interior doors should lie flat on the end of the door leaf if the installation was correct.

Also on sale you can find hinges, the cards of which have an internal and external discrepancy of 1 mm. This type is much more convenient to use, and the installation is carried out according to the same technique.

Common mistakes

The most harmless thing is that it may be the wrong indentation from the edge of the canvas. If the hinges are set correctly, but too close to the edges, then you will simply ruin the look.

The distance to the edge of the web is too short.

The next and most common mistake is when people confuse the installation locations, the small inner part of the hinge is attached to the box, and the large outer part to the canvas. This setup is dangerous for several reasons.

If the outer part of the loop runs along the edge of the canvas, then the holes will be at a distance of a couple of millimeters from the edge, respectively, if you twist the self-tapping screw a little and it will come out from the side or a knot may be caught and then the outer edge will break off altogether.

The holes are too close to the edge.

With proper installation, the holes of the small part of the butterfly will be located almost in the center of the door leaf, which means that you should not be afraid of any cracks or distortions.

Correct installation of the loop on the canvas.

With the box, things are no better. The photo shows that the holes are too close, and the thickness of the lightweight box is small, so it can burst under load.

The inside of the butterfly cannot be attached to the box.

In addition, the box is usually attached to the wall with anchors in 3 places - these are two points under the hinges and one in the area of ​​the castle. If we do everything as expected, then we will have 2 places where we can drive the anchor and cover it with a loop, otherwise the anchor will be visible, which is also not very good.

Points where you can drive the fixing anchors for the box.

There is one more nuance, during installation all the hinges must be strictly parallel to each other. The slightest skewing vertically or horizontally will lead to the door starting to "play" and eventually the hinge will burst or the screws will break out.

The hinge is not skewed vertically and horizontally.

Possible problems with the butterfly loop

Even a beginner can figure out how to properly install butterfly hinges on internal doors. They have a simple and concise design, but nevertheless, if you do not have experience in joinery, some errors may occur, which will manifest over time in the form of a creak, spontaneous opening of the canvas or, conversely, tight closing.

If the door creaks or opens involuntarily, then the reason may lie in the loose hinge wings to the end or to the box. To fix this trouble, it is worth placing a small piece of cardboard under the loop so that it fits snugly against the box or canvas.

If the door does not close completely, then it is worth replacing the hinges that are not located in a single plane. Sheds should be replaced with more suitable for this design.

If the canvas cannot be closed tightly, then the upper loop sags. This may indicate that during the installation of the hinges, the correct gap was not observed, that is, more was made than necessary.

This problem mainly makes itself felt when all the installation work is completed and during the alteration, significant damage to the canvas can be caused. In this case, experts recommend drowning the external card into the door frame.

Before deciding how to install butterfly hinges on interior doors, it is worth examining all their advantages and disadvantages in order to finally make sure of the need to install this type of hardware. Also, experts advise, especially for beginners, to watch a video on the correct installation in order to avoid damage to the canvas, sagging, the formation of a gap and other troubles arising from non-compliance with the rules for installing butterfly loops.

Minuses

In fairness, it is necessary to name the disadvantages that this type of door fastener has.

• The butterfly hinge device does not allow removing the installed door from the hinges. That is, if the need to remove the door leaf arises, the hinges will have to be completely dismantled.
• Sometimes, when using this model of fasteners, distortions of the door frame occur, which do not add beauty and harmony.
• Butterfly hinges are only suitable for light doors: this model cannot cope with a heavy oak leaf.

Due to the listed disadvantages, mortise loops are more popular for this type of work. But for beginners, and if the door is also lightweight, butterfly hinges can be quite a convenient and simpler alternative to standard fasteners.

Find out all the information about the dimensions of door frames for interior doors here.

The right choice of fittings

The choice of butterfly loops should be influenced by several factors that determine the characteristics:

• Material. Steel hinges are characterized by a very high resistance to loads, and also practically do not wear out, even with active use. You can also buy brass hinges - they will not only last a long time, but also will not rust over time.

Butterfly loops made of various materials

• Number. In most cases, two hinges are sufficient, however, depending on the parameters of the door (weight and height), the number of fittings can vary from two to five hinges, which are installed evenly over the entire length of the surface.
• Manufacturer. An important parameter, since the purchase of hinges from an unknown manufacturer, as a rule, does not end well - the fittings quickly fail, which leads to door distortion and other dangerous deformations. Take hinges only from reliable, well-known and trusted manufacturers.

When choosing accessories in a store, you can consult with the seller about which butterfly loops are suitable for your case. It will not hurt to listen to his opinion.

Do not forget to check whether you need right or left loops before buying.The wrong kit will simply not fit properly and you will be wasting your money.