swinging doors

[jenky]

My living room door constantly swings open and I need some advice as to the easiest way to stop this. Probably going to involve moving hinges etc. but you've any tips they'd be much appreciated.

[New Forester]

Various ways. Just now I can think of: Ramped or helical hinges. As the door opens it lifts, so the weight of the door closes it. Cheap, but doesn't always work well. Needs to be kept lubricated. Hydraulic door closers, as often found on fire-doors. Very expensive, but could perhaps find second-hand. Will shut against quite a resistance if adjusted right. Spring-and-chain closers. A chain (like a bit of bike chain) goes from the door jamb into a mechanism sunk into the hinge edge of the door. Invisible when shut. Various proprietory spring closers, which generally push on the back of the door as it opens. Often squeal if not lubricated. For outhouses and cupboards, a string and weight can work well -- hook inside top of door, pulley or ring on frame, bag of sand on string somewhere you can't walk into it. For kitchen cupboards with a rubbish bucket in it, you can hook the string to the lid so when you open the door the bucket opens. On gates you can position the hinges so the axis of rotation is leaning towards the closed position. Again this lifts the gate as it's opened. On internal doors you can sometimes do this by putting a wider hinge at the bottom, sticking out from the frame (so the top one is nearly flush with the frame as normal, but the bottom one sticks out an inch or so when the door is closed). A lot of these will swing the door nearly closed, but not actually shut it. Or you could try a catch, hook or wedge, or something along the bottom (such as a draught strip) which rubs on the floor to make the door movement less free. Is your door blowing open in a draught, or does it naturally swing open? If the latter, it must be because the frame or hinges are already leaning the other way -- for neutral swing on ordinary hinges, the hinge axis must be exactly vertical.

[jenky]

Cheers Forester, it just swings open on it's own, so I guess the hinges need lining up. It's annoying getting up to shut it every time the dog knocks it open.

[tomd]

Rising hinges would be easier to install than lining them up, and the door *should* close itself. We had to install these after a loft conversion (fire regulations) and they work fairly well.