Taking the Squeak out of a Squeaky Door Hinge

How to Lubricate a Squeaky Door Hinge

It's a stock sound in every horror movie, one that even appears within Michael Jackson's iconic song "Thriller." We're talking about the sound of a squeaking door hinge. While the sound may be great for a Hallowe'en haunted house, you probably son't want to listen to it every time you open the closet door - or worse, the bathroom door.

The mess left by a little squirt of
graphite (photo: author)

Most people will wander out into their garage and grab a can of WD40 to attack the door - but you should know better by now! The active ingredient in WD40 penetrates and sucks moisture out of tight spaces, but it doesn't actually lubricate -- it's the material the active ingredients are dissolved in that lubricates, and that solvent will evaporate in time. In other words, it doesn't last and the hinge will sooner than later start squeaking again. Besides, using WD40 is, frankly, rather messy.

Neither of the previous owners (ptui!) of my last two houses knew how to lubricate a squeaky hinge. One sprayed on WD-40 and the other used the graphite you squirt into locks. Both of them made a mess, and by the time we'd moved into the house the doors were squeaking again. Why? at least in part because they'd done it wrong. Here's how to do it right, with only a few minutes' work:

How to Repair Loose Wood Screws

The holding power of an ordinary wood screw is a significant improvement over a nail because of the additional surface area created by the threads wrapped around the shank. The right kind of screw in the right size hole will hold for many a year, perhaps indefinitely if the fastener isn’t subjected to much stress. If there is stress on the joint, however, the hard metal screw can – and usually will – wear away at the softer wood, eventually enlarging the hole and loosening the screw. The wearing action only gets worse as the hole enlarges, often to the point that the screw ultimately just falls out. The good news is that a loose screw isn’t hard to fix. In fact, there are several fixes, though some are better than others. 

Just Use a Bigger Screw

This fix takes the least work, and – as you might expect – gives the poorest results. In many situations you can’t use a thicker screw (a #10 instead of a #8, for instance); in others you can’t fit in a longer screw. In either case, the holding power of the new screw is compromised by the existing damage, so this solution is only recommended for temporary fixes.

Holes in Your Window Screens? That's an Easy Thing to Repair

Your standard maintenance and spring cleaning should include washing your home’s windows, inside and out. Once you’ve compared a clean window and a dirty one side-by-side, you’ll see why. At the same time, it’s a good idea to check the window screens and repair any that have developed holes since your last window-cleaning session. 

You could take a damaged screen to the local hardware store to have it repaired – at a pretty impressive cost, I might add – or you could do it yourself with some basic tools. For modern metal-framed screens, you only need one specialized tool – cleverly called a “screen tool” – and chances are good that it’ll cost less than five bucks. Replacement screen is available at the local BigBox store in both fiberglass and aluminum varieties, as well as different colors. Once you’ve removed a screen from the window, replacing the mesh should take only a few minutes for fiberglass screen, though significantly longer if you use metal mesh.

Flat Tire on Your Wheelbarrow or Dolly? No Problem

If you have a flat tire on a bicycle, it’s no big deal to change it – mainly because almost all bike tires have inner tubes. But very little else around the house has an inner tube, so if you find a flat on your wheelbarrow, a two-wheel dolly or a small garden-tractor tire, you might well have yourself a head-scratcher. Look at the picture over there: the tire (blue) must form an airtight seal against the rim (#4, gray) or any air you pump into it just comes out around the edge, or bead, of the tire. If you want to pump air into that tire, you need to force the bead up against the rim - all the way around and on both sides. 

Tubeless tire separated from rim

It’s gonna take some ingenuity, but you can do it without taking the wheel to your local tire shop. All you need is a way to compress the tire. I usually use a band clamp, but for larger wheels a big ‘ol tie-down strap might be more in order. In a pinch, you can do the same thing with some rope and a stick, though you’ll probably need a helper for that method.