Sagging built-in wardrobe door — can it be fixed or replaced?
One door on my built-in wardrobe has started to sag — it rubs the frame and doesn't sit flush with the others. Is this a replace-the-door situation or can it be adjusted?
3 answers
Almost certainly an adjustment, not a replacement — save your money. Built-in wardrobes use adjustable concealed (European) hinges with two or three little screws that shift the door up/down, left/right, and in/out. A sagging door is usually just:
- Loose mounting screws (the hinge plate has worked loose from the panel), or
- The hinge needs a quarter-turn adjustment to lift the door back into alignment.
If the screw holes have stripped in chipboard (common), a carpenter re-anchors them — still minor. Only replace the door if the panel itself is water-damaged or swollen. Ask a carpenter to "adjust and re-anchor the hinges," not to replace the door, and see what they say.
Worth flagging the difference for anyone landing here: a door that's *sagging* (dropping on its hinges and catching the frame) is usually an adjustment/re-hang job — but if the door or panels are actually *warping or swelling*, that's moisture, and there's a separate thread on wardrobe doors warping in humidity where swollen board needs replacing (in moisture-resistant material) rather than adjusting. Check which one you've actually got before you start.
Worth adding for anyone planning built-in joinery: sagging is almost always a fixing and load issue, and the same rules that keep a wardrobe door hanging true keep open shelving from bowing — the board has to be sized to the span and load, and everything has to be anchored into solid structure, not just plasterboard. If you're speccing custom shelving or storage, there's a fuller thread on what to get right with custom shelving and built-in storage — thickness to the span, concealed fixings for floating shelves, and scribing to the wall. Sagging/pulling out later is nearly always an undersized board or a fixing into the wrong thing.
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