If you're trying to replace a length of hinge on a boat, RV, box or cabinet, you might think that you absolutely need to get a hinge with pre-drilled holes so that your replacement hinge will match up nicely with the holes that are already there.

...except that none of our hinges have holes!

You may be surprised to know that many manufacturers buy them this way, and punch or drill them as part of the manufacturing process.  This provides a few neat advantages:

• The hinges look cleaner because there are no extra holes
• The mounting holes can have an irregular pattern
• There is no issue with holes that may be too large or too small

Naturally, you'll want to attach this hinge somehow.  Here are some tips:

Self-tapping screws are your friends

Self-tapping screws are a miracle of modern attachery.  Yes, I just made that up.  They're screws, but on the end is a metal-cutting bit that drills and taps threads its own hole!  Some versions of these have a hex head, others have Phillips or Robertson recessed in them. They're all great.  

Use the old hinge as a template

If you have the leaves of the old hinge handy, you can use them as a template to mark where the holes need to be.  This way you have an exact match, with no extra holes and clean-looking finished product.

Do you need to stagger the screws?

If your hinged door ever needs to fold over itself (to the fully closed position), make sure the screw heads don't interfere with each other by staggering them along the length of the hinge.  The hinge shown below, for example, has holes that are staggered.

Still have questions?  Give us a call, or Contact Us by email!

We're here to help!