Why, in my house, are the door hinge pins inserted from bottom to top?

July 29, 2014 8:58 PM

I have an older house in Chicago. 1890s. Not sure that is relevant to the age of the doors but regardless, there are three doors (bathroom, two bedrooms) where the hinge pins are inserted from the bottom up. Occasionally this means they fall out when the tension fails to keep them in. Surprisingly this if not that often, maybe twice a year. However it is startling, prob bad for the door, hinge and floor. Anyone know a reason why a hinge may be positioned like this? Or should I just get to work flipping/replacing them?
posted by patrad to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

Best answer: Never underestimate people's ability to say "Meh, fuck it" when they realize they've installed something wrong. Go ahead and flip them.
posted by Etrigan at 9:20 PM on July 29, 2014 [8 favorites]

Flip them. People do strange things and over 120 years they have had plenty of time to do strange things in.
posted by ssg at 9:27 PM on July 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

Somebody might've had a reason, but there's no good reason. Fix it.
posted by jon1270 at 3:37 AM on July 30, 2014

I rented a cottage this summer where about half the doors had half the hinge pins inserted upside down. Sometimes people just don't know or don't care, I guess.
posted by Naib at 3:58 AM on July 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yep, mistake. At some point the hinges might have been completely removed from the door and jamb (to clean them off after ovepainting, say) and someone wasn't paying attention when they re-installed 'em.
posted by notsnot at 5:47 AM on July 30, 2014

Best answer: It's possible that whoever put them in couldn't get them to go in from the top, so they put them in from the bottom. If you can get them in the right way, go for it.
posted by alms at 7:29 AM on July 30, 2014 [1 favorite]