A cabinet door that's started sagging, rubbing against its neighbour, or sitting slightly crooked isn't a sign something's broken, it's almost always a simple adjustment away from sitting perfectly again. Modern concealed hinges are built with exactly this in mind, three separate adjustment points that let you correct a door's position in any direction without removing it or reaching for a toolbox full of specialist equipment. This guide covers what those three screws actually do, the right order to use them in, and why some doors are genuinely more finicky to get right than others.
Why concealed hinges are adjustable in the first place
Every real kitchen has small, unavoidable variation, cabinets that aren't perfectly square, walls that aren't perfectly flat, doors that expand and contract slightly with humidity and temperature over the seasons. A fixed, non-adjustable hinge would mean any of that variation shows up as a visibly crooked or sticking door with no way to correct it short of re-drilling. Modern concealed hinges solve this with three-dimensional adjustment built into the hinge itself, height, side-to-side, and depth, all correctable with a simple screwdriver once the hinge is already fitted. This is genuinely one of the most useful features in everyday cabinet hardware, and yet most people never learn to use it, living with a slightly crooked door for years rather than spending two minutes fixing it.
What does each adjustment screw actually control?
Every standard concealed hinge, including our DTC 110° Hinge, has three separate adjustment points, each controlling a different direction of movement. The height screw, usually found on the vertical arm of the hinge closest to the cabinet side, moves the door up or down. The side-to-side screw, typically on the horizontal arm nearest the door itself, shifts the door left or right relative to the cabinet. The depth screw, generally the one nearest the cabinet face on the hinge arm, moves the door closer to or further from the cabinet front. Knowing which screw does what before you start turning anything makes the whole process far less trial-and-error, and stops you accidentally undoing a correct adjustment while trying to fix a different one.
Does the overlay type of my door affect how it adjusts?
Yes, genuinely. A full overlay hinge, the most common type in modern kitchens, has a straight arm and generally offers the widest adjustment range of the three overlay types, since the door sits proud of the whole cabinet frame with room either side to move. A half overlay hinge, used where two doors share a single central partition, has a cranked (bent) arm that positions the door to cover only part of the shared panel, typically leaving a 3-5mm overlay, this narrower margin means less room for error, and getting the side-to-side adjustment right matters more here to avoid the two doors clashing or leaving an uneven gap between them. An inset hinge, where the door sits flush inside the cabinet opening rather than in front of it, has effectively zero overlay to work with, making it the least forgiving of the three if the cabinet itself isn't perfectly square, since there's no extra material for the door to hide behind while you adjust it.
Step 1: Fix the height first
If a door is sitting higher or lower than the cabinet frame or the doors either side of it, start here. Open the door and find the height adjustment screw, look for oval-shaped adjustment slots on the hinge plate, these are the giveaway. Turning this screw shifts the door vertically, gently raise or lower it until the top and bottom edges line up evenly with the cabinet frame and any neighbouring doors. If a single door has two hinges, adjust the top hinge first to set the overall vertical position, then use the bottom hinge to square the door up properly, rather than adjusting both at once and losing track of which one moved what.
Step 2: Correct side-to-side position
Once the height is right, check whether the door sits evenly against the cabinet side, or whether it's pulled too far toward one edge. The side-to-side screw, usually turned with a flathead or Pozidriv screwdriver depending on the hinge, moves the door left or right. Turn it clockwise to draw the door in toward the cabinet, or counterclockwise to move it away, adjusting gradually and checking the gap against the frame as you go rather than turning it several full rotations at once. This is the adjustment that matters most on a half overlay door sharing a partition with its neighbour, since even a small side-to-side error here shows up as an uneven gap between the two doors.
Step 3: Adjust the depth so the door sits flush
The final adjustment controls how far the door projects from the cabinet face. If the door sits proud of its neighbours or doesn't close flush against the frame, find the depth screw nearest the cabinet face and turn it until the door sits level with the surrounding doors, viewed from the side. This is the adjustment most people forget entirely, height and side-to-side issues are more visually obvious, but a depth problem is just as common and just as fixable, and it's often the actual cause of a door that seems to "catch" slightly when closing even though it looks straight from the front.
A practical order to work through if several doors need adjusting
If you're correcting a whole run of cabinets rather than a single door, work through height first across every door in the run, then go back and correct side-to-side, then finish with depth. Doing all three adjustments on one door before moving to the next often means re-checking that first door again once its neighbours have moved slightly, working one adjustment type across the whole run at a time keeps the process more predictable and avoids that repeated back-and-forth.
What if the door still won't sit right after all three adjustments?
If you've worked through height, side-to-side, and depth and the door still won't sit correctly, the hinge itself may be worn out or the screws fixing it to the cabinet may have loosened in the material behind them, this happens naturally over years of daily use, particularly on a heavier door that's opened frequently. At that point it's worth checking whether the hinge needs simply re-tightening onto solid material, or replacing outright. Our guide to cabinet hinges explained covers the different overlay types available if you do need a genuine replacement, since fitting the wrong overlay hinge to your existing door and cabinet combination will cause exactly the same alignment problems all over again, no amount of adjustment can compensate for the wrong hinge geometry in the first place.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why does my cabinet door look uneven compared to the ones next to it?
This is almost always a height adjustment issue, use the height screw on the hinge's vertical arm to raise or lower the door until its top and bottom edges line up with the neighbouring doors.
2. Which hinge screw do I adjust first if my door needs multiple corrections?
Start with height, then move to side-to-side, then depth last, adjusting them in this order avoids chasing your tail readjusting one screw after changing another.
3. My door has two hinges, should I adjust them the same amount?
Not necessarily, adjust the top hinge first to set the door's overall vertical position, then use the bottom hinge afterwards to square the door properly against the frame.
4. Why won't my cabinet door close flush against the frame?
This is typically a depth adjustment issue, find the depth screw nearest the cabinet face on the hinge arm and turn it until the door sits level with its neighbours from the side.
5. Are inset hinges harder to adjust than overlay hinges?
Yes, genuinely, an inset hinge has effectively zero overlay to work with, so there's less margin for error if the cabinet isn't perfectly square, small adjustments matter more and the door has less room to hide any misalignment.
6. Can hinge adjustment fix a door that sags badly, or does the hinge need replacing?
Try all three adjustments first, height, side-to-side, and depth, if the door still won't hold its position afterwards, the hinge itself may be worn or the fixing screws loosened in the cabinet material, and likely needs replacing.
