Are Your Drawers Sliding All Over the Place? Get Back on Track with New Drawer Guides

Posted Mon, 02/08/2010 - 17:24 by The Hardware Guy

Sometimes it seems that your house is breaking one piece at a time, and it doesn’t do it slowly or at regular intervals. You may be lulled into a false sense of security when you go problem-free for a few months; then all of a sudden, you need a new water heater, your bathtub faucet leaks, you need to weatherproof, and your furnace is making funny sounds. It’s tough being a homeowner sometimes, but you can get a handle on problems one repair at a time. A good place to start is with repairing your drawers. New drawer guides can be a good learning experience and a good way to make life a bit more convenient in any room in your home.

Do you need new drawer guides? If you do, you will notice that your drawers are sliding all over the place – they do not slide in and out with a nice, snug fit. They kind of wobble around like a car that needs an alignment, and this is actually exactly what your drawer needs. You may also see that when the drawers are closed, they rest at a slight angle or do not fit into the housing like they should. These are signs that you need new drawer guides.

Besides being annoying, when your guides and slides are worn or broken, it can damage the drawer and the housing. You may find your drawer comes off the tracks or out of the housing completely. And it will do this when you’re in a hurry and can’t spend the time messing with it, it is guaranteed.

Now do-it-yourself or call a carpenter. If you’re busy and not especially handy with tools, it is tempting to call a carpenter, go away, and then come back to a nicely sliding drawer. And a $110+ bill. That’s one option. The other is to visit DIY sites like eHow or DoItYourself.com, get some easy instructions, and spend a few hours. You will only have to pay what the slides cost, and these can be very reasonable. With a repairman, you will have to pay for his labor and the parts.

Replacing your drawer glides is not that difficult; it only requires a bit of planning and then a little time. First you need to determine what type of slides you want based on the length of the drawer and the anticipated weight load that the drawer will have to handle. Next, check out top brands like Blum, Accuride, Hettich, Fulterer, and Knape and Vogt to see the wide selection. You can get guides that have self closing mechanisms, quiet closes, full extensions, ¾ extensions, and much more.

Next, arm yourself with information from the internet and from the suppliers of the slides. Instructions and the proper hardware will be included. All you need to do then is remove the old slide system and follow the directions step-by-step.

You save money two ways by doing this: first, you are saving yourself the obvious expense of hiring someone to do it for you. Second, you are installing hardware that will prolong the life of your drawers and increase their utility and convenience for you. Call the professionals in for your electric work or plumbing, but save your money and do your drawer slides yourself.

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