The one time I tried blue tape hinges instead of actual hinges on a quick job

Had a customer call me last Tuesday in a panic wanting their pantry doors rehung before a party that night, so I figured I'd test that trick I saw online with heavy duty blue tape as temporary hinges. It held for two hours before one side peeled off and the door hit the floor. Anybody else learn the hard way that shortcuts like that just create more work?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_stella1mo ago

...so you made it two hours though, what kind of tape did you use exactly? Was it the 3M brand or just some random blue tape from the hardware store? I've heard that matters a lot with the grip strength and all.

john6501mo ago

Yeah you gotta watch out for that stuff, @the_stella is right that brand matters a ton. In my experience the regular 3M blue tape just isn't made for holding up any real weight, it's really just for painting. I learned that one the hard way too when I tried using it to hold a shelf bracket in place while I went to get screws. That door hitting the floor sounds rough though, I bet you had to fix the paint or maybe even the drywall after that. What worked for me in a pinch was actually using some of that gorilla tape, the black heavy duty stuff, but even then it's just a temporary fix for maybe an hour or so. The real trick is to just use those little magnetic cabinet catches to hold the door shut while you work, way more reliable than tape.

reeseperez23d agoMost Upvoted

Those magnetic catches are a good call but they won't work on metal cabinet doors like mine.