How to Match Replacement Drawer Slides in Peterborough, Plus Hinges and Pulls

When a drawer starts dragging or a cabinet door won't close flush anymore, the cabinet itself is often fine and it's the hardware that has worn. A replacement that drops straight in mounts the way the original did, and the old part shows how, so it's worth taking off and bringing in with you.

Kawartha Hardware Distributors specializes in cabinet hardware. At our shop on Neal Drive in Peterborough we stock drawer slides and cabinet hinges, inset hinges included, plus pulls, knobs, screws and fasteners from several suppliers. Non stock items can be ordered, and if we don't have it, we will get it if it's available to us.

Which Drawer Slides Will Fit an Existing Drawer?

Replacement drawer slides need to mount in the same spot as the old ones and run the same length. Pull the drawer out, or lift it off if it releases, and the mounting will usually look like one of these.

• Side mount, a pair of slides with one screwed to each side of the drawer box and the matching rail inside the cabinet. Plenty of them run on ball bearings.
• Undermount slides are hidden beneath the drawer, so there's no metal along the sides when it's open.
• Bottom mount rollers along the lower edge of each drawer side, with a wheel at the back of the drawer piece and another at the front of the cabinet piece
• A single centre runner, common in older cabinetry, fastened at the front and back of the cabinet with a guide on the drawer that rides along it.

For length, the old slide is your measurement. Side mount slides also depend on a set gap between the drawer box and the opening on each side, so changing to another style can mean rebuilding the drawer to suit it.

Why does a drawer drag or drop when it's pulled out?

Often it's the drawer slide, from worn bearings or a rail that's bent or worked loose. Before replacing anything, check the mounting screws, because a rail that's backed off slightly drops a drawer much like a worn slide does. Stripped holes in particleboard will often hold again with a slightly larger screw that still fits the slide's mounting holes, or with the rail moved to a fresh spot in solid material, and we stock screws and fasteners if you need them.

Do Your Cabinets Need Inset Hinges or Overlay Hinges?

Look at a closed door. If it sits inside the opening with a thin line of frame or cabinet edge showing all the way around, it's an inset door and needs inset hinges. An overlay door sits on the front of the cabinet instead, covering part or nearly all of the edge, and since the two kinds of hinge are bent differently to put the door where it belongs, they don't swap.

Overlay varies between kitchens too, because how much of the edge a door covers depends on the hinge arm and its mounting plate working together. Frameless and face frame cabinets take different plates as well, so one old hinge brought in with its plate, if it has one, still on settles both questions.

We specialize in hard-to-find pieces, and inset cabinet hinges are one of them. If the hinges on your doors are visible from the outside, switching to concealed ones means boring a cup into the back of each door. Our Quick Order Doors page covers replacing doors and drawer fronts and moving to concealed hinges at the same time.

Can a crooked cabinet door be fixed without a new hinge?

In a lot of cases, yes. Most concealed hinges have adjustment screws on the arm for moving the door sideways and in or out, many adjust for height too, and a door that droops or rubs its neighbour can usually be brought back into line with a screwdriver. Replace the hinge once the arm cracks or the closing spring gives out.

How Do You Replace Cabinet Pulls Without Drilling New Holes?

Choose a pull with the same centre to centre spacing as the old one, measured from the middle of one screw hole to the middle of the other, and it'll go straight onto the existing holes. Pulls are often listed in millimetres, so write the spacing down in metric as well as inches, or bring one of the old pulls along.

Thickness matters as well. Pulls ship with screws cut to a set length, and a thick drawer front, or a decorative front screwed onto the drawer box, can need a longer one than the package includes. We carry screws and fasteners, so ask about the length while you're choosing pulls.

Changing from a knob to a pull, or to a different spacing, leaves a hole showing, and a backplate behind the new hardware is a common way to cover it without filling and refinishing the door. We have tons of affordable replacement cabinet pulls and knobs that will refresh your cabinets. If a door is hanging crooked, sort the hinge out too, since pulls only line up across a row once the doors do.

What to Bring to Kawartha Hardware

The old part is the best reference there is. Bring one complete slide, with the drawer piece and cabinet piece together, or a single hinge with its plate still on, and for pulls, bring an old one or jot its spacing on a scrap of paper. A phone photo of the cabinet with the door closed and the drawer pulled out fills in whatever the parts can't show.

If the part looks unusual, bring it anyway. We carry many things that other hardware retailers can't be bothered stocking, and if you need that 'thingy' that no one else can find, let us see what we have hiding in the back. With a drawer emptied out, it's also a fair moment to look at the kitchen cabinet accessories that go inside, whether that's a utensil divider for the drawer or a garbage and recycling pullout for a base cabinet.

Getting the Right Drawer Slides in Peterborough

Kawartha Hardware Distributors is at 600 Neal Drive in Peterborough, open to the public, and we serve contractors and retail customers alike. We're not a 'Big Box' store, and frankly, we feel this is our strength. Customer service here is not a game of hide and seek.

Bring the old drawer slide in, or contact us with your measurements first. With a matching slide fitted, the drawer should run out and close again without a scrape.