Adding a doorstop

Our kitchen door is set-up with a hook and eye to keep the door open. It is a bit of an awkward stretch to get in to hook the door in place. If the door is not hooked in, the slightest of breeze results in an almighty bang. To make fixing the door in place easier, I added a magnetic doorstop.

The place is awkward. The door does not open flat against the wall. This means that we cannot place the magnetic doorstop in the best location. It is preferable to have a short lever acting on the doorstop. I installed this same stop in my bedroom to keep a slowly closing door open (after I ran into it enough times in the middle of the night when getting up to breastfeed my daughter). With a short lever, it is a very secure stop. With the long lever, it is not as secure. The advantage is, it still keeps the door open. I left the original system in the event I need to keep the door open in a storm, otherwise it works way better to just push the door open against the magnetic stop.

To install the stop, I always start measuring with both the stop and the cup to make sure I like the position. I swop them around. I prefer having the cup on the wall or skirting. Mark out the positions. This means you are sure your open door connects the 2 parts together. Unscrew the baseplate of the two parts. The kit comes with fasteners and wall plugs. It also comes with a single expansion screw. Unfortunately, the base plate dit not have a hole of the correct size and I was unwilling to drill the hole larger. This meant that I used 2 screws and wall plugs to fix the cup to the wall. Using the baseplates, mark out the holes. I recommend completing a component and then checking the markings for the other before marking out those holes. Once you have the holes drilled, fix the baseplate in place. Now screw the component (arm or cup) in place. Remember that you are going to need different drill bits. If you are working with a wooden door and a brick wall, you will need a masonry drill that is large enough for the plugs and a wood bit that has the correct size for the pilot hole you need to drill.

The reason I swop the arm and cup is to avoid problems of bumping into them. With my door in the closed position, I have a look at the location where the arm is the least likely to pose a tripping hazard. In my case, it has always been the door.