So you’ve decided to install a door knocker. You’ve made a good decision. Not only do door knockers protect visitors from having to repeatedly slam their knuckles against a hard material, but it also adds a certain elegance and style to your house. There’s only one problem – how do I install this correctly?

You’d be surprised at the amount of houses whose door knockers are poorly installed. There are a shockingly high percentage of doors whose knocker is too high, too low, off-center, or even upside-down! These are only examples of the obvious defects; many times, they’re simply installed by someone who doesn’t know the tricks to installing a door knocker. This article will help you get it put in correctly.

First of all, it helps to understand the basic design of a door knocker. There are two basic types of door knockers: surface mounted and through the door mounted. The simplest is surface mounting. The screws go through the door knocker and into the door itself. This makes things easy enough so that your main worry will be the placement of the door knocker.

Through the door mounting is a little trickier. First you need to drill holes through the door to match the mounting points on the knocker. You also need to cut the bolts themselves to correctly match the width of the door. Surface mounted knockers are more common now as they’re much easier to install, but you’ll find the through the door type on older homes.