Heavy wooden doors create stress on their top hinges. In older homes, decades of stress can strip the screw holes, allowing the screws to pull out of the wall and the hinge to come loose. While there are a few solutions which involve wood glue, golf tees, or toothpicks, Nathan’s preferred method is a dowel and epoxy. Here’s the process.
Note: When choosing new screws, do your best to choose screws with a similarly-sized head with the same slot. Larger heads will stick up from the original hinge and make the door hard to close. Sticking with the same slot type will help the repair blend in. Sometimes, the best “new screws” are actually old ones.
How to Repair a Stripped Screw Hole
- Remove the existing screws and pull the hinge leaf from the door. In most cases, it won’t be in the way if you fold it over against the door.
- With a ¼-inch drill bit, drill into the screw holes to make them uniform. Only drill through the jamb. Once there isn’t any more resistance, move to the next hole. Continuing to drill may damage the jack stud behind the wall, preventing longer screws from catching.
- Vacuum the screw holes to remove any saw dust and debris.
- Cut the ¼-inch down into smaller pieces, about an inch long. Mix some two-part epoxy on a scrap piece of cardboard. Roll the ends of the dowels pieces in the epoxy and place them in the screw holes. Let the epoxy harden.
- Once the epoxy has cured, use an oscillating tool to cut the dowels flush with the hinge mortise. Sand as needed.
- Tip the bottom of the door upward to seat the hinge leaf in the mortise. Hold it in place with a door jack or shims.
- Using a self-centering drill bit, place the tip in each of the hinge holes and drill small pilot holes.
- Choose a drill bit with a diameter slightly smaller than the new screws to allow the threads to sink into the jamb material. Drill each of the pilot holes slightly larger with this bit.
- Put a small dab of wax on the ends of the screws and hand-tighten them until the hinge is secure. Align all of the slots on the screws for an extra bit of detail.
When selecting replacement screws, Nathan explains that there are several approaches to fixing stripped screw holes beyond the dowel method. Simply increasing the screw length can help: a longer screw will go deeper and get more bite, and in some cases you can go long enough to grab the jack stud behind the jamb. However, he cautions: “The larger the screw, usually the larger the screw head. So when we put the screw in, we don’t want the head to stick out past the leaf of the hinge, because when the door shuts, those will bind and it’s going to change the alignment.”
Why Slotted Screws? Nathan uses vintage brass slotted-head screws rather than modern Phillips-head screws when repairing older doors. As he explains: “Thankfully for you and I, my grandfather used to save a lot of old brass screws, and the reason I want to use these is they have a straight slot or slotted head on them, compared to the modern-day screw that you get, which is mostly going to be a Phillips head. So I’d like — aesthetically I’d like to go back with that straight slot.” Sourcing period-appropriate hardware helps maintain the character of an older home.
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Nathan used a clamp jack to stabilize the door in place while working on it. Drill larger holes in the existing screw holes with a drill and 1/4” drill bit.
Use a quarter inch drill bit to create the pilot holes. Use a self-centering drill bit to drill the hole perfectly centered. Be sure to keep your arm square while drilling.
Use a vacuum to remove sawdust from the holes. Cut dowels to an inch before mixing up the two-part epoxy. Dip the dowel in the epoxy mix and insert into the hole. Allow the epoxy to harden. Use an oscillating tool to cut the dowels flat to the surface. Use 120-grit sandpaper to hand sand the dowels smooth.
Apply wood screw lubricant to the 2-1/2” brass screws to help decrease resistance between the screw tip and wood fibers. Use a screwdriver to screw in the brass screws to avoid stripping.
Stripped Hole Repair Kits Available:
Nathan notes that there are several options for fixing stripped screw holes beyond the dowel-and-epoxy method. Pre-made kits for stripped-out screws include snap-off inserts that you cut to the right length and place in the hole before reinserting the screw. There are also brass threaded inserts that you pre-drill and drive in with a torx bit. However, Nathan points out that threaded inserts use a smaller, newer screw, so they wouldn’t work well with older hinges that have larger holes — making the dowel-and-epoxy approach the better choice for vintage doors.
Pro Tip: When drilling out the stripped screw holes, Nathan stresses the importance of keeping the drill perfectly square: “The key is we want to keep it nice and square. We don’t want it to go down, up, left or right.” This ensures the dowel sits straight in the hole and provides a solid foundation for the new screw.
