filling wood holes

[bucketmouth64]

Need some tips how to fill screw holes in my garage door. The screws that attach the hinges to my wood garage are falling out because of weathering. What can I use to fill the holes so I can screw in the hinges? If there is a filler I would assume I would have to drill out the hole more so the old crud is gone and the new filler would adhere. I was thinking of buying a tube of plastic wood, but I didn't know if this would work or if there is a better way. Any advice would help.

[Farmboy1]

A few options and these are assuming you are talking about a swing style man door, not an overhead garage door:

1. Get longer screws, don't upsize as they will not fit the hinge plate recesses

2. Replace door, if the screws are coming out, chances are the rest of the door is not looking good.

3. Drill out screw holes and install dowels with glue, wait for this to set up, then reinstall hinges.

[sparcebag]

Your probably out of luck with any fill.A dutchmans patch would work but its a hard process where you skin off the laminate facing,cut out the rot and replace it with new wood.I'd replace the door with a metal door.If I needed a short term repair I'd put metal plates on the door where the bolts go through as a temp.repair untill a new door could be installed.

If the hinges and wood is not rotted and there just screwed to the door pannel,I'd then replace the screws with stove bolts,with the bolts heads on the outside for appearance.they would go through the door and hinges with a lock washer and nut on the inside.

[Sandmannd]

An old trick my Dad taught me for this is to put some wood glue in the hole. Then take a couple of toothpicks and put them in. Break them at the whole so they are the right length. Screw in your screw and it will hold a long time.

[Tima]

How about using some nuts and bolts with washers?

[Steve Foss]

Bucketmouth, wood fillers don't hold up well in these situations.

I usually go with Farmboy's 3rd option if the door facing is not split out where the screw holes are. If that's split out, I'll either take off the door and hinges and replace the facing lumber, which means chiseling or routing new hinge mortises, or I'll replace the whole thing with a new pre-hung door unit. Like Farmboy said, screws stripped out in the hole usually mean other problems have developed, because a door loose on its hinges for a good length of time will cause trouble.

If the facing and the door are in good shape, drill out all the screw holes in the door facing (and any in the door itself if the wood is too stripped to keep the screws tight), and insert glue and dowels. Usually a 1/4 inch hole/dowel is fine, and I keep the wood density pretty close, meaning I'll get pine or other softwood dowels for a pine door/door facing and hardwood dowels if it's a hardwood door/facing. Polyeurethane glues like gorilla glue are good for this, but any wood glue will do.

Then, once everything has set up overnight, you'll need drill new holes in the facing and you're ready to remount the door. Make sure when you drill the new holes you lay the hinge into the mortise and drill through the hinge holes, centering your holes.

[bucketmouth64]

It is my overhead garage door. Sorry for not clarifying this.

[Steve Foss]

Same basic advice, larger dowels.

[Farmboy1]

An overhead garage door does not have hinges that fasten to the garage. Do you mean one panel of the door to another panel, or are you talking about the brackets that hold the track to the side of the garage?

[bucketmouth64]

Brackets that are attached to the garage that hold the rollers. Brackets are diamond shaped that are attached between each door panel crease.

[Steve Foss]

You can drill out and fill the holes with glue and dowels on any of the holes that go into wood.

[reddog]

Just thru bolt it with a 1/4 X 2inch carriage bolt, like Tima suggested earlier.

Any kind of fill, patch, etc, is going to be alot of work and temporary, at best. If the door is that old and weathered, that the 1 1/4" lags work loose, then bolt it up and go fishin

[Surface Tension]

I'd go with the carriage bolt too.

[Snowking]

id would go with a truss head bolt. just like a carrage bolt but it has a flat head instead of a domed head. the only place i found them is at a garage door outfit