How To Fix A Stripped Screw Hole In Wood (Part 2)

In one of our previous blogs, we talked about a couple of solutions we have heard about on social media for fixing stripped screw holes. We put those up to the test against the Screw-It-Again wood anchor and Screw It Again came out the victor. Since then, a couple of other solutions have come to our attention so we decided to battle them against the Screw-It-Again wood anchor once again! Once the most frustrating repair jobs around your household is when a screw hole gets stripped in wood. After excessive use or too much weight being placed on the screw the wood fibers around the screw threads get torn away resulting in a screw that no longer fits back in its original hole. Screwed joints get their strength because of the way the screw threads wedge themselves between the fibers of the wood. Wear and tear or sudden stress on this joint causes those wood fibers to pull free. This failed joint can happen anywhere but it most commonly happens where hinges are fastened to doors and door frames. Door frames can be used and stressed thousands of times every year and it is quite common for the screws holding the door hinges to loosen and eventually pull free. Fixing the stripped screw hole in wood is easier than you might expect. There are a lot of solutions for fixing a stripped screw hole but none are as great and easy to use as the Screw-It-Again wood anchor.

Method #1 - Screw It Again Wood Anchor

The easiest and most secure way of fixing a stripped screw hole in wood is the Screw It Again wood anchor! The Screw It Again wood anchor can fix stripped screw holes in 4 easy steps which takes less than a minute. The Screw-It-Again anchor is the one and only wood anchor/fastener engineered to fix stripped screw holes in all types of WOOD, MDF, plywood and particle board in less than a minute. In an independent test by a 3rd party, Screw It Again showed it can withstand a pull force of close to 300 pounds for the largest size screw hole. This makes it the most secure and strongest solution on the market! Below are 4 easy steps to fix a stripped screw hole in wood in less than a minute.

​Step 1: Match anchor to fit your screw.

​Step 3: Snap off anchor... remember to save the rest for another use.

Step 2: Gently screw anchor the into the existing stripped hole.

​Step 4: Insert screw into anchor and tighten it securely.

Method #2 - Hardwood Plug

If you need to completely fill, hide, or conceal a hole, the best solution anyone will tell you is to use a hardwood plugin and refinish the surface. When addressing a simple stripped screw hole, this creates too much of an unnecessary project that is time consuming and requires a lot of tools that many people may not have. While this is a sturdy solution if you want to take the excessive amount of time needed, you need to be careful because 1 wrong mistake could turn this fix into a potentially costly repair. For this solution to work properly, you need to drill out the hole to match the diameter of your hardwood plug or dowel, glue the plug or dowel into place, and let it set for up to 24 hours! If your plug or dowel diameter doesn’t match the diameter of the hole and you try force the larger plug in, you risk splitting the wood completely and you just turned a 2 minute job into a couple day repair job. Now just like using scrap wood that we covered in part 1, you need to use wood from the same type of wood as the wood with the stripped holes. If you use hardwood filler in softwoods, the hardwood might split the softwood as it expands when the screw is driven in which once again leads to an expensive repair job. Or, if you use a softwood filler in hardwood, the filler may not be durable enough to hold the screw and will be more susceptible to tearing out again.

Method #3 - Other Screw Hole Repair Kits

We are aware there are other off the shelf solutions to fix stripped screw holes in wood. We are also aware that Screw-It-Again in the strongest, easiest, and most trusted solution available! Most of the available solutions involve a plastic plug that gets glued into place or metal strips with sharp edges. Bottom line is that these solutions don’t work as advertised. The plastic plugs have the same issue as hardwood plugs, they can cause more damage is done incorrectly which costs extra time and money. The other solution that uses metal strips, seems to be a hit or miss with most repair jobs and is usually just a miss completely. These strips usually fold after you put them in the stripped screw hole so now you need to find something to pull the metal strip out with. Or you get the screw in and it seems like it’s holding but because the metal strip has such tiny teeth on it, it doesn’t hold well at all and gets pulled out in a couple of ​weeks. These solutions have been around for a while and they didn’t work, so that’s one of the reasons we designed the Screw-It-Again wood anchor.

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There are a lot of other solutions you can try when screws loosen or tears out of the wood they are supposed to be holding. As with most repairs, it's best to start with the easiest solution first and move to the more elaborate and time consuming repairs. One of the most frustrating experiences in woodworking is figuring out how to fix a screw hole when it becomes stripped out and will no longer support the fixture, hinge or accent what it was designed to hold. Until now, to fix a stripped screw hole has been challenging as there never was a "one-size-fits-all" solution to the problem until Screw It Again. Screw It Again wood anchors are available online in our store or through local hardware stores like True Value, Ace Hardware, and Do It Best Hardware.