What is the best way to repair a door jamb when the hinge screw holes have been stripped?

Question

I live in an older home and recently the door's top hinge decided to give out. How can I repair this since the hole for the screws is stripped?

Answer 1

Longer fatter screw. Also plasti fill wood fill works well.

Answer 2

You need to plane the door down. If you don't have a planer, you can try 2 things. First try taking the door off. Remove the hinges and chisel the notch/mortise for the hinge an 1/8" or so deeper and remount the hinges and reset the door and see if that fixes it. Important: get new screws and make sure they are longer then what you took out. I would go as long as 1 1/2". You should also replace the ones in the frame with longer ones to. Use a 2 1/2"-3" screw in one of the holes of each hinge in the frame. This is what should be done when a door is initially installed. Those longer screws are called set screws. If you are still rubbing and you don't have a planer, but do have a circular saw, you can clamp a straight edge to the door as a guide and cut the door. If you do cut it or plane it, do it on the hinge side. I think if you try the deeper notches on the door, your door will open easier for you. If it improves it but it still is a little snug, try putting some paint stripper in the inside of the frame and remove the multiple layers of paint, then sand it and repaint it. Just sanding the frame as you suggested may work, but if it's a tight as it sounds, you would have allot to sand. 80 yrs old, I guess it's probably got at least 6 coats of paint. By the way your toothpick thing is a trick if you need to fill a hole and put a screw in close to that original hole. What you did, didn't really help. it might have compounded the problem. I hope this helps you some and good luck

Answer 3

I'd have to go to the root of the problem first. Why did the hinge pull out? Misaligned door? Warped? Rotted wood on the door jamb? Lots of use? Quick solution, wooden matchsticks with epoxy shoved back into the hole and rescrewed. Or reposition door hinge up or down and make new holes. If rotted wood, replace door frame. Warped door, replace door and frame.

Answer 4

You can stick a small sliver of wood in your screw holes and the screws will tighten back up. Or just move your hinges and puddy over the old holes!

Answer 5

Put a piece of a cedar shim in the stripped out hole. Drive it in with a hammer and cut it off flush with the door jamb.

Answer 6

Take some toothpicks dipped in glue and put them in the stripped hole. Let glue dry, cut off protruding ends, screw hinge back in.

Answer 7

Take off the plates and drill the hole for the door jamb a little bigger on the plate. Then go buy a thicker, longer screw. It works great and is a quick easy fix.

Answer 8

You either move the hinge, or pack the hole with toothpicks and Elmer's wood glue. Third option is to get the next size larger screw.

Answer 9

This is what my dad used to do..I've done it to and it works.
Take a small dowel and use some wood glue and stick it in the hole, when its dry, screw the screw back in. Works great. I've even used a few wooden matches in a pinch-

Answer 10

try using a wooden plug . they come in all sizes . make sure it is a little bigger so that it holds and apply a little wood glue then hammer it into the hole alowing time for it to dry then put your door back on . good luck

Answer 11

I have found that a gold tee driven into the hole works well. It hard enough to hold a screw and pointed to drive easily. You can use other pieces of wood but I always have these around for that.Just cut off the excess.A golf tee is made out of hardwood where matches and toothpicks are made out of softwood and won't hold as well.