Are these barstools fixable?

Question

We've had the same barstools in our house for several years now. Probably around 7 or 8 years. I'm pretty sure they either came from Lowe's or Wolohan Lumber (which went out of businees or is a company that went bankrupt, not sure). Anyway, the screws keep working out of them. They are light colored, stained wood. The whole barstool is wooden. Theyre like really tall chairs, with a back and everything. We've tried everything to fix them, we just cant keep screws or nails from working their way out of them. No one in our family is obese or anything, so the weight of someone sitting on them is not the problem, unless they just werent made good. My mother wants to replace them, but it will probably be a year before we get to do so, since we just paid for new flooring, and my sister and I are both in college. Is there any low cost way to fix them or are we wasting our time?

Answer 1

I can only think of a couple of possible fixes for your chairs. First would be to try reinforcing the screw holes with epoxy glue. Squirt the resin in (mixed of course), then insert your screws, snugging them up but not trying to tighten them and let everything set for 24 hours. Then go back and tighten down the screws. Hopefully, the epoxy will fill the gaps between the screws and the wood, so you can once again pull them tight.
The other idea would be to replace the piece of wood with the screw holes that aren't holding with another piece of wood. I don't know from your description if this would be the chair legs or the seat, but this might be a possibility. If you can't replace, can you add a block of fresh wood around where the screws are coming out, to give you a new surface to screw into. Again, not actually seeing the chair makes an exact description tough, hope you get the idea.

Answer 2

You could try putting a wood putty in the holes, letting that dry, then redrilling and rescrewing them back in, with some wood glue added to the mix to make it tighter. That will hold them for a little while longer, but I'm pretty sure in the end you will need to replace them. For now though, this might work.

Answer 3

If you can't use larger diameter screws, then there are products made for that purpose. One way is a couple of toothpicks, or maybe some coarse steel wool. The product I like is kind of like screen wire. You put it in the hole, then put in the screw. The screw binds the screen to the wood,and it tightens up.

Answer 4

Try filling the screw holes with JB Weld, reinstall the screw while the epoxy is wet, once it cures it should hold the screws. You can also fill the holes, let it dry and drill and re-tap the holes. Here is a link for J B Weld http://jbweld.net/index.php