How do I fix a screw that has stripped its hole in chipboard furniture?

Chipboard is glued particles with a thin dense skin. A screw thread cuts through the skin into loose material that has very little to grip, and once that material is chewed the hole cannot be recovered by making the screw bigger — a bigger screw just chews a bigger volume. Every repair that works does the same thing: it puts real timber where the loose particles were.

What you'll need

• Hardwood dowel a little larger than the damaged hole
• Wood glue, PVA or polyurethane
• Drill and a bit matching the dowel
• Sharp chisel or a flush saw (optional)
• Two-part epoxy or a chipboard repair resin (optional)
• Threaded metal inserts, for hinge and runner fixings (optional)

Step by step

1. Take the fitting off and look at the hole.A hole with a clean thread that has just come loose is a different problem from a crater. Judge the repair from what is actually there, not from how the screw feels.
2. Do the dowel repair for anything that matters.Drill the damaged hole out to a clean round hole matching a hardwood dowel — 8 or 10mm typically. Glue the dowel in, tapping it home so it is a firm fit. Trim flush when cured, then drill a fresh pilot hole into solid timber and refit the original screw.
3. Let the glue cure fully before drilling.Hours, not minutes. A dowel drilled while the glue is green tears out with the screw and you have made the hole bigger for nothing.
4. Use epoxy where a dowel will not fit.In a shallow hole, or near an edge where a dowel would break out, pack the hole with two-part epoxy or a chipboard repair resin, let it cure hard, and drill a pilot into it. Ordinary lightweight filler is far too soft for this — it takes a thread and releases it under load.
5. Fit a threaded insert for a fixing that will be undone repeatedly.Hinge plates and drawer runners get removed and refitted. A metal insert glued into a drilled hole gives a machine thread that does not wear, and it is the right answer where a screw has already stripped twice.
6. Move the fixing if the panel allows.Often the simplest repair. Drill a fresh hole 20 to 30mm away in sound board and use it. Hinge plates and runners frequently have spare holes for exactly this.
7. Match the screw to the board, not to the hole.Chipboard screws have a coarse, deep thread and a sharp point specifically because that is what grips loose particles. A woodscrew with a fine thread strips chipboard quickly.
8. Pilot every screw within 50mm of an edge.Chipboard splits along its edge under a screw wedge. A pilot hole at about 70 per cent of the screw's core diameter takes the wedging out.
9. Drive by hand at the end.A driver on full torque strips a chipboard hole in a fraction of a second. Run it in on a low clutch setting and finish the last turn with a hand screwdriver.

Tips

• Keep a few 8mm hardwood dowels and a tube of glue with the flat-pack spares. Nearly every stripped hole in a house is repairable with those two things.
• If the same screw has stripped twice, the fixing is carrying more than that board can hold. Add a second fixing or spread the load rather than repairing the same hole again.
• A stripped screw hole in a shelf support is a warning about the load on that shelf, not just a fixing problem. Check what the shelf is carrying.

Common mistakes

• Putting a longer or thicker screw into the same hole — The surrounding material is already chewed. A bigger screw removes more of it and buys days, not years.
• Packing the hole with matchsticks or cocktail sticks — It works briefly in softwood and barely at all in chipboard, because the sticks sit in loose particles rather than gripping anything. A glued hardwood dowel is the same idea done properly.
• Using lightweight decorators' filler — It is designed to be sanded, not to hold a thread. It crumbles under the first load. Use epoxy or a dowel.
• Driving screws at full torque with a driver — Chipboard gives no warning before it strips. Low clutch setting and a hand finish.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask