I bought a new storm door for our house, but the new Z bar which connects the hinge side of the door to the door frame almost exactly matches the screw holes fromt he old storm door which was removed. i am not as concerned about the holes that line up well as i am with the ones that are slightly misaligned (vertically). would wood glue work or is there any better product that i could use to fill these holes with that would mantain the strength of the frame to hole up the new storm door? would wood glue work?

thanks for your time

 

You can simply fill the holes with toothpicks or slivers of wood. Wood filler will also do the job.

 

My concern though is about how well the new door will be held up? Do you mean glue in the toothpicks with wood glue? The top three screws on which the door hangs are going to miss the present hole by about 1 screw width and i am worried the new hole will wander into the old one. is wood filler as strong as if there was never a hole there at all? also, how long would it take to dry before i could install the new door?

thanks for your time

 

You can glue the toothpicks or wood slivers. When you put in the screw, make a starter hole with an awl to make sure the screw doesn't wander into the old hole. If you use woodfiller, the directions will give you the drying time. If you still have doubts, use screws that are about 1/4" to 1/2" longer than the depth of the holes.

 

If your z-bar is the kind that comes with a vinyl snap-in screw cover, just drill new holes in a different location since the cap cover will hide them. Even if there is no vinyl cap cover, you could always add another screw if you felt it needed it. Also keep in mind that your "face screws" are not the only ones that hold the door in place- you also have the screws that go in through the hinge.

 

wow, that is helpful! i feel like i just woke up thanks

 

The most left out screws are the ones Xsleeper mentioned, but they are the most important. Also in the holes, you could glue in a golf tee and snap it off flush. More wood for the bang. But changing locations is no big deal, since the head of the screw matches the finish on the zbar anyway, you won't see it.

 

i just looked some more and the way this storm door is set up, the hinges are built into the z-bar and screw into the door, not the frame so the z-bar screws are the weight bearing ones. The screw holes are about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch off so i need to fill them somehow. i don't know if they are wide enough to fit wood filler all the way in... (1 inch deep) are there any tricks to do that. toothpicks would be thin and golf tees too thick...

could i use drywall screws that are like 2 inches long or is that a bad solution? (i was thinking i could paint the black heads white (the color of the door and z-bar...) or chould i buy e screws that have heads already painted white that are about a half inch longer than the painted #8 x 1" phillip panhead screws the door came with?

the better model door i bought had a handle heigth clash with the deadbolt so i ended up exchanging it for this cheaper door (more like the one it is replacing) because i can choose the height of the handle... this one doesn't have a vinyl screw cover... but i could drill a few extra holes and just cover up the holes not used with painted screws that aren't so long...

 

Get some dowel that is about the same diameter as the old screw holes. Put some wood glue in the old hole, shove the dowel in as far as it will go, and trim it flush.

Once the glue dries, this will be almost as strong as the original frame, and the new screws won't wander.