Filling holes in wood?

Graham_Devon

Need to paint my door frames, not looking forward to it!

Thing is, they have holes in, where some other catches used to be. I've had new interior doors put in, so got now 2 holes from different catches.

I have tons of that powder filler, but this is for walls and plasterboard. Would it be ok to use this on wood? Or do I need to actually go and buy some proper wood filler.

What I don't want is for some kind of reaction to take place or for it to start crumbling or something. Never tried it before.

Or would it be easier to rip out that bit of the frame and put in a new, fresh piece? Theres a lot of sanding down to be done anyway to get things flat and straight again...previous owners seemed to like taking chunks out of door frames.

devon-gnome

You could try melting a suitably coloured wax crayon and using this. I did this when filling old woodworm holes in a floorboard. Should be ok as long as you're going to paint over afterwards. I've also used powder filler and painted over once dry and it was fine.

Hitch

Id be inclined to cut some small pieces of wood to fit in the recesses, glue them in, then plane/sand back if theres any extra protruding.
Then you will see if theres any small gaps to fill.

If you have lots of filler already, use that.

There are other types of fillers, like 2 part wood fillers that would fill them in in without the need for filling with anything else.

ormus

as long as youre repainting then almost anything will do.
i use a mixture of woodglue and sawdust/shavings.

debbie42

I've used the two-pack epoxy type of woodfiller very succcessfully on indoor wood. I've not checked the tin to see whether it's ok for outside, but I'd highly rate it for "workability" after it's set.

paullwill8

Use Tetrion filler, avaliable from most diy stores. Very tough and extremely easy to sand.

andrew-b

When we replaced one of our internal doors we replaced the old latch and lock with just a latch. We made the hole in the frame smaller by sticking in a piece of MDF (easy to shape with a stanley knife) using No Nails.

The trouble with fillers and doors is that if someone slams the door all your filler could fall out! So to help avoid this, when filling in doors and frames i use polyfilla but mixed up using diluted PVA rather than plain water. The PVA in the filler helps it adhere more strongly to the wood - plus also makes the filler set much harder so don't overfill too much as it's hard to sand down again.

Andy

misgrace

paullwill8 wrote: »

Use Tetrion filler, avaliable from most diy stores. Very tough and extremely easy to sand.

Tetrion filler is in my mind the best filler, I didnt know the Diy sheds were selling it, I get mine from the decorating centre.

I have filled frames like this many times lol, and it is a pain, as you have to build up the filler in stages.

But I find this the best way....

If the holes are quite big, then you would use loads of filler, so get some newspaper, wet it, and fit some in to the hole, dont have the paper protuding from the hole, just leave a little space.
whilst its still wet, knock up your filler, and fill that over the paper, its doesnt matter if it looks as though its not filled properly and not flush with the rest of the wood.

Leave to dry, then sand down, then you do the filler again, and this time you should be able to make it flush with the rest of the frame.

Again rub down, till its flush, if its not, then you might just have to do a tad more, but its better doing it in stages than doing it in one big lump.

After its all rubbed, and your happy with it, and prior to painting, get a bit of diluted PVA, and whack that on the filler, leave to dry, then UC.

Just remember though, you will need to dab this filler at least 2 times, before you actually paint the whole frame, to avoid any flashing of the filler through your final coat of gloss etc