The 10 Minute Handyman: How to Fix a Stripped Hole

You don’t have to be a carpenter to make small repairs around your home or apartment, and a lack of hands-on experience should be no reason to deter you.

Drywall is great; it’s easy to install compared to older alternatives, it’s a cinch to paint and patch, and requires little maintenance. One of the more common problems you’ll run into is a stripped hole; a hole used to hang or hold something to the wall that enlarges over time eventually causing the hole to be larger than the fastener you’re using.

An example of this happened in my girlfriend’s apartment. Her towel holder in her bathroom began to pull off the wall because of normal use and being tugged on.  This is a simple fix and you’re manly-man points will go up if you opt to fix things like this without her asking.

In many cases the correct way to fix this would be to use a larger screw or larger plastic anchor, but in this situation, we can’t use anything bigger because they wouldn’t fit the towel holder’s fasteners anymore. So, we have to make the hole smaller again.

(Note, this method should be used in light duty fixes, anything heavy or important that cannot loosen again because of danger concerns should be approached with a more permanent solution.)