Relocating Holes for Door Strike Plate

After I replaced the strike plate for the door knob on an exterior door, I found that the predrilled screw holes were slightly too far forward. You can't simply drill new holes, because the new holes are too close to the old ones. This article describes a trick to relocating holes like this, by fill in the old holes and fix the problem.

Required Tools and Supplies

To do this job, you'll need some kind of dowel rod to fill the old holes. I went with some bamboo skewers we had in the pantry. You also need wood glue, a chisel, and of course a drill.

You also need to be sure you have a drill bit that is the same diameter as your filler skewer/dowel or slightly larger.

Drill Out Old Holes

More likely than not, your skewer/dowel is not the exact same size as the old hole. Therefore, the next step is to use your drill to enlarge the old holes slightly, so the skewer/dowel will fit.

Fill Old Holes

Add some glue to the skewer and stick it a few inches into the old hole. Have a damp rag or paper towel handy to wipe up glue that squeezes out. It will stick out, but this is fine. Leave it for now. The glue needs to dry fully, which should take several hours.

Clean Up Filler

Once the glue is fully dry, the skewers can be trimmed down. I used a set of side cutters first, just to get them near to flush. If the dowel you're using is too thick for these, you can always use an oscillating multitool or something similar.

A chisel does a great job trimming the remaining cutoff flush.

Finish Relocating Holes

At this point, you can drill the new holes that you need. In my case, you can see that the strike plate mounting holes are just to the left of the old ones. With the filler material in place, it's easy to drill new holes exactly where they're needed.