Carriage hardware on a garage door can give your home a more traditional, old-world manor feel. But as time takes its toll, that hardware becomes rusty and worn — less elegant, more abandoned manor. There are generally 2 ways you can approach this problem: swap old hardware out with beautiful and appealing hardware, or replace the door completely. 

Let’s not skip to the total garage door replacement – if your door is in great condition otherwise, there’s no reason to deal with the cost of a new garage door. Besides, it’s always good to give your garage door a touch up from time to time anyway. It gives the appearance of your garage door a whole new makeover — substantially improving curb appeal and property value in the process. All without actually replacing the garage door!

Fortunately, removing carriage house hardware isn’t very difficult, but if you’re not swapping it out with a similar design, you are left with gaping holes where the screws and nails used to be. Don’t worry! These holes are fairly easy to fill in so that you never even knew they were there.

Purchasing Supplies

First, buy a product designed to cover up holes. If your garage door is metal, Everbilt Screw Covers from Home Depot or Elmer’s Ultimate Nail Hole Filler work pretty well. If your garage door is wooden, you’ll need an outdoor-rated wood filler like Abatron WoodEpox or Minwax Wood Filler.

Consider the color and finish of your garage door. You’ll need a paint, stain and/or sealant that matches the rest of the door. Or, you could use this as an opportunity to repaint or restain the whole garage door! But that’s for another tutorial.

Removing the Hardware

Take off the hardware you are looking to remove. Try not to twist or force anything, lest you damage the garage door panel. Most of the time, once you remove the screws you’ll be able to remove the hardware by hand. But if it’s stuck with gunk, rust or paint, you may need to gently pry it off using a flathead screwdriver.

Preparing to Fill the Holes

You’ll want to trim the holes down with the tip of a drill and sand the rim of the hole as well. This will remove any excess fiber so you have a smoother feel to the surface. This will help the screw head covers provide a flatter surface against the door.

Filling in the Holes

For metal garage doors, paint the screw covers with the paint, or use the nail hole filler and repaint that area of the door. Apply a decent amount of heavy sticking epoxy to the screw covers, so they are secured tight against the door. Shove them in the holes. Paint across the new area to provide a natural blend.

For wooden garage doors, fill the holes with wood filler and then use a putty knife to scrape the surface until it feathers with the rest of the wood. After the instructed curing time, gently sand the area and apply stain and sealant.Take a look at the newly repaired garage door. Does it look natural? If done well, there should be no sign the original carriage hardware was even there. Your garage door should look as good as new! If not, maybe it is time to consider a full refacing. After all, with the return on a good garage door makeover, you really can’t go wrong.