Pro Handyman Blog

A door stop is such a simple thing. It screws into either the baseboard or the door itself and stops the doorknob from banging into the wall. If they come loose, it is usually due to someone being gruff with them (small children love to stomp on them during a tantrum).

Some are ridged and simply screw into the surface. If someone steps on it, it will damage the hole and the easiest fix is to relocate the door stop right next to the old location so that the rim covers the old hole.

If you have a spring door stop, these have a detachable base that gets screwed into the surface first and then the actual door stop gets threaded into the base. These are pretty durable because if someone steps on them, they don’t break. These will come loose most often in a metal door. If yours is loose, you can try to slightly tighten the screw that holds the base plate to the surface, or use a slightly larger diameter screw. When the base plate is resecured, thread the spring door stop back into it.

If you want to avoid damage to baseboard or doors from the ridged door stops, you could always replace them with the spring-type.