How to anchor gate latch to stucco covered wood

Question

I have a gate latch that is attached with a thick screw to a stucco pony wall. It appears it was screwed to wood inside the stucco and the wood is stripped or rotted since it will not hold the bolt. My HOA has "repaired" this 3 times with results that never last. The bolt is 4.5 inches and 3/8" thick. Since the latch post is 1.5" and there is unknown thickness to the stucco - maybe 1", the bolt may only extend into the wood 2".

Shall I try a longer bolt? Is there some type of substance I could spray into the wood hole to solidify the wood first? I could use a thicker bolt, but I would have to drill the latch post to accommodate a bigger hole (which I can do). Given the geometry of the stucco, I don't think a bolt will work.

side view:
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Top view:

Answer 1

you could drill the hole out until you find good wood and then epoxy a threaded rod into the hole and use that to anchor the latch post.

As this is a one time fix (not easy to do over) use stainless steel threaded rod.

Answer 2

A longer bolt is certainly a good option. A good squeeze of silicone caulking into the hole before the bolt will help anchor the bolt in the stucco a little, particularly if there’s interior rot.

There are also two part wood hardeners like Abatron that you could think about, but I’d call that overkill.

Answer 3

Remove the other bolts from the post and take a look inside the holes.

• Without the metal post, if the other holes are solid & secure, then it's probably worth fixing just the top one.
• If the other holes are getting wobbly that's a sign of rot throughout the entire post and it's time to replace the entire post.

If it's just the top bolt that's shot you've got a couple of options:

• Use a wider bolt, not longer. You indicated that you've got a 3/8" bolt, go up to a 5/16" or even 1/2".
  • This will get into fresh wood all the way around the hole.
  • Using a longer bolt will only get fresh wood at the very end allowing for wobble along most of the length of the bolt and lead to premature failure of the additional 1/2" or 1" of length. Also, you can only go so long before you poke out the other side - you're probably close to that limit already.
• You could try filling the top hole with glue, then shove as many matchsticks or toothpicks as you can cram in there. Let the glue dry, then drill a new hole. The sticks will give you fresh wood for the bolt to grab onto. The glue will hold them in and the wood will be soft enough to conform around the threads.
  • Matchsticks and toothpicks are commonly used this way as filler for door hinge screws. They may not work all that well for a larger bolt such as this one.
• You could fill the hole with a wood repair product. Wood fillers are often used to hide small holes, but generally are not sturdy enough to hold up to such a large bolt. There are other products that are supposed to stop rot & solidify the wood. I've not used any, so I can't vouch for their utility for purpose.
• You could fill the hole with epoxy then, once cured, drill a new hole for the bolt. Many epoxies are far harder than the wood would ever hope to be and should do a fine job.

For any repair you attempt, you will want to clean out as much rotted wood as possible from the hole. If you glue/epoxy your fix to loose bits, you'll have a firm grasp on a loose surface and your fix won't hold for very long. I'd use the bolt as a scraper to dig around the hole & pull out any loose bits from all around the hole.