Most homes have at least one wood chair that is wobbly. You may have tried every adhesive we can think of to fix them from white glue, yellow glue, epoxy, polyurethane and even gorilla glue. None of the glues seem to work, but there is another way to fix wobbly wooden chairs. Forget about putting playing cards and matchbooks under the legs. If you have a wooden chair that wobbles follow these steps and fix them permanently.

Glue alone won't work. It's natural to think that it would do the job. Like most homeowners, you squirted some glue into a loose joint and hoped for the best. But unfortunately, applying a thick glob of glue is actually counterproductive. Wood adhesives work best when a thin film is applied to both sides of a joint, then use pressure to force the parts together until they dry.

Keep in mind that chairs are light so they can be moved around easily yet the loads a chair must accommodate are quite severe. A chair may weigh 25 pounds, but it has to support a person nearly 10 times its own weight. When a person sits, stands, twists, or shifts while setting on a chair its joints and parts go through strenuous cycles that can loosen the joints.

One relatively easy solution for chairs that have only one loose joint is to bore a pocket hole in a discreet location, usually the underside, and spread a thin film of good quality wood workers wood glue on the loose parts and then drive a pocket screw through the joint to lock it together. In most cases this will secure the loose joint and resolve the wobbly chair problem.

For this technique to work, any glue from a previous repair on the joint must be removed. An old glue joint does not create a desirable surface on which to spread new glue to form a solid joint. I don't recommend using this method on an antique chair as you could diminish its value.

If a chair has a number of severely loose joints, label all the parts with masking tape and then disassemble the joints. After you have the parts disassembled, carefully remove all the old dried glue. Reassemble the chair using high quality wood glue. Use wood clamps to hold the joints together until the glue is dry.

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