How do you patch old bolt holes? Beta?

I want to upgrade a routes hardware and don't know what to do with the old bolt holes. Any beta out there?

Get some anchor glue... fill hole with glue. Grab some dirt/crumbled rock from the base that matches the cliff and cover the top of the hole over with rock to make it blend. Wala hole gone. . .

You can go simple or complex. Simple would be to find a little pebble of the same type of rock and size of the hole and lightly pound it in til it stays. Can work ok in some types of rock. You can also use bondo, or PL-400 construction adhesive but it doesn't last forever and will chip away eventually. Or you can fill the hole with some A7 epoxy then cover the surface with some dust and tiny pebbles of the same type of rock. Or you can just leave them...

edit: captainmo beat me to it...

try instacrete (or similar) epoxy putty. works well for grey colored rock. you can also find different colors. Stuff a few chunks of rock into the hole to make it shallow. patch over it with the putty (really smear it in). use another piece of rock to 'imprint' a texture into the putty, instead of fingerprints. get creative. some rock dust can also be mixed into the putty.

here is a before and after:

out with the old, in with the new...
new bolt location and patched hole.

Darren Mabe wrote:try instacrete (or similar) epoxy putty. works well for grey colored rock. you can also find different colors. Stuff a few chunks of rock into the hole to make it shallow. patch over it with the putty (really smear it in). use another piece of rock to 'imprint' a texture into the putty, instead of fingerprints. get creative. some rock dust can also be mixed into the putty. here is a before and after:

Yeah, I find epoxy putty works best, it's easy to use, doesn't run or make a mess, and matches the color of lots of limestones or granites fairly well.

Good suggestions ^ but I wouldn't use Bondo.

+2 what Darren said. I use the JB Weld you can find at Lowes etc or order from here (larger stick).

Insta Crete

The InstaCrete is great for grey colored rock and it looks like the WoodCrete colors would do well for other color rocks. I usually get a sandwich bag full or gravel from the cliff base or a ledge and work it into the putty. On some limestone patches I haven't been able to locate the patched hole on later ascents - and I was the one who did the patch!

mattm wrote:I usually get a sandwich bag full or gravel from the cliff base or a ledge and work it into the putty.

bonus tip: if you roll up your pant cuffs, and are cleaning the route, you will have plenty of gravel/rocks/dust on board!

Reuse the old hole when possible.

Any recommendations for filling holes on soft sandstones? Something that will erode away at roughly the same rate as the rock?

my disclaimer is this: there's no accounting for taste. i prefer to extract the bolt as much as possible then saw it off as close to the rock as i can, then tap the sawn stud back in the hole till it bottoms out. i don't prefer whacking it back and forth with a hammer till it breaks off, there by turning a hole into a divot. i also don't prefer filling the hole with anything. i especially don't like smearing anything around trying to cover the hole and accomplishing only an ugly mess. i prefer big, full value bolts of stainless steel. by full value i mean if you drill a 1/2" hole then insert a 1/2" bolt and not a sleeve with a 3/8"cap screw. in the southeast where i've replaced bolts, and it rains 60" a year, neither epoxy fillers nor bolts with multiple parts suit my taste. the bottom line for you will be make yourself happy with the quality of work you're doing and the techniques you're employing on rock i'm sure you care a lot about. be safe.

Ben Griffin wrote:I want to upgrade a routes hardware and don't know what to do with the old bolt holes. Any beta out there?

Rawls can be extracted. Takes some work, but totally worth it because the bolt is in the exact same place. Heck, if you've gone that far, be nice to the next generation of bolters and install stainless, removable hardware.

If you must chop/patch, PC-11 is a nice two-part epoxy with a long working time. Comes out gray, but takes on pigment pretty nicely and blends in well, even for sandstone. I take a little piece of 80-grit sandpaper for texturing the patch.

Mabe = Genius. That pant trick is smaaart.

Greg D wrote:Reuse the old hole when possible.

If it is the best spot. If it is really better a foot to the left then I will go ahead and move it even if I can get the old bolt out cleanly, because I know I can patch the old hole well. I think people sometimes get too anal using the exact same hole to keep it where the first ascentionist placed it, even though there are plenty of badly positioned bolts due to doing it on lead and not knowing where they would be heading next, being super tall, being blown out of their mind or wigged out and not taking everything into account etc. I am talking minor adjustments here. Obviously you would want to talk to the FA'ist if at all practical and take into account the attitude of the area.