Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler advice on weatherstripping

So our front door has a ha-yuge gap around it, which leads me to believe we need more weatherstripping. There's some there already, but it's really not doing the trick. Any advice on what to get? The gap is almost 1/4" in some places, and I can see sunlight through it, so clearly the weatherstripping isn't doing its job. Here's some pics:

The weatherstripping is most likely very old and not as soft/supple as it should be. You can replace the weatherstrip that is there with some new stuff and if that doesn't fix the sunlight/draft coming through you will have to adjust the catch on the door to hold it closed tighter against the seal.

OK, so basically just take out the old stuff, grab big thick stuff and put that in, and hopefully my problem is solved. I can do that.

there are plastic strips that incorporate a spring loaded part that runs the entire length; it's nailed to the door frame itself.
when you close the door, the spring loaded part adjusts to the unevenness of the door and blocks any open spaces; that makes for a very good seal.

I have used the strip that J.B. mentions and they work very well. The only downside I ran into is that I had to pull the door closed to open/close the deadbolt lock because the pressure of the strip pushed the bolt out of alignment with its receptacle_hole_thingy.

Ken, I have a lot of experience with weatherstripping of various kinds, having gone through many different types on my automatic front door.

For a gap of that size around the perimeter of the door, it's generally recommended to narrow it first by having a "shim" made that runs from the bottom to the to of the door (I have the same issue along the latch side of my door). Just remember to run a bead of caulk before nailing it.

After you've done that, I'd get some high quality weatherstripping from a company like Pemko. Their stuff is expensive but it's top notch quality, unlike the stuff sold at Home Depot etc. I'm using Kerf perimeter gasketing and am very happy with it. It's not as expensive as their other products (I've used their spring loaded adjustable weatherstripping, and it cost almost $200), but it's extremely popular here in Canada.

It's probably overkill, but you could add their adhesive gasketing along the jamb as well. I am currently using the "fin style" on my sliding patio door, and have successfully used the "bubble style" on my front door. The one thing I'd strongly suggest when using any adhesive weatherstripping, is that it's enforced with a contractors adhesive caulk like this.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, guys!

Cam, when you're talking about the shim, do you mean a piece of wood? Do I attach that to the door frame or to the door itself?

Yeah, a piece of wood attached to the existing wooden door frame. Shim probably isn't the correct term, but I didn't know what else to call it.

If you decide to install kerf perimeter gasketing, here's an excellent video showing how to properly install it. There's a specific way to cut the corners so they overlap and create a good seal.

Here's a picture of one of my doors jams. Notice
1) the piece of wood that's up against the door when it's shut.
2) the metal strips in front of it that snug up to the door when it's shut.


I find a sweep to work well on the bottom of my front door.

I got my dad to pick up the exact same type of weatherstripping, and he installed it the exact same way (I wasn't up). The main principal of weatherstripping is that it creates a contiguous seal around the door, and while that fin-flex type gasketing is a good product, if you have to cut a section out for the latch - and it's almost inevitable because it's wide - , the utility is lost because air will just infiltrate the house there.

Not being critical, I'm just saying.

Not a perfect seal. But I think it's good enough. Works for me anyway.

The seal is usually formed on the front face of the door not on the edge, installing a thicker/better seal for the face side would eliminate the need for the edge sealing.

Bryan, I would look at installing a 'tongue'/strike plate for that catch so the wood on the jamb doesn't get beat up any further.

It's hard to say how long that door's been there. The house has settled enough, that I'd like to install a new entry door and casing. There's a lot of unevenness around the door. It's far from square.

Ken it could be worse, this is the draft issue I'm dealing with at the moment...

Duct tape will easily fix that, Rick.

Actually I'm trying to talk my wife into an infinite baffle subwoofer but she seems to think a shower in the bathroom is more important.

Women.

Hijack:
Rick, what are you doing to my favorite room?

We had a mold issue Mark, that's a bathroom shower on the other side of the torn out DVD cabinet and evidently it's been seeping water for the past several months. Service Master came in and ripped out the drywall where there was mold, cleaned it up and now we're waiting on the second mold count to come in before it can all be put back together. We're going to do a compete remodel and update of the bathroom now that it's torn out and I don't think I'm putting the DVD cabinet back in the TV room.

Rick. I would love to have a Florida draft problem right now. It's somewhere between -13C and -17C here right now (I think that works out to f'ing cold in farenheit).

Pull the trim and shim the door frame.

where ya at fred, we have dropped to -30 here and it was -5 for the last month as of yesterday. Its a real rude hit.

Fred those temperatures are incomprehensible to *native* folks down here, anything that registers below 70°F on the thermometer works out to be f'ing cold in my neck of the woods.

I was afraid someone was going to say that...

Shimming the door frame only corrects the visual edge around the side of the door it won't necessarily help with the seal, as long as the door frame is relatively straight and true. The seal is on the front face, replace it and then adjust the striker plate to hold the door fully closed against the seal, I would do this before pulling trim down to start shimming.

I've got to put new weatherstripping on the bottom of our 6 exterior doors (don't ask ) been putting it off since August. I'm pretty sure I'll be doing it on the coldest day of the year.

Every time I tried to do the bottom of my door with some rubber products that are supposed to go into the grooves that were already there, the rubber got torn up and came out. That's when I said "to hell with it" and just installed a sweep that makes a tight seal against the threshold instead. Glad I did. There's no air coming through, except at the left and right edges where there's no seal. (Hey, a small hole lets in a lot less cold than a big hole.)

See now no one is here cuz of ken. Were all off putting our weather stripping on . I got mine done, no choice the weather went to -35. bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Hey, quit sending that cold air down here! That is bbuurrrr.

You guys need to send it back up here . When i was a kid on Hope, we used to get snow every winter.It really raises hell with driving in vancouver. It snowed one night in Van and it took me 3 hours to get to New West. Lucky i had a freind there to stay with.Hopefully this snap wont last to long.

Yes, it is a beast to drive in. It melts during the day then freezes at night and major black ice in the morning. We are suppose to get a major dump on wednesday.

Wouldn't be bad if there wasn't so many hills in the city, and they don't plow or salt the side streets.Fun fun

Just to let you know, it could be worse. AKA a lesson in aerodynamics.

In our first house at this location, we never thought and the builder placed an in-turn garden door out to the deck on the north-east side with the water view. In the winter, the winds straight off the ocean were so strong that it would blow the door in. After fixing the door and placing a deadbolt for a little more confidence, we discovered that the deadbolt would keep the door shut but the winds were strong enough to bend the door in at the top and bottom, exposing up to 1/4 inch of draft. That could result in a significant snow pile in your living room if you were not home to tend to it.

We tried all kinds of solutions short of a full steel door as it would have been pretty dark and ugly. In the end, we built a frame around the garden doors that allowed for an additional storm door to be placed over the entry side. This solved the problem and allowed us to keep the view and light coming in. It was also removable in the spring.

In our new house, we tried to be smart. We angles the house so the corner split the prevailing winter winds. We still needed a door facing the water but made sure it was an out-turn door so the wind would press it tight instead of bend it in.

We thought we were smart until one day we got a unusually strong wind from the west. It slid nicely along the north side of the house but it was just at the perfect angle or something that when it blew past the far corner, the resulting eddy created such a strong low pressure area that it was actually sucking the door out away from the frame at the top and bottom. Basically, my house was acting like an airplane wing.

I didn't even bother with other solutions this time and immediately built another removable door frame. This time though, I didn't feel the need to keep it as a functioning exit so I encased a large piece of plexiglass within the removable frame and I did a much better job of design assembly, making it look like it somewhat actually belongs there.

Take a look at any older style home in the Maritimes and they all have stormdoors or porches on the windward sides. I'm not sure why modern builders think they are too smart to need them but nature will win every time.

Meh, sounds like an average winter day in Ontario. Not that we have had many of those this year.

yes, but it only happens about two days of the year. Otherwise, I am out golfing year round.