Get a jump on your winter door drafts
Are you huddling under blankets to keep warm because cold air is seeping through your drafty door? If so, it’s time to learn how to seal door gaps for winter. Use these can’t-go-wrong door-sealing tips to stay snug and save on energy costs.
If you’re feeling a draft coming through your door, the builder may not have added enough insulation when it was built. So, the first step should be to find out. Use a crowbar to remove one side of the door casing and visually inspect whether there’s insulation present. If not, remove the rest of the casing and add spray foam insulation to the space. Make sure you purchase foam made for insulating doors and windows, or it could expand too much and damage your frame.
Allow the insulation to dry overnight, scrape off the excess insulation with a putty knife so it’s even with your sheetrock, and then nail new door casings on.
If you already have insulation or have added it, the next step is to caulk holes. You can use caulk around your front door, sliding glass door, and French doors to create a strong barrier against cold weather.
Use a caulk gun to apply caulk around your exterior doors, taking special care to fill the visible gaps and cracks. Let it dry overnight and re-caulk if you still see openings between your door and the frame.
A door sweep is a mechanism made of hard rubber with thick bristles on the bottom that attaches to the bottom of your door. It’s a fairly inexpensive way to stop cold air from ruining your cozy winter vibes.
Purchase a door sweep and attach it to the inside bottom of the door using a drill and screwdriver. It should fit snugly between your door and floor, but it shouldn’t scrape the floor because that could cause damage and block our cold air drafts.
Alternatively, you could attach a draft guard, also known as a door snake. This mechanism is a fabric-covered tube of insulation that fits around your door. You can either purchase a draft guard or, if you can sew, make one by stitching a piece of material that runs the length of your door and filling it with insulation.
Fit your purchased or DIY door snake underneath your door so each side is tucked close to the door. This trick will instantly seal drafty gaps, keeping warm air in and cold air out.
Next, look for large gaps around your door’s bottom and sides, which can be fixed with weather stripping.
There are different types of weather stripping, including foam, rubber, vinyl, and felt, to name a few. You can purchase weather stripping in rolls at any hardware or big-box store. Before purchasing, measure the gaps around your doors to determine which thickness of weather stripping you need.
The first step of installation is to use a tape measure to measure your door. Then, use scissors or a utility knife to cut the piece of weather stripping based on your door’s dimensions and carefully apply it along the entire length of your door. Once it’s in place, open and close your door a few times to ensure the door doesn’t stick.
The last step is to look at the door’s hinges. Air leaks can come from your door hinges, especially if they’ve become loose over time. To test the tightness of your hinges, lift the door by the doorknob to see if the door moves upward. If it does, you’ll need to secure the hinges by tightening the screws. To make sure no air seeps through your hinges, tighten the screws on the door and the frame with a screwdriver.
Take a closer look at the inside and outside of your doorframes to see if you have any gaps allowing air to come through. Properly sealed doors have caulk in any areas where unwanted air or moisture could enter your home.
A good way to test if your doors are properly sealed is to shut them on a windy day, turn on your exhaust fans, and light an incense stick. Bring the lit stick to each door, and if a draft is present, you’ll see the smoke move with it. This method can help identify areas to seal around doors and windows before winter.
You wouldn’t leave your window open in the dead of winter, or during a sizzling summer heat wave, yet many people never think twice about the insulation around their doors. Let’s review the benefits of sealing your doors:
Decreased energy costs: Drafty, poorly sealed doors can let in cold air during the winter and hot air during the summer, dramatically increasing your energy costs year-round, no matter where you live.
Increased home insulation: A 1/8-inch gap under a door can let in as much air as a 2 1/2-inch hole in the wall. Sealing these gaps will dramatically increase your home’s insulation.
Blocks pests from coming inside: A gap ¼ inch wide is also large enough for furry pests like mice to enter and take up residence. A little insulation is nothing compared to the cost of lost and damaged property you may lose through a pest infestation, let alone the cost of an exterminator.
The cost of sealing door gaps can vary dramatically, depending on how much insulation needs to be added and which materials you have on hand. If you do all the above steps, supplies could cost between $50 and $160, but not everyone needs to insulate inside the walls around their doors. If your doorframe is OK and you only need to add weather stripping and a door sweep, the project could cost as little as $10 to $45.
Hiring a pro to add new weather stripping costs between $130 and $450, depending on the material you choose and the number of doors and windows. A door professional can also install weather stripping in challenging areas, including around doors with automatic door sweeps.
If you don’t feel comfortable or don’t have the time to tackle these projects yourself, you can hire a pro. You can also do some of the tasks yourself and bring in an expert for other parts of the project. For example, you may be fine installing a door sweep, but if you don’t know how to replace weather stripping on the door, you can hire a professional to handle the rest.
How much you’ll save on sealing door gaps depends on what needs to be done and which supplies you already have. For example, hiring a pro to remove and replace door casings to add spray foam insulation costs between $130 and $225. If you DIY the project, you can get door casings and spray foam for under $35. Other door insulation projects are even less costly and time-consuming, so they may be worth the time and effort required to DIY.
Note that while it’s a good idea to insulate any front door, you’ll have to replace or repair it if it’s old or damaged. Modern door materials are more secure and better insulated than older ones—especially older doors with single-pane glass panels. If your door is older or in poor shape, fix or replace it yourself or contact a local door repair expert who can determine whether it’s better to repair or replace it.
Caulk should only be used on gaps smaller than ½ inch wide. Otherwise, the caulk used in the repair can collapse or shrink, leaving the hole open. Several methods, including spray foam, drywall patches, or epoxy-based sealants, are available for repairing larger gaps.
You can also use caulk on larger gaps, but only after filling them with backer rod, a foam string sold in thicknesses upward of ½ inch. To use a backer rod to repair a gap, stuff an appropriately sized rod into the gap and seal it with caulk.
Spacing a door is tricky since you need to leave enough of a gap for the door to move freely and not get stuck when the slab and frame contract and expand in dry and humid conditions. The ideal gap between a doorframe and slab is 1/8 of an inch. If the gap is any larger, the door will feel drafty. But if the gap is any smaller, the slab can get stuck due to weather changes.
First, determine what is causing the issue. If the doorframe was improperly installed without a consistent width from top to bottom, you’ll need to contact a door installer to install a new doorframe. If loose or missing screws are causing the issue, you can fix the problem with a few turns of a screwdriver. Other problems require removing the door and supporting it in the proper place with shims while you reinstall it.
