Weather-sealing a garage door usually involves a simple process of adding or replacing the bottom door seal and the weatherstripping on the stop molding along the sides and top of the door. It may also include adding thin weatherstripping between the door panels if you want to make the door as airtight as possible.
Importance of Weather-Sealing Your Garage
It’s also important to weather-seal your garage to protect your home from damaging elements like fierce rain, snow, hail, and wind. If water enters your garage, it could freeze to create ice and water damage that will ruin your floor and potentially seep into your living spaces. If your garage door is working well, then weather-sealing can be mostly a DIY job. Sometimes, the garage door needs a gasket replacement, adjustment, or other type of repair. Because it’s vital that your garage door work and seal properly, you may want a professional garage door installation company to handle the job. Here are five ways to weather-seal your garage door. Wood garage doors typically use a simple strip-style seal with angled edges that seal against the front of the door and the floor. These typically are installed with galvanized or aluminum roofing nails. Metal garage doors typically have an aluminum channel on the bottom of the door that holds a U-shaped rubber gasket, sometimes called a T-style or astragal seal. The gasket simply slides into two small tracks on the channel for installation. You can also install a metal gasket channel onto a wood garage door so you can use this type of gasket. In addition to their easy installation, the best thing about U-shaped gaskets is that they come in different sizes to seal gaps of various heights. This can be an easy solution for large gaps created by sunken or cracked garage floors. A good-quality vinyl threshold seal can be more durable than a door seal. It is installed with an adhesive that is usually included with the threshold. Keep in mind that thresholds block water going out of a garage, just as they keep it from flowing in. This can be inconvenient if you like to hose out your garage. A threshold also makes it difficult to sweep dirt and debris out of the garage. Install new weatherstripping onto your door stops if your garage door doesn’t have it or if it has old, worn stripping that no longer seals against the door. New weatherstripping comes in rolls, and you can easily cut it to length with a utility knife. It installs with galvanized nails or screws. The door-side flange of the weatherstripping should press against the door to create a good seal. To install the door stop, position each piece parallel to the door face, and push the molding toward the door so the weatherstrip flange is slightly compressed against the door, and then fasten the molding to the door jamb with nails. Typically, it’s best to install the top molding first and then overlap the ends of the top molding with the side stops. Door panel weatherstripping is sold in rolls and is self-adhesive. You simply stick it to the top or bottom edge of each panel. When the door is closed, the panels compress the weatherstripping to create an effective seal, much like weatherstripping on standard house entry doors.
