Seal Drafts Around a Door

LESLIE: Barbara in West Virginia, welcome to The Money Pit. What’s going on at your house?

BARBARA: I have cold doors. (chuckles)

TOM: Cold doors. OK.

BARBARA: Yeah. I can feel the air coming through them and I need your help.

LESLIE: Do you feel the air around the sides or through the door itself?

BARBARA: Through the door itself, where you close it. I tried putting the tape – you know, that has the sticky on the back?

TOM: Right.

BARBARA: And that seemed to work but it didn’t stay. You know, it came off.

TOM: What I want you to do, Barbara, is check the gap of the door all the way around. If there’s an even gap then that’s good. The next thing I want you to do is to add some felt weatherstripping that you attach with brass brads. You don’t stick it on. You actually physically nail it on.

BARBARA: Oh.

TOM: Now, the other place that often leaks is the sill on the bottom and so when the door is closed, if you can put your hand under the door and still feel air coming through …

BARBARA: Right, I can.

TOM: … the other thing that you could do is you could add a sweep, which kind of looks like a long strip with a brush sort of attached to it and that’s an easy thing, again, to attach to the bottom of the door. But the adhesives don’t work so well so make sure that you nail it on or you screw it on. That will tighten that door up quite nicely.

Barbara, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.

BARBARA: Thank you.