As is the case with any house maintenance or repair work, your garage door weather seals can degrade over time which impacts their effectiveness in securing your garage and home against winter.Inspect and replace the weather seals before winter sets in so you don’t have to worry about cold air, snow, or icy winds ruining your garage. It will also ensure that your energy costs don’t skyrocket.
Benefits of Garage Door Weather Seals
- Helps keep all your stored material as well as your garage door safethe damaging effects of snow or rain.
- Ensures your power bills don’t go too high by keeping out the bitter cold and helping regulate the temperature in your garage and across your entire home.
- Keeps your garage clean and free of debris and dirt.
- Helps absorb some of the impact or pressure of the garage door when it closes.
- Keeps troublesome home invaders such as rodents and other kinds of pests such as spiders and roaches from making a home in your garage.
Garage Door Seals – Top Tips on Winterizing your Garage Door
Extreme weather conditions are certainly going to impact the condition of your garage door weather seals. The result would be signs of wear and tear after facing the combined onslaught of freezing temperatures, rain and snow.
In addition to being affected by the harsh weather conditions, weather seals also suffer wear and tear due to pressure faced every time the garage door closes.
You can inevitably expect some amount of damage to the seals. That’s why we recommend carrying out routine inspections and maintenance before winter sets in.
What can you do?
- Check your weather stripping for wear and tear.
- If the damage is extensive it is best to have the weather stripping replaced.
When insulating your garage door don’t forget to pay attention to the gaps around the edges which if left plugged will allow the icy brittle cold air and rain to seep in.
In addition to checking for garage door weather seals, don’t forget to inspect for any other broken component or damaged parts. It is always best to get broken stuff as fast as possible to avoid costly repair or replacement later. Also, lubricate the metal moving parts; this is one task that should be carried out all year through; but it is important that you pay special attention to this task before winter or the rainy season.
A lot of homeowners like to consider weather sealing a DIY project; however, if you are not confident, it is best to consult with a garage door professional PVC stop molding is very effective when it comes to sealing the tops and sides of a garage door as it is highly durable and will last you a long time. In addition to PVC, other options include reverse-angle jamb seals and vinyl and rubber-based garage door seal retainers. These can be installed along the edges and easily replaced with new inserts if required.
Types of Garage Door Weather Seals
Garage Door Bottom Seal – is a vinyl or rubber-based seal which is flexible and is fixed at the bottom of the garage door. The seal helps in plugging the gap along the floor and can be very effective in keeping the cold out. If you notice that light seeps in even after closing the garage door, it is time to replace the seal.
Garage Door Threshold Seal – is fixed to the floor using an adhesive and is effective in keeping water or moisture out or even to plug a gap below the door. The threshold seal is most effective if used along with the door seal.
Door Stop Molding with Weatherstripping – is highly effective if your garage door has old or damaged door stops and can be easily fixed using stainless steel or galvanized siding nails.
Garage Door Panel Weatherstripping – is effective if you are looking to plug the gaps between doors that have flat-edged panels. Any time the door is closed, the weatherstripping gets compressed to effectively block out the cold and rain. These can be easily fixed by sticking them either to the bottom or to the top edge of each panel.
Garage Door Stop Weatherstripping – if the stripping along the sides and top of your garage door stops is proving to be ineffective, simply install new weatherstripping using galvanized nails.
Call Premier Overhead of Tyler for any kind of garage door repair or inspection work. Our licensed and trained technicians can help you recommend what kind of weather seals would work best for your scenario. Call us at (903) 532-0330 today!!