Weather-sealing Gaps In Your Doors

Sealing your doors (and windows) from drafts saves energy costs and improves inside comfort. This DIY is simple.  Just add self-adhesive rubber foam weather stripping to your doors!

Door before weather stripping

French door before weather stripping

 As you can see from the pictures, we had two doors in our home where the light and cold air poured in. If the light coming in didn't give it away, I could actually feel the cold air coming in and our heat was cycling on frequently. It would run for 5-7 minutes then shut off and restart 2 min later. I was fairly confident we were losing a significant amount of heat through the gaps in the door.

The challenge: Fill the gaps in our door seals to prevent the cold air from rushing in.

The solution: Add adhesive backed foam weather stripping (insulation) around the door frame.

Down the road we plan on replacing the doors completely andd want to install energy efficient and attractive doors. For, now I needed a quick and cheap solution to reduce our heating bills.

Rubber foam weather stripping

There are a few different types of weather stripping options. You can buy cheap rolls of felt that you nail onto the door frame to help seal it. I think I'd only recommend this your door has no weather stripping in place and the gap is pretty small. The felt doesn't compress as much as the foam or plastic options so it won't work as well on a larger gap. Plus it must be nailed in place - for me nailing was less desirable.

I chose this self-adhesive rubber foam weather sealer from Lowes.  It comes in a 10' roll and is easier than easy to install. Simply apply sticky side down along the frame.  Take your time, though, because you only get one shot at sticking it down.  That's it you're done.

French door after weather stripping

Door after weather weather stripping

The result: The furnace was would run for 5 minutes or so, but then would break for 10-11 minutes!  A huge improvement!  Total cost of the project was about $2.75 for one roll of adhesive weather sealer.