Garage door, along with front and back door are the access ways inside your home. Moreover, the garage door is probably the most convenient way to enter and exit the home.
However, all your home doors have a functional role and unfortunately, they can have gaps and air leaks that decrease significantly the house’s energy efficiency. Especially, garage door due to its large surface, is the major factor in the total loss of your household heat. Therefore, it is extremely important that your garage door to be well insulated and any gap or air leak sealed.
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With respect to the gaps between the side wall and garage door, they need a combination approach for a better sealing. One of the most simple but effective methods is to cover them with a special vinyl weather strip both inside and outside. This method has many benefits such as seals the air leaks and gaps, prevents mice intrusions and last but not least improves the overall aspect of your garage door.
Materials & Tools
– tape measure; scissors; pen; power drill; caulk gun.
– vinyl weather stripping strips; self tapping screws (galvanized); silicone caulk (exterior grade)
STEPS:
1| First, you should seal the outside gaps. Shut the garage door, and go outside to seal up all the gaps.
2| Measure the garage door height. Take your measure between the garage door and wall. Lay down a strip of vinyl weather stripping and transfer the measured length on it. Use your scissors and cut this size.
3| Place the vinyl strip on the wall side where the wall meets the garage door. The flexible vinyl strip has to cover the gap, to lay flush on the door and its part with the screw holes should face the side wall.
4| Using a power drill insert all the galvanized screws in every hole. Make sure they are fully inserted.
5| Using a caulking gun apply a thin bead of caulk along your vinyl weather stripping strip. Use only exterior-grade silicone caulk. The silicone bead should not be thicker than 1/8-inch.
6| Now, you need to repeat the whole process, to seal the gap on the other side of your garage door.
7| Check the inside part of your garage door. Examine the door and the surrounding wall. Look for the gaps. Fill them with a kind of polyurethane foam.
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