To protect your doorway from the elements, consider installing weatherstripping on the sides of the doorframe and top jamb, and installing a door sweep to seal the door and reduce drafts. Insulating glass with plastic film can help keep cold air out. Preparing your door and door jamb is essential for the installation process. Measure the perimeter of the door and ensure that the door hinges are tight before cutting the weatherstripping.
To install a threshold on an exterior door, follow this easy-to-follow guide. Rubber gaskets are thick, flexible strips used around door frames to create a tight seal. They compress when the door closes, filling gaps around the door. Common methods for weatherproofing wooden front doors include using sealants, paints, varnishes, and applying weather stripping to create a tight seal.
There are six ways to weatherproof your front door: weatherstrips, caulk, draught excluders, letterbox draught excluders, door thresholds, and updating the door. Weather bars are most effective when installed right at the bottom edge of the door and installed higher. When fitting a timber or oak or hardwood wooden weather bar to the door, use screws and a waterproof adhesive, filling the screw holes.
In addition to weatherstrips, you can also add a hardwood threshold on the outside flush with the jambs to improve an in-swing door. Use adhesive weatherproofing strips, install door insulating felt, add a weatherproofing door sweep, and mount a door sweep to the inside surface of the door.
Maintaining your door and door jamb is crucial for maintaining its functionality and energy efficiency.
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Tom also improved the weather-stripping to make the door more weathertight. The automatic door bottom, the corner-groove …
This guy is a real tradesman, he can use hand tools or power tools if necessary. He analyses a problem, finds the solution and uses his skill and experience to fix it, instead of just talking about it. The guys knocking him probably polish their tools rather than actually using them. By the way, a plumb bob is an old tool and is 100% reliable and accurate, gravity doesn’t lie, levels don’t always read accurate.
Great article Tom and Kevin. And thank you guys for including a link for the grooving tool and weather stripping! I wish that was there for all the articles and the shows. I have been perusal This Old House and the spin-off shoes since the beginning! I miss seeing a certain master carpenters show. I for one really appreciate what you guys do for we viewers and I know there are others that do as well. Ron
I imagine that in swing door would scrape the floor if the door wasn’t plumb, But the door jamb does look a little odd in relation to the door, I bet!, I guess that’s why the interior of the finished door was not shown. Also I would have at least painted the underside of the door before mounting that heavy door.
2:43 The door is not plumb, but it’s parallel to the interior trim (the whole wall is probably out of plumb), so it seems that cutting 5/4″ off the surface of the jam will make the door 5/4″ further away from the casing at the top-left as it is at the bottom left, not to mention the challenge of cutting the jam so it still meets the surface of the door on the other two sides. How about simply moving the axis of the top hinge out relative to both the door and the frame (using a wider hinge to reach both), so the line between the two hinges is plumb, even though the door itself isn’t (as is often the case with car doors)? It might still be a challenge securing the screws, but it would be less work than cutting away all that wood and it would probably look better from the inside. And speaking of two hinges, they work just fine on interior doors, but I wonder if adding a third hinge to this door would make the weatherstripping fit more tightly.
Geeez! The people on here bitching about “he should have used a leevvelll!”. SMH. You apparently missed the point of not only helping this home owner but showing the “average home owner” how they can do it themselves! The average homeowner isn’t going to have, or want to go but a 7′ – 10′ level, let alone a laser level, now would they be able to hold it straight enough and then be able to measure how much out of plumb any thing is! The hook on the plumb bob is a nice thing to use but the “OMG DAMAGE TO THE ANTIQUE DOOR!” is actually minimal, doesn’t really hurt the door and when it’s prepped and painted you’ll never see it! This isn’t a show about how an engineer with access to a multi million dollar tool room would do the job! Again, geeezzz!
In the “show more” comments says cost is 100 dollars. LOL. For all that labor and specific tools would have been multiple trips to home and cost would have been at least 2000.00. And furthermore could have just removed entire door and jamb and rehung it (planing where needed) and added to bottom of door. Resanded entire door and jamb and custom paint BEFORE weather stripping. Great instructional article but improper sequence of actions. Real cost to strip and sand and paint and do all other work that Tommy did would have been about 4000 dollars. Furthermore a new door (as that one was not original to home) would have been cheaper probably overalll.
I have an old house and nothing is much to norm but I LOVE the eye Tommy has. He is perfect! About the FestTool, I bet it is good but everything today works on commercials and doubters.. way to go.. it is a 50% deal, you either buy it or you don’t. I truly researched it and unfortunately the tool is available in specialty paint stores in Toronto. No idea why they can not get into big box stores, especially when Tommy is the adviser and as in Mike Holmes ( I hired some of his suggested contractors and they were good.. very good!) I’d believe if he believes… that’s it! I don’t think Tommy would put his signature under some hoax.. would not add up. Thank you for your efforts. I have an old house… it is beautiful and previous owners must have loved it, but it drives me crazy when I do my updates 🙂 and Tommy is the ‘Go To’ person to me.
Where do I begin with this one Tommy. I’ll just bet that everyone looking at this article thought that you’d just nail a lump of wood on the bottom and that’s it. I know I did. And a plumb bob. I’m thinking…a long level…but a plumb bob?!? That doohickey on the bottom was something I’ve never seen before too. And you just had to show off with that router didn’t you! You might say it’s just common sense. And I’d say that the problem with common sense is that it’s just not that common. Love ya work Tommy.
One part that wasn’t explained was that the home owner cut the door off because it rubbed the floor, then Tommy comes over and lengthens the door again. Tommy says “we are going to lengthen the door”, then the owner says ” yea makes sense”. We are supposed to figure out because Tommy checked the door for plumb and found it leaning in that causes it to drag on the interior floor when opened, well that combined with the extra flooring installed was the problem, not just because the floor was too high. Actually technically the problem wasn’t the floor at all, but it seemed that way because of how the dialogue went in this episode. Tommy use plumb bob first and plumbed the door first, eliminating the possibility of the door dragging on the floor, then he lengthened the door back to original length again.. the door out of plumb was the entire problem of everything.
I’m aware Scott’s time on the show is done but you need another electrician. I enjoy plumbing and woodworking just as much as the next guy put please get maybe even 2 more people so it’s not building a bench and talking about plants every episode. I love the show and I have been a fan for a long time.
To add to the praise duly given to the logically executed command of myriad of “little trick(s)of the trade” that defines Tommy’s work ethos, it shouldn’t be lost on anyone just how difficult it can be to verbally walk a layman through completing a project without any sacrifices made to the end product. Tommy, you and Norm have lifted me up from more “ruts” ; namely overthinking certain things and allowing myself to become overwhelmed with an entire project. You remind me that ‘it’s all just a thing’🫡