11-20-2015, 11:10 AM
I refinished one of our outside doors this fall. The seal at the bottom was in pretty bad shape, so I bought a new insert to replace it. I was surprised to find a plastic extrusion at HD that looked identical just like the old one that had been there since the house was built 45 years ago. So, I thought: no problem. Then I went to install it, and found it was much too tight for the door to close properly.
The seal is a flexible plastic strip with fins that slides into an aluminum track on the door bottom. I was not eager to shorten the door, especially given that the old one had fit, and the new one looked identical apart from wear and tear. I tried shaving the fins on the extra, left-over 6” piece. That made it fit, but I didn’t think that approach would give a good seal. It gets cold here.
I ended up softening the plastic insert with a heat gun and then clamped it between a pair of boards while it was still warm. The idea was to squeeze it and introduce places where the fins would naturally fold after it cooled again. After two cycles of this, the seal looked only slightly deformed, but I was now able to close the door snugly with it installed. After sitting all night, the door works easily this morning with a good seal all the way across.
So, it worked and I have the threshold sealed to my liking. But I have to think there must be a better way. Maybe I could just have forced the door closed when I first tried to install the seal, but it just didn’t feel right.
I have more doors to do and would appreciate any thoughts about a better method.
The seal is a flexible plastic strip with fins that slides into an aluminum track on the door bottom. I was not eager to shorten the door, especially given that the old one had fit, and the new one looked identical apart from wear and tear. I tried shaving the fins on the extra, left-over 6” piece. That made it fit, but I didn’t think that approach would give a good seal. It gets cold here.
I ended up softening the plastic insert with a heat gun and then clamped it between a pair of boards while it was still warm. The idea was to squeeze it and introduce places where the fins would naturally fold after it cooled again. After two cycles of this, the seal looked only slightly deformed, but I was now able to close the door snugly with it installed. After sitting all night, the door works easily this morning with a good seal all the way across.
So, it worked and I have the threshold sealed to my liking. But I have to think there must be a better way. Maybe I could just have forced the door closed when I first tried to install the seal, but it just didn’t feel right.
I have more doors to do and would appreciate any thoughts about a better method.
