Draughty front door - replace?

[David Hearn]

Our 1930's semi has a draughty wooden front door. I've tried various methods of stopping the draughts, but either the gap between where the frame and the door meet (see below) is too large - ie. the foam or rubber flap strip doesn't adequately fill the gap - or, if I manage to fill it adequately, the door will not pull shut easily onto the cylinder lock - either bouncing open as we shut it, or requiring a huge pull to get it to lock. I can't adjust the lock placement by such a small amount due to the position of the current mounting holes etc. A large movement might be okay - but a small one as required is more difficult.

------- | Frame | | | ---- |

[Chris Bacon]

^ | Use draught strip in here - "Atomic Strip" used to be the best stuff, a phosphor bronze strip nailed on and "sprung" with a tool to give this sort of effect:

| x_____________| | ________ | | | /| | / | |/ | door || | __|| |________

You can still get this stuff from the USA, but I haven't seen it here. You may be able to use batwing seal:

______ ^ | / | | / | | 10mm | / | |/ v

which is available in the UK. It is glued into the angle marked "x" above, and the door edge seals into the open bit of the diagonal of the batwing seal.

I've recently taped a 2mm thick spacer to the front of a front door, and with the door closed filled in the remaining gap between the spacer and the stop with car body filler - the

2mm gap left perfectly accommodates draught strip (be careful not to glue the door shut!!).

[Rob Morley]

Try this sort of draught excluder

What sort of threshold does it have? Brush strips are the usual way to go on the bottom of doors that have a flat threshold.

[Stuart Noble]

Both gaps are difficult to deal with because usually they aren't uniform, but "this gap here" is the one to go for IMO. A quick fix that has worked for me in the past is to smear the edge of the door with grease or washing up liquid, close the door, and fill the gap with car body filler. Sets hard in 10 minutes and shouldn't crack and fall out with the impact of the door. If there's room, put some panel pins in to act as posts for the filler. Should work until the door swells/shrinks and assumes a new position :-)