I had so hoped to get my exterior doors replaced this year. They have gaps up to a half inch in some places and when there's a blizzard no amount of blankets stapled over the door can combat the ensuing draft.
If you can call a whistling arctic blast a "draft"....
Last year, my dad came up with a great idea to deal with the problem. Great because it didn't involve him replacing the doors for me. Great because it involved one of his favorite products, spray foam.
I tried it on the bottom of one of my doors, and it worked beautifully. This year, once I came to accept that I wouldn't be getting new doors, I decided to do the bottom of the other door and the tops of both doors. It's working like a charm so far.
And now------I will pass the secret on to you.
Spray Foam Draft-stopper
First, you cover the door frame with wax paper. On the bottom edge of the door, that is easy. Just lay wax paper down on the doorjamb and close the door over it. The top of the door is a little trickier, but I found that taping one edge of the wax paper above the door and then shutting it worked fine.
Once the door is shut, you take spray foam and squirt it between the door and the wax paper-covered frame. The foam will expand to fill the space.
A word of caution: DO NOT TOUCH THE FOAM! It is one of the nastiest things on earth for getting off of skin. If some of the foam gets on anything, let it harden and it will peel off. Try to clean it immediately and it smears into an impenetrable layer of nastiness.
After the foam has hardened, you can open the door and take down the wax paper. If you feel really ambitious, you can trim the extra foam off with a utility knife. I'm still waiting to feel that ambitious.
Voila! A perfect draft stopper!
Ugly.
But perfect.
Now you, too, can have a house that looks like mine! Absolutely guaranteed to turn even the nicest house into a hovel.
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| Fastest trigger finger in the West! |
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