Weatherstripping and Caulking Storm Doors

By Mark J. Donovan

With daylight savings time now behind us, and cold weather right around the corner, I decided today to replace the storm door screen insert with the glass insert. In the process I noticed that there were several air gaps around the periphery of the door. Seeing these future winter air draft culprits I immediately jumped into my car and visited my local home improvement store. While there, I picked up door and window caulk and weatherstripping.

With caulk and weatherstripping in hand I returned home and caulked all around the exterior of the door and added weatherstripping along the inside door frame.

In the process of installing the weatherstripping I saw that I still had a rather large gap at the bottom of the door near the handle. To remove the gap, I first lowered the adjustable kick plate a little. It solved most of the gap, but not entirely. To fully eliminate the gap I adjusted the closer plate on the bottom portion of the door. By effectively stretching out the reach of the door closer another 1/4th of an inch the closer now has sufficient tension to fully close the base of the door.

So with just a few minor insulation and mechanical tweaks around my storm door, it is now air tight and ready for the long winter. At least now, however, I can let a little more light into the home during the short days without cooling off the house.