Simple Fix for Drafty Doors

Our house has two entrances, and the doors in both are original to the home. In 60 years, they've seen their fair share of wear and tear (there's a phrase that would make Dr. Seuss proud).  While Brad and I had every intention of replacing them last year, our priorities shifted as the warmer months wore on; and, replacing doors which were functional was put on the back burner in favor of fixing other things which were less so.  Those projects, I'll cover in future posts.

Now, due to a recent "incident" with the storm door at our side entrance, I have a bit of an emergency fix to take care of today that involves the pneumatic closer.  I hope to share my experience with that in a new post sometime soon.  I'm absolutely thrilled about how simple and inexpensive it looks like it's going to be compared to what I was expecting.

Seriously: under $4.

But, I'll get to that.

Today, I want to talk about our drafty front door.

 

I know what you're thinking, but try to look past the half-finished priming job that's masking the real issue.

Look closer.

There!  Do you see it?  Watch what happens when I turn off the light...

Wagner tried to photo-bomb this pic. Extra points if you can actually see him.

That, my friend, is daylight peaking in under my door.  It doesn't look like much, and I'd never even noticed it until a few days ago, but trust me, it's enough.  When I put my bare foot down in front of it, I could feel the bitter cold wind blowing over my toes.

I don't know how much heat (or money) we were wasting through that crack.  It may not actually have been that much.  But, now that I knew it was there, I couldn't just let it go.  Especially when there's such a simple fix for it.

We don't actually use the front door very often.  So, all it took was a shower curtain I wasn't currently using.

I folded it up, wedged it tightly along the door, and made sure to double back over the largest part of the gap.  The difference was immediately noticeable - no more gentle breeze dancing across my toes, and shortly thereafter, the whole area in front of the door was several degrees warmer.

Starbuck just had to get his photobomb in, too.  Copy cat.

Simple.  Quick.  Free.  And effective.  What more could you ask for?  This will at least tide us over until it warms up again, and we can have the doors replaced.  In the meantime, I can sleep at night, knowing I'm not just letting money leak out under the door.  And that kind of peace of mind is priceless.

With that, I'm off to tackle the other door.  I should be writing a post about that fix soon, so check back later!