Getting Our Doors & Windows Winter Ready

Knowing that you can lose a lot of heat through drafty doors and windows I was on a mission this fall to get ours ship shape in time for the cold weather ahead.  After examining all of our doors and windows I worked on them in the order of worst condition to best.

Our door that leads into the garage was by far the worst and quite drafty.  I had installed it over 15 years ago and let's just say that with age comes wisdom and experience.  I am much better at door installation now than I was then.

On a Saturday afternoon I removed the door completely, cleaned up all the debris that had accumulated in the past 15 years and reinstalled it.  Once it was back in place all level and plum.  I carefully shimmed it and screwed it into the frame.  Then I stuffed the fiberglas insulation back into all the gaps and used a low expansion foam to fill in the areas where insulation wouldn’t fit.  I also replaced a piece of the weather strip that was missing.  It opens and closes perfectly and is airtight.  Nice!

The cheap trim I used years ago broke when I removed it so I bought some new stuff I like much better.  That is a whole other project for later. 

Before

Daylight streams in along the edges

Our overhead garage door was the next one to tackle.  The weather stripping was missing completely and allowed leaves and dirt to blow in around the door every time we had a windstorm.  With so many other things on my list that were more pressing this was put on the back burner for a long time.  Now it is finally done and I am very happy.

Easily cuts with a drywall saw

I bought two lengths of chain four feet long and a package of S hooks to replace the nasty cable and it now works like a dream.  We also put up two new weather strip pieces on the outside of the door that have been missing as long as I've owned the house.

New weather stripping

All finished with new chain to replace the worn cable on the handle

The door is officially finished,  weather tight and ready for winter.

I used paintable window and door caulking and ran a bead along all of our windows and along the sills to seal them and make them much more energy efficient.  The caulk was $2.90 a tube on sale so it was a very affordable project.  I'm sure I'll get my money back in nothing flat just in savings on our heat bill.  It took me less than 30 minutes to get this job done.

Big improvement

Our back door needs to have the brick mold replaced but I plan to replace the entire door with one that has a window to allow in more light so I left it alone.  If I was planning to keep the same door I would have replaced the molding and caulked it too.

It feels so good to know we've got our home nicely buttoned up and ready for winter.