Facts About Garage Door Seals

One of the less talked about but still hard working parts of your average garage door is the weather seal. That little bit of plastic or rubber that runs along the bottom of your garage door does a pretty astounding amount of work for being simply a cheap piece of rubber for the most part. What exactly does it do though? Why is it so important? And how often does it ned to be replaced? These are the questions you may have if you are just really noticing that small strip of material on the bottom of your garage door. Thankfully in this article we will be working to shed some light on those questions to give you the information you need to make sure your garage door is doing everything it can for you. That means knowing when to replace certain parts and how important they are when it comes to the various functions of your garage door. The weather seal may be a seemingly inconsequential and cheap piece of the garage door as a whole, but it can make a big difference when not there or if it is in disrepair. This small piece of the garage door as a whole can make a big impact on things like weather (obviously), noise, and temperature insulation.

The weather seal, as the name would make you assume has the main job of keeping the weather out. The garage door helps with the bulk of this, but those last few fractions of an inch or inch are tough to perfectly seal up from the weather. This is why these garage doors need the weather seal. Just the smallest crack or gap during a storm can mean that the floor of your garage ends up flooded. Add to this a dropping temperature during the night and you could wake up to a garage full of ice on the ground which makes the garage and garage door pretty much useless. This is one instance of the dangers of a garage door that isn’t properly fitted, but other problems can also arise from this sort of thing. From small puddles to pests getting into your garage extremely easily, it is best to keep your garage door sealed entirely in order to keep your garage dry and pest free. This can be done easily with the help of a relatively new weather seal. This is why keeping your weather seal replaced relatively frequently is a good idea as it can be the culprit for some of the problems in your garage id you are having any.

Why do you need a weather strip though? Wouldn’t it just make sense to have the garage door sit flush with the ground when it was closed? In theory and in the best case scenario that would be perfect. The garage door would sit tightly agains the ground when closed and it would provide a perfect seal every day. However, garage doors aren’t made that way. Your garage floor is most likely not a perfectly level 180 degree floor. It most likely has a few bumps or dips and may even crack a bit. Water gets into the floor, things freeze and expand or contract in the different temperatures and your garage door and your garage floor both change shape a bit. This means that you can’t just make a rigid seal that sits perfectly on the ground one day of the year, the seal needs to be able to adapt to things changing and expand or contract. Garage doors can also slowly become misaligned, slight misalignment is pretty much unnoticeable and for many doesn’t really matter. The bottom of the garage door though would make this very noticeable and with no seal it would need to be realigned much more often, which needs a professional in order to be done properly and safely.

When do you need to replace your weather seal? Depending on where you live and the type of use your garage door gets, the lifespan of your weather seal will vary. If your seal is getting crushed every day for a month and then is expected to fill a large gap for a month and vice versa it may not last too long. This may only last a year or two with extreme temperatures and changes in how it is used. However, if your garage door doesn’t change too much and the use of the seal is relatively consistent it could last much longer, upwards of 2 years. You’ll know when to change your seal by seeing a few things. If your seal is no longer springing back into place and so is leaving gaps when your garage door is closed all the way it may be time to get a new seal. If your garage door seal is staying rigid or is breaking apart when you touch it, there may be some sun or chemical damage to it and you should replace it. Otherwise your garage door seal should be working well and there’s no need to replace it.

Having a working garage door seal helps prevent a lot of problems from occurring in your garage. It helps cushion your garage door if it comes down too hard. The seal helps keep out pests and rain from tough storms. It also helps to keep cool or warm air in your garage by eliminating the draft that would otherwise be blowing through the bottom of your garage door. Checking to see how well your garage door seal is working is easy, if you can see gaps in the bottom of your garage door then you may need a new one. If the rubber is hard and not bending, you also might need a new garage door seal. Hopefully this article has also taught you a bit about why garage door seals are so important. They provide an easy and cheap solution to the problem of not being able to manufacture garage doors that will sit flush on the ground of a garage 365 days of the year, rain or shine.