Most effective door weatherstripping?
So, for blocking little air leaks around the perimeter of the door slab: of the typically available options–the felt stuff, the foam tape, the molded plastic fin stuff, the teardrop-shaped stuff, etc.–what’s the best plan of attack? What’s useless?
I’ve got some of that typical compression door seal stuff (whatever it’s called) installed on the jambs, and there’s a triple-seal sweep already installed, but it’s not really close to perfect yet.
I’ll also be installing it around my vent panel.
For what it’s worth, I have indeed looked at this:
http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/insulation_airsealing/index.cfm/mytopic=11280
(Didn’t see this covered when I ran a search, but, y’know….)
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a few thoughts:
magnetic stripping is easy & very effective - obviously, doors must be metal;
outswinging where bottom face of door closes againt raised threshold allows effective seal all around;
soft-spongey stuff is effective, but often compresses too much and allows "anti-pick" feature on keyed locksets to engage in keeper;
nail-on stuff subject to temperature change - less flexible when cold;
sticky-backed stuff not consistently permanent enough;
I think you can get acceptable performance from the Q-lon type weatherstripping, but the door and jamb have to be perfectly in plane with each other, which is often not the case (especially a few years later). If you want to knock it out of the park, install a three-point lockset on your door, so it will always be tight to the weatherstripping when closed.
Conservation Technology makes the best weatherstripping.
Bill, thanks for the company insite.
For others, the website;
http://www.conservationtechnology.com/building_weatherseals.html