Weather Seal and Bottom Seal Maintenance

Seals are the cheapest parts on a door and they decide whether the garage floods, dusts up or bakes. Every one of the four is on the yearly record Orange County Garage Door Tune Up, CA ageducate keeps, since a garage door in Orange County spends most of the year in dry heat and then meets a winter storm that finds every gap at once.

The Bottom Seal

A rubber or vinyl astragal in a retainer along the lowest section, usually a T shape or a bead that slides into a channel. It should compress evenly across the full width when the door is down. It hardens under ultraviolet exposure, cracks at the ends first, and is a ten minute replacement with the door open and the opener disconnected.

The Threshold

A separate rubber strip bonded to the floor that the bottom seal meets. It is the answer to a slab that has settled or was never flat, and it also stops wind driven rain running under the door. It is not a substitute, and fitting one to compensate for a limit switch set short simply relocates the problem.

Jamb and Header Seal

The weather seal on the vertical jambs and across the header is a flexible flap on a wooden or vinyl stop. It should touch the door face lightly all the way along with no daylight behind it. A gap at a top corner is common and usually means the stop was fitted to a door that has since been adjusted rather than that the rubber has failed.

Between the Sections

A sectional door has a shaped joint between each panel, sometimes with an integral gasket. It is not maintainable, but it is worth looking at, because daylight through a horizontal joint means either a bent panel or a hinge that has opened up, and both are hardware problems rather than seal problems.

Telling a Bad Seal From a Bad Setting

Close the door and look along the floor from inside with the light off. An even sliver of light across the whole width is a worn or undersized part. Light at one end only means the door is not sitting square, which is a cable or a limit switch matter. Fitting a fatter rubber to cure a crooked door is the standard wrong answer.

Choosing a Replacement

Measure the retainer channel and the door width before buying, since T ends, P bulbs and bead ends are not interchangeable. In coastal heat, a product rated for ultraviolet exposure is worth the small premium, because the cheap ones go stiff in about three summers and then tear off in the first real storm.