How to Install Weather Strips Around a Garage Door

When there are gaps around your garage door, dirt and cold air can get into those spaces. When cold air and dirt air get in, your garage isn't protecting your car or other stored items as well as it could be. You can fix the gaps around your garage door quickly by installing weather strips around the door. Installing weather stripping in your garage uses the same process as installing weather strips around the doors and windows in your home.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Garage weather stripping
• Tape measure
• Nails
• Hammer
• Scissors
• Gorilla glue or super glue

1. Measure the width and height of your garage door. You can buy garage weather stripping at hardware or home improvement stores. It comes in multiple lengths between 7 and 30 feet in length. Buy a length of stripping for the bottom that is about 5 feet longer than the width of your door. Get a vinyl garage door seal for the top and sides. This will be thinner than the bottom stripping. Get a few extra feet just in case you make a mistake.

2. Open the garage door just enough that you can get to the bottom of the door without bending over or reaching above your head. If your garage door is old or doesn't like to stay in place when it is raised halfway, brace it with something from the bottom to prevent it from falling while you work.

3. Unroll the bottom weather stripping and start on one side of your garage door. Situate the stripping so that the flat part of the stripping runs along the bottom of the garage door. Nail the end of the strip into place. Many garage door kits come with nails. If not, roofing nails will work.

4. Move down the door, nailing the bottom strip into place. Place a nail roughly every 6 inches. Most of your gaps are likely at the bottom of the door.

5. Cut off extra stripping. With basic rubber stripping, which is a perfect type of stripping for garage doors, cutting can be done with common scissors.

6. Close the garage door and add weather stripping to the sides and top. Use the same method you used for the bottom of the door. Unroll the strip and attach with the provided nails before trimming away the extra stripping at the end. You can buy self-adhesive weather strips to make this a simpler process, but attaching the stripping with nails will provide a tighter hold. The directions with the stripping will provide precise instructions for application.

7. Glue the ends of the strips together. Weather strips lay flat, so they will lay nicely on top of each other. A dot of heavy duty glue like Gorilla glue or super glue where your strips meet will help keep them from coming apart at the corners.

Resources

• Garage Door Information