Repairs · Cundles
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement in Cundles
With the door closed and the lights off, a bright line of daylight runs along the floor from one side to the other.
In plain words
Not every gap under a garage door is the seal, so the service begins with finding out what the gap is. A strip of light the whole width usually means a seal that has flattened or hardened. A gap at one corner only points to a door hanging out of level or a slab that has settled there. A gap in the middle suggests a bowed bottom section or a crowned floor. Reading these before choosing a seal means the new strip is sized to fill the space that is really there, and any door or floor issue is named and dealt with rather than hidden behind a thicker bulb.
How the visit goesEvery mild afternoon the snow melts off the car, runs to the door, and by morning the rubber strip along the bottom is frozen to the concrete. Last week the opener lifted the door and left half the seal on the floor.
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement
How the visit goes
The bottom section and its rail
The seal can only be as straight as the edge it hangs from, so the bottom section gets a careful look. On a steel door the technician checks the bottom rail for rust where salt water has sat, dents from a bumper or a shovel, and any bow across the width. On a wood door the rail is checked for rot, cupping and the upturned corners of an old door that has dried unevenly. Fasteners for the retainer and the bottom brackets are checked for corrosion. A sound, straight rail lets a standard seal do its job; a damaged one is pointed out so you can decide on repair, a taller seal, or both.
Feeding the seal into the retainer
Both edges of the new seal are started into their channels together at one end of the door. A spray of soapy water or silicone on the edges lets the strip glide, and the technician works it across in stages, pulling gently from the front end and feeding from the other so the seal is never stretched, since a stretched seal shrinks back and leaves a gap later. Once it is across, the bulb is checked to hang evenly with no twists. The ends are trimmed flush with the door and folded up into the channel or capped, so water running along the seal drains out rather than into the section.
The opener stays in step with the seal
The opener was reset to the new seal height, and it will hold that setting until something changes. If the door begins to reverse just before the floor, stops short and leaves a gap, or lands with a thump, the down limit or force has drifted or the seal has taken a set, and a small adjustment puts it right. The reversing test with a 38 mm (1.5 in) solid object, or a 2x4 laid flat under the door, is worth repeating monthly and after any adjustment, as the industry checklist for homeowners describes. A door that closes gently and reverses on an obstruction is one whose seal and opener are working together.
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement
In the van
Bulb or U-style bottom seal
Silicone spray lubricant
Nail-on vinyl strip for wood doors
Track clamps
Aluminum bottom seal retainer
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement
What affects the quote
Floor and threshold shape
A dished, sloped or heaved slab may call for a taller bulb profile or a threshold seal on the floor, each of which is quoted as a separate choice you can accept or leave.
Wood door nail-on strip
A wood door with a nailed strip takes a different product and more fastening time than a channel seal, and adding a retainer to a wood rail is a further option to consider.
Access and clearance
Storage, a vehicle that must stay inside, or shelving against the bottom of the door slows the work. A clear metre inside the door makes the visit shorter.
What to have ready
- Is the gap even across the door, or worse at one end or in the middle?
- Does the driveway slope toward the garage, or does water pool at the door?
- Is the door steel, wood, or insulated with a plastic bottom cap?
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement: questions
QuestionsWhat is a threshold seal, and when is it worth adding?
A threshold seal is a rubber or aluminum-backed strip glued to the garage floor along the line where the door closes. The door's bottom seal lands on it, and its raised outer edge turns water, wind-blown debris and small visitors back toward the driveway. It earns its place where the drive slopes toward the garage, the slab sits below the apron, or the floor edge is too uneven for the bottom seal alone to meet cleanly.
Can mice get past a garage door bottom seal?
A worn, hardened or chewed seal is one of their favourite routes, and even a small gap at a corner is enough. A fresh, continuous seal sized to the floor removes that route. For a garage with repeated trouble, seals with a stainless mesh embedded in the vinyl are available and resist chewing. Keeping the jamb seals sound at floor level matters just as much, since a gap beside the door serves them equally well.
Should the side and top weatherstripping be replaced at the same time?
It is worth having them looked at while the technician is there. The vinyl fin on the stop moulding around the jambs and header shrinks, tears and hardens on the same schedule as the bottom seal, and a draft that survives a new bottom seal usually comes from the sides. Doing the perimeter in the same visit saves a return trip and leaves the door sealed on all four edges.
Related services
- Garage Door Tune-UpThe door lands with a thud you can feel through the kitchen floor, and sometimes it bounces back up a few centimetres before settling.
- Off-Track Garage Door ResetYou tapped the door with the bumper while backing in, barely a nudge, and now the bottom corner has swung inward.
- Garage Door Panel ReplacementA stray ball went through one of the window panes in the top section.