How to eliminate a draft from the front door. How to insulate the front door

This article originated with me, due to the “crookedness” of the hands of the door installers. In general, they installed a door to my apartment, and it just so happened that it was not installed correctly! Firstly, it blew out of it, which was terribly annoying, and secondly, the jamb was bent, which was no longer beautiful. And today I will try to tell you how to immediately check the correctness of the installation and avoid such "jambs" as mine and correct the errors yourself. Learn from my experience...

The main "jambs" were revealed only when I wanted to order the finishing of the slopes, usually they are made with decorative panels. The master arrived and immediately pointed out errors during installation. It was not possible to call the masters of the company that installed it, because it simply collapsed due to the crisis, and another organization was already at this number, which was engaged in a completely different business. So I decided to do everything myself. Let's take a closer look.

Checking the installation of the front door

In general, if installers hand over work to you, then you, IMMEDIATELY, should check only four main parameters:

This is of course the appearance, there should not be any chips and pits, both on the door itself and on the box.
This is geometry. What I mean is that the door must be level, the box must also be level, they must be strictly parallel. There should not be any distortions, neither in one direction nor the other!

Clamp. A very important component, it is easy to check, we take an A4 sheet and press it between the door and the jamb. Then we try to pull it out, if the sheet comes out easily, then this means that the clamp is simple, no - it will blow through the door.

If the sheet sits tightly and does not come out, it even breaks - this is a good installation, it should not be blown through! Moreover, the clamp must be checked everywhere, both from the sides and from above and below!

Locks. They should easily “walk” - open and close, no “under-rotation” (when you can’t turn the handle all the way, it rests on something) or hard walking (the lock is difficult to close) is not allowed, you need to understand this! Locks are very important!

Blowing out the door - what to do?

Guys, I will really talk about a “normal” door made of good sheet metal, with good insulation - which, if properly installed, should not blow through it! I do not take Chinese doors, which you can push through with your finger - I am “silent” about its quality, it is blown all and everywhere, from handles, from jambs, etc.

So, for me it was blown out because of the "crooked hands" of the installers. Not only was the geometry of the door broken (the box itself was not tightly parallel).

So also there was simply no pressure (during the opening of the entrance door), “blowing” from the entrance was heard.

This definitely needed to be fixed!

Everything was done by the old grandfather method, with the help of a hammer and an average “nail puller” (more like a “crowbar”).

To begin with, they began to level the box - the “belly”, which was. They bent towards the door, did everything with a closed canvas.

After each “editing”, they opened and closed the door, checked it - the main thing is that nothing touches anywhere! After about half an hour, the box and the canvas itself became parallel! The first bug has been fixed.

Then it was necessary to correct the clamp, it had to be knocked out with a hammer. However, so that the jamb itself does not suffer, this must be done through a plank or “mallet”. Then the paint from the door will not crumble.

Here they suffered longer, but also practically managed to correct this error. To be honest, there is still some traction left - but it is negligible compared to what it was. They did not beat further, otherwise the box would have bent in the other direction.

Double tape, under the seal.

In normal (inexpensive) doors, the seal is self-adhesive as usual. It comes out a little from the canvas. In order to slightly improve the clamp, you can stick a double car adhesive tape under it. Then it will come out a little, and will be pressed more tightly, so you can generally isolate the door - it will not be blown through.

Now a small video version of the article.

Remember - check the work right away, because even a high-quality canvas and a jamb can be ruined by the crooked hands of installers.

That's all, read our construction site, only useful information.

There is nothing superfluous in home insulation. The ceiling, floor, windows and walls must be carefully insulated. Then the apartment will be warm and cozy. In this situation, insulation plays an important role. After all, the drafts coming from it bring a lot of trouble. But the insulation of the front door must also be done correctly. This article describes in detail how to insulate the front door, gives useful advice from experts.

Most often it blows due to cracks that have appeared. But their elimination is not a big problem.

Attention

You can test for the presence of gaps. To do this, bring a burning match to a closed door and run it along the existing joints. If the fire trembles in a certain place, it is leaky.

Reasons for the appearance of a draft:

Installation is incorrect. A gap is formed between the wall surface and the box.
subsidence. The reason for this may be the subsidence of the wall. To eliminate the deficiency, you need to invite the installation wizard. He must reinstall the door structure.
The door block is cheap, without a seal. In this case, a seal is required under the door space. It will protect against drafts.
The seal does not provide a good seal and must be replaced.
Air from the street enters the house through the key of the lock. Modern models of locks with a special curtain close this hole. You can put them.
The entrance wooden door became narrower under the influence of cold air, cracks formed. You need to buy another seal.

What to do, how can you insulate and seal the door structure?

Since the main cause of drafts is cracks, you need to get rid of them by pasting the door leaf with insulation. It is recommended to do this around the perimeter and in separate parts of the door leaf.

If the door knocks repeatedly during the day, opens and closes, the seal wears out quickly, drafts appear. You can damage it by hitting it with outerwear or objects brought into the room and other objects.

Before the start of work you need to inspect the structure and make sure that the hinges are not sagging, and the sash opens well. Skews of the canvas also have a negative effect on the seal: it begins to touch the floor or slopes.

To eliminate the disadvantage, you can glue the space between the threshold and the door with a heater.

The following types of insulation are suitable:

To glue the bottom of the door frame, use self-adhesive tape or a polyethylene sealing cord.
rubber tube.
Self-adhesive rubber.

But you should take into account the width of the space between the threshold and the bottom of the door leaf. If the seal is too thick, it will not fit in width. The adhesive base of the insulation is self-adhesive, but also not always well done. It is better to use Moment glue.

How to glue?

The work is easy. Even people with no experience can cope with it. The process consists of several stages:

Coating the perimeter with glue. It is necessary to apply it from the bottom of the canvas and the upper part of the threshold.
Heating preparation. You need to measure it and cut it into pieces of the required size. On both sides, bend the ends at an angle of 45 degrees.
Apply glue to the insulating layer of the insulation. Dotted at the same distance or a thin strip.
Glue the insulation 10-15 minutes after applying the adhesive. Then press it to the surface, close the sash and hold it in this position for at least 10 minutes.
During the day, you need to open it as little as possible, make sure that the seal does not move. The period of full adhesion lasts for a day.

The described methods for eliminating cracks are the cheapest and simplest. Before the start of warming, you need to correctly assess your capabilities. If there are no skills or little time, it is better to contact the master. But, following simple recommendations, you can quickly, efficiently insulate the front door yourself.

Useful video

Video about the features of the insulation of entrance doors:

It is necessary to understand the reasons for its blowing. More precisely, the reason is always the same: the loose fit of the door leaf to the door frame (loot) - blows through the cracks formed. But there are plenty of opportunities for the formation of these cracks ...

Entrance doors, as you know, can be wooden, metal and plastic. Self-insulation of plastic doors (door blocks), as well as windows, is an extremely ungrateful and even useless task for a non-professional: it still won’t really work. But to insulate a wooden or iron door is quite within the power of anyone.

Wood is generally quite a “playing” material, and therefore it blows more often from wooden doors. When the temperature drops, the door leaf shrinks in size, albeit not much - in a carefully fitted door block, the gap is a fraction of a millimeter - but a gap still forms. And the stronger the frost outside, the larger this gap, and the stronger it blows.

In metal doors, such a “playing” of dimensions is provided for by the design - some kind of sealant was initially laid between the door leaf and the frame. If its integrity is violated, the metal door begins to “siphon”. In addition, many inexpensive metal doors do not contain any insulation at all in their internal cavity, except for air.

Insulation of metal doors

If one side of the metal door leaf can be removed, for example, fixed on self-tapping screws, it is not too difficult to insulate such a door.

To do this, the removable sheet is unscrewed, foam or mineral insulation is laid in the cavity of the door leaf, and for convenience it can be glued in several places; only it should be borne in mind that the foam is far from “friendly” with any glue. If the insulation cannot be laid in a dense, even layer, unfilled gaps can be filled with mounting foam. Then the removed sheet of the door leaf is mounted in place - and the insulated door is ready.

If the door is all-metal and non-separable, only the proven, “old-fashioned” way of insulation remains: curtain it with dense warm matter, for example, an old blanket. There is, however, another way out of the situation, but it is quite complicated for independent execution. In this case, along the contour of the door leaf, usually on the outside of the door, a rectangular corrugated pipe is attached in some way (by welding or self-tapping screws). The resulting cavity is filled with insulation.

From above, everything is covered with suitable material. Laminated fiberboard looks best, but in extreme cases, a galvanized sheet is also suitable. Putting a sheet cut to size on the door, fix it, for example, with clamps, drill holes and fasten it with metal screws. It is best to screw from top to bottom - the attached sheet will lie more evenly.

Insulation of wooden doors

Insulation of a wooden door begins with its fitting. After this operation, the door leaf should fit as tightly as possible to the door frame - the fewer slots, the better. Fitting is carried out with the help of a planer, in especially severe cases an ax and a hacksaw will come to the rescue, but as a result, the door porch should be as tight as possible. Naturally, it is not possible to perfectly fit the door, but there should be no gaps “in a finger thickness”. By the way, it shouldn’t close “in a wedge” either - otherwise, when it gets warmer, especially in spring, it will be difficult to open a door that has swollen from excessive air humidity, and it will be even more difficult to close it ...

Further actions come down to overlapping the remaining “non-removable” gaps with some kind of insulation. A fairly common way is to nail a strip of felt, felt or any similar material along the contour of the box. This insulation strip should “rest” against the door leaf; the thickness of the material is selected so as to cover the largest gap by at least 2-3 millimeters. The width of the strip should be 20 ... 30 millimeters - this will be quite enough.

Not the easiest, but reliable option for warming is to make a slot around the perimeter of the door leaf, into which to insert a rubber window seal sold in all hardware and building stores. The complexity of this method lies in cutting the necessary grooves.

You can use a ready-made self-adhesive door seal for insulation, also sold in stores. But it is best to do this in the most extreme case - holding such seals is very unreliable. They are made from rubber and foam rubber; and if rubber "self-adhesives" are enough, at the very least, for a year and a half, foam rubber ones do not withstand even one winter ...

For even greater effect, a wooden door leaf can be upholstered, at least from the street side, with leatherette. At the same time, foam rubber is laid under the upholstery (you can also use some old blankets, felt, etc., but such a door will turn out to be very heavy and it may well have to be outweighed), and a roller is formed around the perimeter of the door (along the porch) sealant.

This article contains all the information about what to do if it is blowing from the front door, and how to prevent the possibility of drafts when installing a new door.

If the source of drafts in your house or apartment is the front door, you are unlikely to be satisfied with such a solution to the problem, which is shown in the picture above. It is no less inconvenient to curtain them with old blankets, creating a barrier to cold air.

Only a sealed front door can allow you to feel comfortable in your own home, which will not let in not only cold air, but also extraneous noises and smells from the street.

But how to achieve this?

There are several options for solving the problem:

Glue a seal around the perimeter of the canvas.
Fully insulate the canvas, sheathing it so that the insulation covers the gaps between the box and the canvas.
Completely replace the canvas.

If you are just building your house, you can immediately make sure that this question never arises before you.

Eliminate drafts from an existing door

This problem is especially relevant in suburban housing, since there the front door often goes directly to the street or to a cold unheated vestibule.

Although in an apartment building a draft from the door is a very unpleasant phenomenon, even if the entrance is warm. After all, together with him, cigarette smoke and other unpleasant odors enter the apartment.

Traditional sealing is gluing a self-adhesive seal in the form of a rubber band around the perimeter of the box.

Unfortunately, this method is not very reliable.

Firstly, with the active operation of the door, the seal quickly becomes unusable and has to be changed.
Secondly, the slightest distortion will lead to the fact that the seal will no longer fit snugly against the door and perform its function efficiently.

In addition, it is possible to glue a strip of sealant correctly only if the door is perfectly level. If there is a different distance between the canvas and the box in different places, the rubber band will not fit snugly to all parts of the door.

With this arrangement, the sealing tape will provide better tightness of the door even if it is deformed and sagging, as it will have a greater degree of freedom.

Whatever the initial position of the canvas relative to the box, the sealant will work to prevent drafts precisely because of its advantageous location.

Instead of the traditional self-adhesive tape, you can use round-section polyethylene foam sealing cord or rubber tube made of resistant rubber for this purpose.

And do not be confused by the lack of an adhesive base on them: in this case, Moment glue will help you out perfectly.

Lubricate the frame around the perimeter with glue where the seal should be.
Cut the ribbon to the desired length, cutting the edges at a 45 degree angle for joining at the corners.
Lubricate the side of the seal with which it will be glued with glue.
After exposure, which for the glue Moment is 15 minutes, close the door and apply a rubber band to the end of the box in such a way as to ensure that it fits snugly against the door. Press it down with your hands for a few seconds.

Attention! It takes a day for the glue to dry completely, so try to use the door carefully on the first day.

Of course, this method also has its drawbacks - the seal can be torn off by accidentally hooking it with something. But it will not be difficult to correct the situation by re-gluing it in its place.

As mentioned above, if it blows from the front door, it can be completely insulated, making sure that the insulation is slightly larger than the box and covers all the existing gaps.

For this, rollers are specially made, which are attached around the perimeter of the door leaf.

Sometimes these rollers are attached to the door frame. You will understand what is at stake if you look at the photo on the side.

And how to insulate the door, you can read in more detail in other materials on the site. This may also be required if you have an old wooden door, the canvas of which has dried out and through cracks have formed in it.

If the front door is blowing despite your best efforts, make sure that cold air is not getting in through the large keyhole. Otherwise, you will just have to replace the door.

How to prevent drafts from the door

Experienced builders know that the front door to a house or apartment can only be installed after all “wet” work is completed - laying partitions, plastering, puttying, whitewashing, etc.

Especially if it is a wooden door, which is sensitive to high humidity.

When all this work in the new house is completed, and you go to order a new door, think over your requirements for it in advance. It is clear that it should be strong and reliable, but when it blows from the front door, there is little pleasant in this.

Therefore, do not forget to clarify how its sealing will be ensured.

Now there are new models of entrance doors, the boxes of which have a special configuration - a three-stage one.

An additional ledge does not let cold air, dust, moisture and foreign odors into the room.

This configuration has the entire door frame, including the threshold, which is not mounted separately, but is integral with the door frame.

Installing such doors will save you from having to think about how to eliminate drafts.