Repairs · Selwyn
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement in Selwyn
The garage doubles as a workshop, and with the heater running the floor near the door stays cold and the draft finds your ankles at the bench. When the wind is up you can feel the air moving under the door.
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement
In plain words
The bottom seal is one part of a weather line that runs all the way round the door. Vinyl-finned stop moulding seals the jambs and header, the section joints have their own tongue-and-groove or shiplap seals, and a threshold seal glued to the floor can meet the bottom strip where a slab slopes the wrong way. Bottom seal replacement addresses the piece that takes the most punishment, and while the technician is there the rest of the perimeter is looked over. Where the side or top strips are torn or shrunk, doing them in the same visit gives a garage sealed on all four edges rather than three.
How the visit goesAfter a spring rain there is a puddle inside the door that reaches the tires. The driveway slopes toward the garage, the slab has a low corner, and the flattened old seal is not making up the difference.
Selwyn
How the visit goes
The floor and the threshold
The concrete under the door is half of the seal. The technician looks at the slope of the driveway toward the opening, the condition of the slab edge where the seal lands, cracks, spalled patches and any step between the slab and the apron. A garage floor that has heaved or settled over the decades is common, and the shape it has taken decides whether a standard seal, a taller bulb profile or a threshold seal glued to the floor gives the most even contact. Where water arrives from outside, the path it takes is noted so the seal and any threshold are placed to meet it.
Closing the door onto the new seal
The clamps come off, the opener is reconnected, and the door is run closed under power while the technician watches the bottom edge meet the floor. The down limit is adjusted so the seal compresses gently along its full length without the section bowing, and the force setting is checked so the door settles onto the new, taller strip without reversing. From inside with the lights off, the floor line is checked again for daylight. The reversing test with a 38 mm (1.5 in) solid object, or a 2x4 laid flat under the door, and the photo-eye test finish the visit, and you are shown the door closing before the ladder is packed.
A record of the profile and size
Before leaving, the technician tells you what went on the door: the seal profile, whether T, bead or bulb, its width and height, the material, the door width it was cut for, and whether the retainer was renewed. Write this on a card by the opener or inside the manual. Bottom seals wear out on a schedule of years rather than decades, and knowing the profile means the next one can be ordered and fitted without measuring from scratch. If a threshold seal was added, its length and type belong on the same card.
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement
In the van
- Silicone spray lubricant
- Bead-style bottom seal
- Wire brush and scraper
- Straightedge and tape measure
- Threshold seal and adhesive
What affects the quote
Same fees day, night or weekend
1Material chosen
Standard vinyl, cold-flexible rubber and silicone are priced differently. Where the door faces the weather, the technician explains what the step up buys in flexibility and working life.
2Door out of level
If one corner of the door hangs low because of cable or spring tension, levelling the door is separate work done before the seal goes in and is priced on its own.
3Condition of the old seal
A supple strip slides out in a minute. One that has hardened and seized in its channel, or been torn and frozen into the corners, has to come out in pieces, which takes longer.
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement: questions
Will I need a new retainer as well as a seal?
Only if the existing one is damaged, and most are reused. A retainer that is straight, tight to the rail and free of heavy corrosion stays. One that has been kinked by a bumper or shovel, spread open so the seal slips out, or eaten by salt is replaced with a matching aluminum extrusion so the new seal seats properly. The inspection at the start of the visit settles which applies.
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.
How do I look after the new seal?
Wipe it clean of salt and grit a few times a year, and give it a light coat of silicone spray each autumn so meltwater has nothing to bond to. Keep petroleum products and solvents away from it, since they soften vinyl. Clear ice and packed snow from the threshold before running the door in winter. Once a season, look under the closed door for daylight. That is the whole routine.
Repair & Maintenance
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement near you
People in Selwyn call about garage doors for many reasons, and we have a service for each: the door that stopped, the one that got loud, the one that lets in cold air, the remote that died, the panel that got dented, and the door that has simply had its day.