I have an old solid fir door with beveled glass and one of those aluminum/oak inlay thresholds with the rubber strip in the middle.
My problem is a beveled shaped air gap, bigger on the hinge side 3/16”+ tapering to nothing on the handle side of the door.
The draft is prominent on cold days. Do they make premade thresholds with a lip for in swinging doors?
Or can I shim one side of the threshold. The other problem is the floor is oak so the shim might look obvious on one side. I thought about cutting a strip on the bottom of the door and inserting some sort of rubberlike sweep. I can’t figure out what’s the best approach. Thanks for any thoughts on this.
Replies
You can buy a new threshold with an adjustable seal on it. My regular yard has them in both aluminum and oak.
Just fit the saddle, push the adjustable part so it's tight to the door, and tighten everything down.
Worse case scenario you can make a filler strip to fit below the saddle if it doesn't adjust enough for the gap.
Also, while you're doing all that, check to see if the bottom edge of the door is sealed. If not, it should be ( as well as the top edge)
Yeah, buy an adjustable threshold.
Another alternative is to remove the door, route a slot in the bottom, then rig an adjustable (eg, screw on with washers or maybe springs for spacers) wood strip in the slot. If you use springs you might be able to adjust the door in place using a right-angle screwdriver.
<<beveled shaped air gap, bigger on the hinge side 3/16''+ tapering to nothing on the handle side of the door.>>
An old door - with beveled glass.
Can you say SAG?
Would appear from this angle that your door has succumbed to gravity and is now out of square. Do you have a misshaped gap at the top, too?
Probably not something you would want to do and maybe its sagged as far as it's going to but you could, first, rework the door or, second, cut the bottom so it's straight across and THEN install an adjustable threshold.
Just looking to make more work for you, should you decide you need that c**p.<G>
Thanks for the replies. As far as sag goes that could be, the glass is pretty beefy and the panel below looks like plywood. Not very good R-value either.
I thought about cutting the door square, but wasn't sure how much adjustability there is in the thresholds out there. The top of the door doesn't appear to sag in the same manner. The floor maybe?
I had one of those add on plastic sweeps last winter that mounts on the inside face of the door and wraps around. I thought it looked cheesy, but the wife ok'd it. Half way thru the winter is started to bind on the tight side so the door wouldn't shut. I took it off and its been off ever since.
If I did slot the bottom of the door do you think it would make sense to offset the cut to the inside of the door, so it drags along and bends slightly against the threshold? Thanks for anymore ideas.
Ok, maybe the floor. Did you use your level?
An adjustable threshold is still the way to go, but you'll find that usually the adjustable part is a hard material, to withstand foot traffic, etc. and that once the threshold is adjusted to be parallel to the bottom of the door, a flexible sweep is needed to affect the seal.
These sweeps come in a couple of models. The cheap model is stapled to the bottom of the door while the other model I'm familiar with is inserted into kerfs cut into the bottom. The bottom should be sealed before adding any sweep.
If you care to try it without an adjustable threshold you can replace the current threshold with a plain one, like oak, sealed, cut the door to accomodate the thickness of a sweep, seal the door, attach the sweep and be done. Adjustable is WAY better.