You can fit front door draught excluder yourself. Draught proofing your front door could not be easier in fact and sometimes a decent job can be achieved from as little as a tenner and an hour’s work.
I’m going to explain how you can do the job yourself with little expense, then, if you don’t think these options are right for your front door, I’m going to present an alternative solution. We’ve used it for years now and believe it’s the best draught proofing you can buy. Don’t just skip to the end though! If you can fix the problem for a fiver, great – if not, by reading this blog you’ll understand how it all works and WHY it’s the best.
Door draught excluder
Cheap as chips ebay or Screwfix draught excluder will come on a roll. Foam, rubber or a brush, with adhesive on one side, will fill a gap that’s letting wind in as long as the gap is uniform. Stick the foam into the rebate of the door frame where the door touches and the job’s done.
The trick is all down to measuring the gap when the door is closed, but pressed inward. This way, the door latch is touching it’s keep. If the gap is a uniform 3mm all round, for example, you only need to buy foam that is 4mm (it gets squished a little).
Should the gap not be the same all round then you may need to get a couple of different thickness rolls and change to the thicker one as the gap gets bigger along the frame. It doesn’t look great but if the job needs doing without much expense or skill then this is definitely an option.
Cleaning the rebate in the frame
To fit roll-on draught excluder, you may need to clean the place that the roll is going to adhere to. I use a chisel and scrape it all down, but then I always paint the frames, as I’m usually fitting a door. Instead, you can use hot soapy water and a cloth or scourer.
If there was some foam previously stuck to it before, you might use a tough piece of plastic or a scraper to remove it, and/or the adhesive. Amazon sell 151 Sticker Remover, which comes with a plastic scraper for less than a fiver
Draught proofing with Door & window seals
Easily fitted plastic draught reducing door strips can be touched up to the door and pinned onto your frame. The Bryseal one with a moulded rubber doesn’t damage the paintwork on the door.
These are ok if the gap is less than about 8 mm, they’re not big enough otherwise as there will be nowhere to pin to. We make a 20mm and a 34mm version of our moulding to overcome this problem. I’ve not found a pin-on strip that comes bigger than the 21mm Bryseal.
Here’s Stormguard’s video on how to fit this yourself.
Bespoke door draught excluder
When we fit a new or restored front door we fit a bespoke made wooden moulding to your frame. This bead has an ovolo moulded edge so it looks great on a period door frame and has a groove cut down the edge. A Stormguard AQ21 seal fits into it.
The AQ21 in the bead pushes gently up to the door when it’s fitted. Then, the moulding is pinned to the frame. It doesn’t matter if the door is a little wonky as the bead is adjusted before it’s pinned.
As you can see below, it looks amazing.
We paint the moulding 4 times before it’s installed. The AQ21 comes in white, black and brown so we match that colour to the frame, sometimes for example if we’re painting the frame black or grey, we’ll use the black seal.
Lowline threshold sill
We also fit a Stormguard Lowline Threshold Sill when fitting a door. This stops the draughts from coming in under the door, as well as moisture and crawlies.
The Stormguard Thresher Seal, based on the original Macclesfield Sill, will need a 22-27 gap underneath your door to work properly, where the threshold seal will sit. When you fit a new door or restore an old one, like we do, you can make this gap early in the job.
Our doors can get 6 coats of paint on them so the job’s done right. Think about priming, sanding, undercoating and glossing what you’ve exposed.
Here’s Stormguard’s video on fitting the thresher seal yourself.
Your Front Door Draught Proofing Solution
We sell our Draught Proofing Kit in the shop in any colour, with white, black or brown seal and a threshold if required.
