Sound familiar?Calamity Corners
- The call
- The new door went in last year and looks perfect, but the old wooden stop and its tired seal were left in place. Along the top there is a gap you could slide a finger into, and the cold pours through it.
The vinyl strip around the door used to be soft and white. Now it is grey and hard, cracked every few inches, and a piece near the corner snaps off in your fingers.
In plain words
The job follows a steady order. First the door is closed and the gaps are found from inside, by daylight and by feel. Then the door itself is checked for how it sits in the opening, since a seal only works against a door that is square to the frame. The jambs and header are inspected for rot and for how the old strip is fixed. The old material comes off, the surface is cleaned and repaired where needed, the header piece is fitted first and the sides after it, and the door is cycled several times to confirm nothing catches. You are shown the result with the lights off.
Garage Door Perimeter Weatherstrip · Calamity Corners
How the visit goes
Scene 1
What kind of seal is there now
Openings carry different seals depending on their age and who last worked on them. Many older garages have a painted wood stop with a flexible vinyl fin nailed to its face. Newer installations often have a one-piece vinyl stop with the fin moulded in. Some commercial and premium doors use an aluminum retainer with a slide-in rubber insert, or a brush seal. The technician identifies which is present, whether the rigid part is sound enough to keep, and what the fastening was, because that decides whether a new fin goes onto the existing stop or the whole stop is replaced.
Scene 2
Fitting the sides and closing the corners
Each side length is cut to run from tight under the header piece down to the floor, with a little spare to trim in place. It is set with the same light contact as the header and fastened top to bottom. At the top corner, the side fin tucks under the header fin so they overlap, leaving no square hole for drafts or mice. At the floor the side is trimmed to meet the bottom seal on the door, so the seal is continuous around three sides and hands off to the fourth. Both sides are done the same way, checking the door edge gap as they go.
Scene 3
Slush, salt and the bottom of the jambs
The lowest part of each jamb is where the weather does its work, so a little attention there protects the whole seal. Push slush away from the jambs when clearing the driveway rather than piling it against them, and rinse the salt off the bottom of the stop on a mild day. Keep the joint between the jamb and the sill caulked so meltwater runs off the face instead of behind it. If a section of jamb was replaced, keep its paint or PVC surface intact. A dry jamb base holds its fasteners, and fasteners that hold keep the seal tight.
In the van
- Vinyl stop moulding with integral seal
- Exterior screws and weatherproof staples
- Utility knife and mitre saw
- Tape measure, level and square
- Flexible vinyl fin seal
What shapes the quoteBroughdale Garage Door Specialists
- Condition of the jambs
- Soft or rotten wood at the base of a jamb is cut out and spliced with new lumber or PVC trim before the seal goes on, and that repair is quoted as its own item.
- Commercial or oversized openings
- Wider and taller commercial doors often carry an aluminum retainer with a rubber insert or a brush seal, and the material and fitting time differ from a residential vinyl seal.
- Number of doors
- Two or three doors on the same property share the set-up time and are quoted together, usually at less per opening than a single door on its own.
FeesSame any hour
Homeowners ask
My door was replaced last year. Does the perimeter seal need doing too?
Often, yes. A new door is sometimes fitted against the original wood stop and its old fin, and the new door may sit slightly differently in the opening, so the old seal no longer meets it. If daylight shows at the edges or the fin is hard and cracked, a new seal set against the new door completes the installation and matches the fresh look of the door.
Do you adjust the door as part of the seal work?
Small corrections, yes. If a track bracket needs re-setting or the door needs to come plumb so the fin can meet it evenly, that is done so the new seal is fitted to a door that sits properly. Larger work, such as replacing rollers or a bowed section, is explained and offered as its own job so you can decide on it separately.
How should I look after the new seal?
Four times a year, check for daylight from inside with the lights off and press the fin to feel that it is still soft. Wipe the seal with a damp cloth to clear grit and salt, keep paint off the fin, apply a silicone wipe before winter, and keep slush and bins away from the bottom of the jambs. Press any lifted corner back and call if a length has come loose.
Repair & Maintenance
- Garage Door Tune-UpEvery morning the door announces itself to the whole street: a long metallic squeal as it climbs, a rattle at the top, and a…
- Off-Track Garage Door ResetThe door came down fine but with a scraping noise, and now the vertical track on one side is bowed away from the wall.
- Garage Door Panel ReplacementThe top section has developed a bend where the opener arm pulls on it.
- Garage Door Bottom Seal ReplacementOne end of the bottom seal has slipped out of its channel and hangs down like a loose shoelace.
- Garage Door Manual Lock RepairOn the old wooden door out back, one lock bar hangs loose from a rusted guide and the other is bent at an angle, so the handle…
Calamity Cornersinformation
MiddlesexOntario
Garage Door Perimeter Weatherstrip · London, Lucan Biddulph, Middlesex Centre, Broughdale, Masonville, Orchard Park, Sherwood Forest, Stoneybrook, University Heights, White Hills, Northcrest
- Town
- Calamity Corners, Middlesex
- In business
- 31 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (226) 781-8703
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
2021 census: what it means at the door
Every square is one home in a hundred.
- 52 in 100 homes · older homes
- 49 in 100 homes · mixed housing
- About 52% of homes in London were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Extension springs are common on older doors, and they should carry a safety cable through the middle so a broken spring is held rather than flung. Adding those cables is a small job the technician checks for and offers on any older door he services.
- Single-detached houses make up about 49% of homes in London (2021 Census).Where houses and attached homes sit together, the shared garage door on a small condo building may be a commercial operator on a heavy door, while the house next door runs a light residential unit. We service both types and carry parts for each.
Nearby
On-site assessment
Request a visit.
The vinyl strip around the door used to be soft and white.
(226) 781-8703, open 24/7.