Door Sweep Replacement

Article 2

That Old House Meets This New Woman

by P.K. Costa

It's that time of year again...

...when people want to prepare for winter and one of the worries is cold air that tends to creep through every crack and crevice of older (and sometimes even newer) homes. Now is a great time to prepare for the colder months ahead and do some maintenance and repair to ensure warmth and coziness.

Some of the things I will be covering in the next month will be door sweep replacement, blind and pull cord knobs, switch plates, lights, weather stripping, thresholds, filters, calking, etc. All sorts of fun stuff :)  Oh yes, and even a shelf (which is a long overdue project I've been meaning to do for the new microwave that no longer fits on the now-short shelf *smiles*)  

Door Sweep Replacement

Door sweep replacement is actually fairly simple, depending on the type of door you have. You may be lucky and have a door that was properly installed and fits nice and snug -- and all you may need is weather stripping around the door frame (be sure to check back in a few weeks for the weather stripping post). You may wish to add a kick guard at the bottom of the door to protect your door--they vary in price depending on what you're looking for (solid brass can cost up to a few hundred dollars) where as a simple protection guard can be much less. It really all depends on what you're trying to accomplish and whether or not this is for your home or for a rental unit.

Before you run to Lowe's to pick up a door sweep replacement, take a look at what you have to see if you have a metal sweep guard that you can re-use (that's what I did on the door I used for this blog). I was also able to purchase a standard self-adhesive sweep (I actually chose white because it matched the door, which is probably against some people's better judgment *smiles*) and it only cost me a few dollars. I re-used the old metal sweep guard (as you can see below), and just pulled off the old gray sweep that may have actually been a one-piece set. The old gray sweep was torn, (again as you can see in the photo below at the right).

The door sweep guard can be re-used (unscrews at bottom of the
door) and new self-adhesive sweep can be replaced (white or gray)

The new sweep replacement did not have holes for the screws, so I just adhered it to the door (centering it, making sure it was exactly where I wanted it, (I only had to cut off an inch) and the adhesive was nice that it kept it in place for me. I placed the old metal sweep guard over it and then I first used one of the old screws to mark holes where I needed them to be; and then I used a roofing nail (shown below) and hammered that slightly through the metal sweep guard and new white sweep replacement now adhered to door until it hit the wood to mark where I was going to replace the sweep guard. 

New sweep may not have pre-punched holes, so using
a roofing nail (or screwdriver) is great for punching holes
so the old screws can be used to install the sweep (using
the old sweep guard to save money). Total cost less than $3

I made sure the old metal sweep guard was in place (and even) and just used the old screws and a screwdriver (no need for a drill, unless you have a tiny drill) and there you have it... it looks great. Now, the cold air won't come in at night and I won't have to worry about a draft (some may want a draft beer after this however). Overall it probably only took about 15 - 20 minutes and cost just under $3.