Side of door jamb

Question

Hello - my front door has a noticeable gap where air comes through on the side.  Strangely it is only below the latch on the lower half.  Is there anything I can buy to prevent air flow or is it the way the door is hung?

Dave Sr. · Accepted Answer

Hey, thanks for posting. I have a few thoughts about this issue. One is that your door does not show any weatherstripping at all to begin with. I would think, being an entrance door, that it should have something to keep the cold out. Another thought is that your door might need to be adjusted. The door frame could be out of plumb, like you said. I actually had this problem with my front door at home were I had to reset the door frame to have the door close properly. However my door had weather stripping so it was not as noticeable as yours.

In other words, I think whoever installed this door might have skipped a few steps. They didn't give you any weatherstripping and they didn't adjust it properly. For now, take a look at the 58-180 stick on type weather stripping. This seems to work without much of a problem on doors like yours, just make sure the door stop is clean before your apply the weatherseal. It uses adhesive to stay in place. Also take a look at the 58-184 foam corner seals. These are good to install at the corners to keep out the cold.

As for adjusting the door to make it plumb again, you will need to contact professionals to come out and do it for you, if it ends up being necessary. That's kind of a big project.