Metal (front) door clearance issues


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Old 02-18-19, 01:28 PM
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Question Metal (front) door clearance issues

My townhouse is approximately 12 years old and has a metal front door. I recently purchased this townhouse and noticed that the front door was very drafty. Upon further inspection, I noticed they had a screw in door sweep that was a single strip of rubber on one side of the door. It leaked terribly.

My problem is that there is very little clearance from the door to the bottom of the flooring. There is no room to install a U shaped sweep that will seal better. To make matters worse, we are wanted to get new flooring that will go over our current flooring downstairs. We would not be able to do this currently due to the door clearance limitations.

FYI In the pictures, you will see a threshold that looks like it isn't screwed in. The installers cut corners and glued it down.

What are my options with this door? Can the bottom of the door be grinding down? Is there any other solution that is less invasive?

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Old 02-18-19, 02:01 PM
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That type door would have U shaped rubber weatherstrip at the bottom to seal against the metal threshold. Looks like that may have been removed to provide clearance for the metal flooring edge strip (and possibly the thickness of the floor.)

For the current condition you would have to find a "drop-down" weather strip that would be inside the door recess, above the floor level and be pressed down (by a lever at the hinge side of the door) when the door is closed.

Adding additional floor thickness will make the problem worse.
 
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Old 02-18-19, 05:40 PM
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I don't think you will be able to do any floor that simply goes over top of your old/existing flooring. You'll likely have to remove your current flooring to make room for something new.
 
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Old 02-25-19, 06:58 AM
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Ah I never knew about the drop down seal so thank you very much for the idea!

I have been thinking about trimming the bottom of the door with a metal cutting circular saw blade. This way I can install the flooring and install a proper U seal. Any thoughts on that?
 
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Old 02-25-19, 08:12 AM
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A U seal will only work if the threshold is slightly above the finished floor (about 1/4 inch.) For the condition that you have after you trimmed the door you would have to raise the threshold above the level of the new finished floor for a U seal to work. That way the seal will not drag across the floor and would engage the threshold when the door is closed.

It looks like the floor that is already there is too high for a U seal to work correctly. You can check by removing the metal transition piece.
 
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Old 02-25-19, 09:50 AM
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Your current flooring appears to be about flush with the threshold. That doesn't leave you any option for putting new flooring over old. For best sealing and long life any seal or gasket should only touch when the door is closed. If the floor is too high the edge of the floor and dragging the seal back and forth across the door will prematurely wear it out.
 
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Old 02-26-19, 05:44 AM
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Cutting your door is just a very bad idea. You can't seal the door to the threshold AND have it swing over an even higher floor.

If you plan to add additional flooring, your only real solution is to get a new prehung door that will have a higher adjustable threshold. (And some actual weatherstripping) And even then, if your total flooring thickness is more than 1 1/4", you will need to set that new door on top of a shim in order to raise the entire prehung higher. Generally a door should be installed high enough to swing over the flooring AND a floor rug.
 
 

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