It’s getting to be the time of year when drafty doors in your New Jersey or New York home can be a problem. Drafty doors make your home chilly and place a burden on your heating and air conditioning systems, driving up your utility bills and putting undue wear and tear on your mechanical systems. Are your utility costs going up every year? Drafty patio doors could be part of the problem! Fortunately, there are many ways to keep door drafts at bay.
By replacing caulk, weatherstripping, hanging heavy curtains and taking other measures, you can improve your home’s energy efficiency and keep your house more comfortable throughout the winter (and summer) months. Get started right away to ensure that your home is ready for winter when the time comes.
Inspect any caulking around the exterior and interior of your patio door. Is the caulking cracked or deteriorated? If so, remove the old caulking and lay down fresh caulking in its place. There are a few ways to remove old caulking. You can use a simple scraper to scrape caulk away, or use a chemical caulk softener to soften the caulk before removing it.
Install weatherstripping around your patio door. Weatherstripping is available for sale in home improvement stores and hardware stores. Weatherstripping should be big enough to fill the gaps between the patio door and the frame, but not so big that it makes the door difficult to shut. The door should compress the weatherstripping slightly when it closes.
If you have weather stripped the door in the past, you may need to remove and replace old weatherstripping. Like caulk, it deteriorates with time. To determine whether your old weatherstripping needs to be removed, check to see if it still compresses when the patio door is closed. If the weatherstripping doesn’t compress, then it probably needs to be replaced.
One way to prevent drafts from entering your home is by hanging a heavy curtain that you can close on the coldest days and at the coldest times of year. The most effective curtains for this purpose are blackout curtains, which do not allow light or air to pass through, and can effectively trap the cold air against the patio door, keeping your home warmer in winter.
A draft stopper is a heavy cloth that can lay against your door along the bottom edge, to prevent drafts from entering your home through the crack under your patio door. Draft stoppers are most effective on hinged doors rather than sliding patio doors, which naturally have little to no crack on the bottom track.
Although weatherstripping and caulking can help cut back on draftiness around your patio door, the best way to fix your patio door problem is to replace your doors with new patio doors from Renewal by Andersen of New Jersey and New York Metro.
Renewal by Andersen patio doors are made from energy-efficient glass and a well-constructed energy-efficient frame to ensure that your home will stay comfortable throughout the winter (and summer too). For more information about replacing your patio doors with Renewal by Andersen, call us today at (866) 609-5033 or fill out the short form on this page and we’ll get right back to you.
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