It is important to always keep warm in any room, especially during cold seasons. Therefore, it is advisable to insulate only windows, but also doors through which cold, wind and dust penetrate into the room no less, or even more. For this purpose, a variety of door seals are produced, which take care of maximum heat preservation in a house, apartment, office, public institution.

Appointment

Door seals are designed to close gaps and gaps that allow cold air and winds to enter the room. It is impossible to do without them in a private house with doors leading directly to the street. The door structure (especially if it is wooden or made of a similar material) tends to dry out or, conversely, absorbs a large amount of moisture during rains and dampness. The deformation of the door frames creates such conditions when the door cannot fit snugly against the jamb. It must either be replaced, which, of course, is not always possible, or use a saving inexpensive option in the form of a good seal, which will extend the life of the door and help keep warm in the living or work space.

In addition, there is one more function of the seal - shock absorption, which is not directly related to the heat-saving function, but provides a softer contact between the door and the jamb, preventing loud bangs and unnecessary creaking.

Requirements

Of course, in order to perform its main function, the seal must be of good quality.

Therefore, it must have the following properties:

• durable materials of manufacture - it is on them that the service life of the sealing tape depends. If the tape is not of very good quality, it will quickly lag behind the door and will be simply unusable;
• good insulation should fit tightly to the surfaces around it. This provides an obstacle to the penetration of cold air, winds and street dust into the room;
• resistance to constant mechanical stress is also a necessary quality, because when opening and closing doors, as well as the impact of any external factors, materials of poor quality will undergo rapid wear;
• the material should not only be strong, but also bend well, not tear when trying to close door gaps and crevices with it, be as soft as possible in order to minimize the sound of the door hitting its frame.

Views

All types of door seals are produced in the form of tape, which has various lengths, widths, thicknesses and colors depending on the size of the gaps and gaps, as well as the color of a particular door in order to preserve aesthetics. The types of the profile of the seal can be different. A profile is a form of insulation, which can have a cavity inside the material, the task of which is to eliminate gaps and seal gaps of various sizes and shapes. When shrinking, a good insulation does not get any damage. This property is possessed by high-quality polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or polyurethane. Profile shapes can be in the form of letters of the English alphabet: P, V, C, E, O and other configurations.

Sealing tape made of foam rubber is the most popular and inexpensive type. A self-adhesive film is attached to the foam rubber, its thickness may vary. The methods of attaching the foam rubber tape are different depending on the material from which the door frame is made. If it is wooden, the foam rubber is fixed on it with wallpaper nails, and if the entrance structure is metal, you can use strong glue that is suitable for working with metal. Of the minuses of the foam tape, it should be noted that it does not differ in wear resistance and does not last long. Also, foam rubber, due to its porosity (especially when it comes to large-width tapes), tends to pass cold air, so it is best to use it as a heater not for entrance doors, but for interior doors.

Tubular seal is a thick dense bundle, inside which there is a rather large cavity. It is thanks to the strength of the material in combination with the internal cavity that the door adheres to the jamb without cracks and unnecessary gaps. The tubular seal is made of rubber, which has a porous structure, which provides heat saving and sound insulation. It is often self-adhesive, which makes it easy to install. Of course, any “self-adhesive” will simply fall off over time, but usually it will withstand from one to several seasons, and then it can also be easily replaced with another. Most often, rubber is used for doors facing the street.

Groove seals are made specifically for plastic doors of various designs and are made of softer rubber than thick tubular seal. Installation of such a product is more than simple: you just need to carefully insert it into the door grooves. The groove method provides minimal impact of external factors on the seal itself and lasts much longer, withstanding bad weather and sudden temperature changes. This type of insulation can only be used for plastic doors. Unfortunately, it will not work for other door designs. By the way, an interesting fact that should be taken into account by all owners of plastic doors is that each manufacturer, in addition to selling and installing doors, is also engaged in the manufacture of seals, which can be immediately purchased as an additional and useful accessory.

Glass seal It is also a separate type of seal designed specifically for glass door elements of different sizes. Their profile has an individual cross-section, and the material of manufacture is flexible and soft silicone. It is enough to simply moisten such material in water, and then immediately install the doors in the right place. This type of silicone differs in that after soaking after a certain amount of time, it adheres firmly to glass surfaces and does not "stick", in contrast to simple self-adhesive seals.

Magnetic seals produced in the form of a frame, repeating the door contours with an accuracy of a millimeter. They are used for metal doors and are recommended by experts as the highest quality and durable. Each of them has two components: an insert with a magnet and a soft material. Such a seal is not cheap, and certain rules must be followed when installing it, however, durability and high quality can contribute to its acquisition.

Magnetic Products have a high degree of tightness and shock absorption, so the door will not make noise when opening and closing, and the attraction of the door to the jamb will ensure the complete absence of cracks and gaps. The only drawback may be that, due to magnetic attraction, sometimes additional physical effort will have to be applied to open the door. A special place among the seals is occupied by the threshold, the purpose of which is not only insulation at the bottom of the doors, but also the increased load that the dense rubber or rubber from which it is made can withstand. When purchasing such an item, you need to pay special attention to the quality of the rubber.

Contour seal good for its ease of use: it is attached to the door along its perimeter. If there is a special groove, it can be inserted there, or you can simply lay it along the edge if there is no gap or groove. Contour insulation is often made from rubber and foam. For premises with a high fire hazard, a thermally expanding type of insulation is often used. Visually, it looks like the most common, but with a sharp increase in temperature during fire and smoke, it tends to immediately expand and foam. This prevents air from entering the room and the flame can go out faster.

Also for fire doors, a triple, or three-circuit view of the seal providing additional sound and noise insulation effect. The sealant, consisting of three layers (or contours), can be used in both apartments and offices for optimal comfort and safety. Additional rigid ribs make the door leaf much thicker and increase its weight, therefore it is important to provide that the door frame and its fittings are as strong as possible. Such insulation is perhaps the best at retaining heat when used for front doors.

Liquid version of insulation used for metal entrance doors and requires certain conditions of use. It comes in metal cans and is sprayed to the required locations. In fact, it is a liquid foam rubber that, when applied under gas pressure, quickly hardens, providing good thermal insulation properties. Its peculiarity is that it does not like places with high levels of humidity. Also, when spraying, a certain skill is required in order to apply it as accurately as possible so that the door does not acquire unnecessary cosmetic defects.

Liquid heaters are made from neutralized chemical compounds and are absolutely safe for humans and animals.

Pile or fleecy species insulation materials are known to many people from childhood, mainly because felt is their main representative to this day. At the present stage, there are also synthetic analogues of fleecy insulation, but since the felt is made from pure wool, despite its certain features (in particular, it is not so easy to attach it to the doors), this is still its indisputable advantage. There are different types of felt that have a specific designation, but any option is suitable for doors, the main thing is to cut the material correctly, having made the necessary measurements before that.

Of synthetic pile materials, it is often popular thin pile tape on an adhesive basis. Its task is not to let dust into the room. It is rarely used as a door seal, but it is often used for installation on the doors of sliding wardrobes.

There is also the most expensive, but at the same time reliable TEP sealant, in the production of which thermoplastic elastomers are used. These materials are highly wear-resistant, which is why manufacturers claim that they can last from 15 to 20 years without replacement. High-tech flexible plastic is able to withstand extremely low temperatures and provides excellent thermal insulation even in freezing temperatures below 50 degrees. In addition to the high cost, such a seal is distinguished by a certain difficulty in its installation, but if all conditions are met, its price will justify itself very quickly.

Dimensions (edit)

Seals come in different sizes: thin, thick, wide. Dimensions are selected based on how large the gap or gap is. With a slot width of 1-4 mm, a rectangular profile is used, and the material can be PVC, foam rubber or polyethylene. For gaps with smaller sizes - up to 3 mm, a C-profile sealant, as well as K or E, is suitable. P- and V-profile products cover holes from 3 to 5 mm. Seals with wide cavities inside O and D are intended mainly for entrance doors and are installed in the gaps between the door and the jamb, the dimensions of which can be up to 7 mm.

These products are produced, as a rule, in large rolls. The footage can be different, depending on the manufacturer and the type of sealing material. When buying, you should be guided by the fact that it is necessary to purchase from 5 to 6 meters of insulation for one front door. Slightly less can be spent on interior doors, but it is always better to take it with a small margin: it will never be superfluous on the farm, and if suddenly some part of the sealing tape is worn out, it can always be replaced.

If you need to seal the gap between the door leaf and the jamb, the size of the gap can be removed very simply: you need to insert a piece of plasticine wrapped in plastic wrap between them. You will get an impression, which will help to correctly determine the required width of the seal.

Materials (edit)

Foam seal is one of the most popular and simplest. It has a self-adhesive base with which it can be easily attached to the door. The thickness and texture of the tape may vary. Foam rubber is nailed to wooden door structures with wallpaper nails, and if the front door is made of metal, you can fix the foam rubber with special glue designed for working with metal. The advantage of foam rubber has always been its low cost and availability for everyone, however, it is known that its service life ends very quickly: often the foam insulation is barely enough for one season, and in especially unfavorable weather conditions it can wear out much earlier. Of course, you can always purchase it with a margin, but these features should be borne in mind when buying.

Rubber insulation is rightfully called universal, because it is used to eliminate crevice gaps in both interior and entrance doors. You can work with it by insulating doors made of wood, chipboard and any metal. It can be of two types: either on an adhesive basis, or intended for installation in a door profile specially prepared for it. As you know, there are door models that are already produced with inserts designed to install the future seal.

The undoubted advantage of rubber seals is in their wide range: they are produced in the form of bundles of various diameters or tubular products with a cavity inside. Along with the low cost, rubber has excellent sealing properties. When buying, it is very important to pay attention to its expiration date, as rubber loses its elasticity over time.

Silicone is similar to rubber, but it is softer, more flexible, tears quickly and abrades due to constant mechanical stress. In addition, after a while, it acquires unnecessary stickiness, which is also an inconvenience. However, it also has its own obvious advantages: silicone is very light and aesthetic in appearance, and in addition, it is considered an environmentally friendly material. Therefore, it is he who is most often used to insulate doors in kindergartens, schools, hospitals and clinics, and the ease of use always ensures the absence of serious technical problems if it is necessary to replace it.

Felt seal is certainly familiar to everyone. Along with foam rubber, it is the most popular and well-known material that was widely used in Soviet times. Felt is no less popular in use today, and even against the background of modern high-tech materials, it still has its obvious advantages. Now felt is easy to install and affordable when comparing its cost with TPE seals.

The main advantage of felt is its high wear resistance during operation. This natural and robust material is able to withstand harsh weather conditions and will not wear out over a long period of time, especially if the installation is done correctly and in good faith. Due to the fact that real felt is still made from pure wool, its internal structure does not deteriorate over time, unlike synthetic types of seals, and it can serve for years without losing its original qualities. Felt is very dense, it perfectly absorbs sounds, perfectly retains heat and, contrary to popular belief, is a fireproof material precisely because of its density.

Previously, felt was widely used to insulate any doors and even windows. However, it has several features due to which many consumers still prefer more modern types of materials. Since it is still made from natural wool, following centuries-old traditions with the use of sophisticated technologies, its price is often quite high. In addition, the process of installing felt on the door is not easy, and the master should have certain skills in order to do everything as correctly and accurately as possible. First of all, you will need to independently cut felt strips from sheet material, while other types of seals are already sold in finished form and there are cut-in ones that do not require special preparation.

Colors

At the present stage, you can choose not only a window or door for every taste and color, but also a heater for it. The color range of silicone, PVC and rubber seals is not limited: the white seal is ideal for plastic doors of the same color, and the black rubber material will become a reliable protector from cold weather and extraneous sounds if you attach it to the front door. Classic black and white colors have their own specific field of application: it is clear that black seals are better suited for massive doors made of iron or any other metal, while white ones can hide cosmetic defects and gaps in interior doors.

For colored metal-plastic doors, multi-colored seals are provided, which, as already mentioned, can always be purchased from the same manufacturing firms that produce doors. Transparent silicone types are suitable for those door owners who want the material used to be as less noticeable on the surface as possible and at the same time perform its main functions.

Manufacturers

The leading manufacturer of expensive but reliable seals is LLC "Gasket" Is a Russian company specializing in thermoplastic elastomers. The assortment includes not only ready-made seals: at the request of the customer, it is possible to make measurements and provide a product of any non-standard dimensions, taking into account the peculiarities of a particular door structure.

Volzhsky RTI Plant since the Soviet era, it has been producing rubber products on an organosilicon basis. Now this plant produces rubber door heaters of various standard sizes and profiles, intended for general consumption. The quality of rubber is high, such materials serve for a long time, and their price is very reasonable.

LLC PKF "Kazpolimer"- an enterprise located in Kazan and is engaged in the production of all spectrums of PVC and plastic seals. The assortment includes heaters for both entrance and interior doors, as well as materials with which you can eliminate cracks not only in doors, but also in furniture, both new and old.

Firm "Bars-profile" from St. Petersburg has long been engaged in the production of various seals from wear-resistant PVC materials for doors of any type. The company mainly specializes in insulation according to the European model for both doors and windows, producing products of virtually any color and profile, already prepared in advance for different types of doors. This company operates in full compliance with the quality requirements of GOST.

Kazan firm "Polinor" specializes in paints and varnishes and products for construction, but it is she who produces high-quality liquid seal for entrance metal doors of the same name. It is environmentally friendly and easy to use: in order to apply it correctly in the right place, it will be enough to carefully read the instructions.

Which to choose?

Before buying, it does not hurt to test the seal yourself for its quality. To do this, you just need to lightly press on it. If the quality is good, then the material returns to its previous shape in a few seconds, and if it is bad, it will remain in a “squeezed” position or straighten, but already with traces of obvious deformation. It is not recommended to purchase such a seal, and you should not look at the fact that it can be cheap: it will wear out very quickly or tear when it comes into contact with the door structure, unable to withstand constant mechanical stress.

For the front door, as a rule, dense rubber seals are used, having both tubular and rectangular shapes, depending on the size of the slots and the "age" of the door. If we are talking about the metal one-piece structure of the door frame, it can be insulated with a liquid material by carefully spraying it from a cylinder. Magnetic heaters are ideal for steel and iron doors - they will provide the most tight closing, but will make the already weighty structure somewhat heavier. Magnetic heaters, as well as TEP-options will serve for a long time, being fixed on movable pendulum structures.

Outside and street doors can be insulated with felt, of course, by inviting an experienced craftsman for this and taking into account all the necessary costs associated with the material and the process of work itself. Also, magnetic insulation (if we are talking about external metal doors) will be an excellent and less energy-consuming option. It should be borne in mind that felt can be used to insulate door porches, its dimensions, due to the specifics of the material, can be "customized" in the course of work.

In a log house, special attention should be paid to fire safety, therefore, for any wooden door (made of oak or other wood material), a good alternative would be to use a thermally expanding insulation, which, in the event of a fire hazard, will prevent oxygen from entering the room, which can prevent the rapid spread of flame.

As for the interior doors in general (including sliding and compartment doors), in this case, you can use seals of a more aesthetic appearance, made of soft silicone or plastic of the corresponding color. Since we are talking about moving structures, it would be better, in addition to the adhesive base available for the seals, to additionally fix it with glue on wood or chipboard, depending on the material from which the door is made.

By the way, to prevent the accumulation of dust and dirt in the sliding structures of cassette-type doors, a fleecy tape on a self-adhesive base, which is not very popular among door seals, is ideal, which is used to eliminate small gaps in wardrobes, dressers and other furniture.

For a balcony door, a narrow rubber insulation on an adhesive basis is usually used, but if you still want to save money, you can also use foam rubber. If the balcony door is part of a double-glazed window, it will be easy to install any plastic seal on it. If the balcony door is old, wooden, with many slots and gaps, wide felt strips can be fixed along the perimeter of the door, following the dimensions of the gaps, and small gaps can be eliminated using specially cut felt gaskets.

How to insulate the front door with your own hands (10+)

Insulation and sealing of the front door

The front door is often a source of draft. Cold air is blown into the living room through it. In an apartment building, this air comes from the stairwell along with cigarette smoke and other foreign substances. The seal not only protects against cold, but also saves from foreign odors. In suburban housing, sealing is even more relevant, since the front door in this case usually goes directly to the street.

The traditional method of sealing is inconvenient

Usually, special self-adhesive seals are sold for insulation. It is proposed to stick them between the door and the frame in the places of their contact. But this approach proved to be ineffective. The seal installed in this way is very sensitive to door distortions. The slightest misalignment leads to a loss of tightness, since the seal ceases to adhere. Installing such a tape is also not easy. Only if the door is in perfect position can you simply glue the strip. Otherwise, the distance between the door and the frame is different in different places. So you have to put something under the sealing tape to ensure a secure fit.

How to properly insulate the front door

Another approach is reliable. It is shown in the figure.

The seal is not installed between the door and the jamb, but on the jamb so that it fits snugly against the door. In this case, the seal has a large degree of freedom and, accordingly, ensures tightness with a greater deformation of the door. This installation method does not depend on the initial position of the door relative to the frame, since when gluing the seal can be installed exactly in the position that will ensure the sealing.

I use Moment glue for this work. The work is done like this. The door frame in the place where the seal will be glued is lubricated with glue. The sealing strip itself is cut to the required length. Edges are cut at 45 degrees to fit with other strips of tape. The side that will stick is also smeared with glue. The glue is kept for 15 minutes. Then the door closes. The tape is applied to the place smeared with glue so that it fits snugly against the door, and is firmly pressed with your hands for 2 - 3 seconds. Further, for complete drying, the glue is kept for a day.

It is convenient to use a rubber tube as a sealing tape (only the rubber must be stable, not decompose or stain) or a special round-section sealing cord made of foamed polyethylene.

The disadvantages of such insulation

The only drawback of this method is that by accidentally touching the seal, it can be torn off. Oh, okay. Gluing it in place is not difficult at all.

Example of a sealed door

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The functions of the door block include not only protection against the entry of unwanted guests into the house, but also protection against cold or hot air, foreign odors and noise. In the places where the leaf adheres to the door frame, gaps always remain, and seals are used to stop the movement of air through the cracks. Not so long ago, our parents and grandfathers used various auxiliary materials for this - rags, felt, moss and even straw. Today, technological progress has replaced these handicraft methods with more efficient and durable ones.

Purpose of door seals

It is quite simple to understand why seals are installed on the door. Suffice it to recall the refrigerator that is in every home. What if there was no rubber strip on the door? The answer is obvious - it is tantamount to the fact that the door would remain open, the effect of cooling products would have to wait a very long time. Cold air inside constantly mixed with warm air, as a result, the refrigerator would turn into an air conditioner that lowers the temperature in the kitchen. To localize the cooling zone, it is necessary to stop air circulation. This task is performed by the rubber seal.

Similar processes occur with the entrance and interior doors. The door leaf adjoins the frame with a technological gap of 3-4 mm, otherwise the door simply will not open. Through it, air can freely penetrate both in one direction and in the other. If this does not play a special role for internal doorways, then a stream of cold or hot, sultry air will move through the entrance doors all year round. In winter, cold drafts will begin to blow inside the hallway, freezing will increase. In summer, hot air from the street will appear in the house, and at the same time dust and noise.

According to experts, from 25 to 30% of heat is lost through the front door without a seal during the cold season. The solution to all problems is an elastic seal that seals the cracks inside the door block and allows you to control the movement of air.

Air chambers inside the seal increase its thermal insulation properties

Varieties of door seals

For the convenience of selection, seals are classified according to the following criteria:

• by material of manufacture (there are rubber, plastic, silicone, foam and polyurethane);
• for the intended purpose (for entrance doors or interior doors);
• by the method of installation (fixing with glue or in a special groove).

Rubber

Rubber seals are time-tested and are most often used for entrance doors. Rubber vulcanized in a special way withstands not only moisture, but also a wide range of temperature differences (from -60 to +90 o C). Possible installation options:

Silicone

An analogue of a rubber seal, adapted for interior doors. It is characterized by softness in operation and a lower price, since its resistance to mechanical stress is lower. It is used for light doors made of wood and its derivatives - fiberboard, plywood, chipboard, etc.

Silicone seals are mainly installed on interior doors

Foam seals

Foam rubber is the most inexpensive and short-lived type of door seal. Service life - a year, at most two. With intensive use, the material quickly deforms (shrinks and breaks), so that the sealing has to be renewed almost every season. Foam rubber is more suitable for insulating blind window frames. However, the low price allows you to change the seal as often as you like. The disadvantage is the ability of a porous material to absorb moisture with all the ensuing consequences - freezing and deformation of the door junction with the frame.

Foam seal is available in the form of a twisted bundle of various widths

Polyurethane

Polyurethane gaskets are used in sliding doors (compartment, booklet, sliding doors, etc.). Their purpose is to minimize gaps, as well as soften impacts. The design feature is that inside the elastic body there is a filling made of polyurethane foam. The seals have a long service life and are designed for 15–20 years of service (over 300,000 opening cycles). They are also used for plastic windows and doors, as they withstand exposure to UV radiation. The main disadvantage is the high price.

Polyurethane seals are used in structures exposed to solar radiation

Brush

A relatively new product that emerged with the development of sliding doors. The abutment of the canvas to the frame is not always so even that a rubber seal can be properly installed. In these cases, a flexible nylon bristle brush design is used to close misconfigured gaps. Such seals are successfully used for revolving and sliding doors (not only for interior and exterior doors, but also for automobile doors). Especially often they are installed on thresholds - where dust accumulates most. During the movement of the blade, the brushes "rake out" debris and clean the guide track from dirt. Manufacturers claim (and not without reason) that such a seal is effective in combating dust and freezing. Although its sonic permeability is, of course, much higher than that of rubber.

The brush seal is easy to install and slows down the air movement in the lower part of the doorway

Magnetic

Magnetic seals are used predominantly in metal entrance doors where sealing is critical to keeping the home warm. The design of the seal includes a rubber body and a magnet built into it along the entire perimeter. The force of attraction forces the sash tightly against the door frame, thanks to which the smallest gaps are leveled. In each case, it is important to choose the right magnetic seal: a weak attraction will not work effectively enough, and an excessive one will create difficulties when opening the door. The force to open the refrigerator door can be taken as a sample - it is with this force that the magnet must hold the door closed.

The magnetic strip, mounted inside the seal, has an unlimited service life

Sealing a room with a magnetic seal received the highest marks from specialists. Air from the outside, as well as noise and fine dust, practically does not penetrate into the room. Service life - 15 years and more (depending on the quality of the rubber band). During operation, it is necessary to ensure that small metal objects do not fall between the leaf and the door jamb, steel shavings with sharp edges are especially dangerous. The outer rubber gasket must be washed and cleaned of adhering debris at least once a month (the magnet attracts not only metal, but also small electrostatically charged objects).

The bulk of household door seals are unified for self-installation. The only exceptions are magnetic gaskets; it is better to entrust their installation to specialists. Fastening is carried out using glue or a special groove cut through the door block. For household use, self-adhesive tapes are widely used, the surface of which is covered with a moisture-resistant adhesive with a protective film.

When selecting a ready-made factory seal, you must pay attention to the following parameters:

• tape thickness;
• the width of the strip;
• mounting method.

On my own I would like to add. There is an old grandfather's method, which is still relevant today. To determine the thickness of the seal, a piece of soft plasticine (or raw rubber) is wrapped in a plastic bag and clamped into the door in several (at least four) places. It is possible that the compression will be stronger in the area of ​​the hinges, and less near the doorknob. From the print on the plasticine, the maximum and minimum size of the seal is determined, and then the average value is found. For example, at the hinges, the plasticine shrank to 3 mm, and in the opposite corner - to 4 mm. This means that you need to install a tape with a minimum thickness of 3.5 mm.

In normal operation, the gasket is considered to contract no more than 50% in thickness.

As for the width of the tape, everything is simple here. It should not exceed the width of the supporting part of the door jamb - when the door is closed, it should not be visible from the outside.

The fixing method is determined as a result of a visual inspection of the door block. If there is no groove in the frame or canvas for mounting the seal, it means that the fastening is carried out with glue. If a thin (from 3 to 5 mm) groove is selected along the entire perimeter, the door is designed for a groove seal.

Compression of the seal should not exceed half of its thickness

Installation and replacement of a seal for various types of doors

The tool required for self-assembly is simple and can be found in every home:

• pencil or marker;
• tape measure and ruler;
• sharp knife;
• a brush with a long (2-3 cm) bristle.

To install the brush seals, you will additionally need a hacksaw for metal.

The glue is waterproof, best of all - rubber. To degrease and clean the edge of the door, acetone solvents and sandpaper are used.

When working with a solvent, it is necessary to protect the respiratory system from poisonous vapors with a respirator.

If the old seal is being replaced, it is necessary to remove the used tape from the doors and carefully treat the surface with fine emery. Before direct sticking of the tape, the end of the frame (or canvas) is washed and degreased. Small bumps are grinded, and small depressions are putty (pre-filled with glue and dried).

Depending on the type of gasket, there are certain installation nuances. Having familiarized themselves with them, everyone will be able to install thermal insulation tape on their door on their own.

Sealing metal doors

Since a metal door has a flat surface, self-adhesive or simply adhesive seals are most often used. The sequence of actions is as follows:

The main mistake when working with silicone and rubber products is excessive belt tension. It is impossible to tighten the gasket during installation; it must be laid in a free, "relaxed" state.

Video: how to properly glue the seal on the entrance iron door

Installation of a seal in wooden doors

The seal is mounted on a wooden base in two ways - with glue (we discussed it above) and in a groove. The second method is considered more reliable. The procedure for installing the seal in this case is as follows:

When preparing a wooden door for the sealant application, do not over-moisten the material. The glue will lag very quickly from raw wood. If moisture still gets on the canvas or frame, you must wait until the wood is completely dry and only then glue the sealant. To speed up drying, use a building hair dryer.

Installing a seal in a plastic door

Plastic doors are equipped with seals at the manufacturing stage. In domestic conditions, the replacement of a worn-out part is more often relevant. The door has a special ebb (groove) for installing the seal on the glue. Therefore, to replace you need:

Installation of brush seals in sliding doors

Sliding doors are most often equipped with brush seals. Sometimes they are also called anti-thresholds. Due to the design features, the installation of brushes differs from the installation of rubber and silicone gaskets. They are attached at the bottom of the door or (less often) at the side end.

The installation diagram is very simple. If the door has a flat and smooth surface, the brushes are glued onto double-sided tape. If there is any doubt about the strength of the adhesive layer, the fixation can be additionally reinforced with screws. The stages of work on installing a brush seal are as follows:

Some models of brushes are attached using brush holders - special metal or plastic profiles. Most often they are used on doors with large dimensions - in garages, warehouses, etc. In this case, the mounting profile is first installed, and then the brushes themselves are attached to it.

Video: installing a brush seal on the door

If suddenly in the house or apartment there is a feeling of a draft or smells from the street or driveway begin to be felt, then this indicates that the door has ceased to close tightly. You can solve this issue on your own by purchasing door seals for doors.

Entrance doors often frustrate their owners by failing to cope with their main task - keeping the room warm. The doors from the inside can be filled with insulation, but if they do not fit tightly to the door sash, then they are ineffective and play a minimal role in maintaining the internal microclimate.

What are seals for?

Self-adhesive door seal. Setting material

Manufacturers install a special seal on modern metal and plastic doors, which can last from several months to several years, depending on the cost, the more expensive the door, the better the seal. Cheap exterior doors have low-quality plastic seals, which soon become unusable.

It is not difficult to install a self-adhesive door seal for doors on your own - it is important to choose the right thickness of the material and its profile correctly. To do this, you can apply the method that our fathers and grandfathers used: wrap a piece of plasticine in polyethylene, put it in the gap and close the door tightly. After opening the door, you will get the approximate thickness of the future seal with the doorway closed.

It is quite simple to fasten the door seal for doors: before installing the material, it is necessary to degrease the attachment point, then gradually remove the protective film from the sticky side from the material and press tightly against the door fold. Some manufacturers skimp on glue for a sticky surface, and this seal will soon begin to lag behind the door. To correct this situation, you can use a quick-drying glue, such as "Moment" or "Second".

Output

Summing up all of the above, we come to the conclusion that the door seal is the tool that can save a house or apartment from the penetration of alien sounds, smells and drafts from the outside. Moreover, this applies to cheap doors, which are often sold without a seal or on which there is a cheap sealing material that quickly becomes unusable.

Seals are different in workmanship and appearance. Each of them is designed to close door gaps of different widths. Therefore, before you should decide on its profile, so that later you do not have to reinstall it again.

Seals come in different materials: rubber, foam, plastic, and so on. The most common are rubber, as they are more durable, better quality and more reliable. They are easy to install on doors and doorframes, and just as easy to remove. The most important thing to remember: before installing the material, it is necessary to remove debris, dust and degrease the surface where the seal will be glued with solvent or alcohol. Otherwise, it will certainly come off during operation, and you will have to buy a new one.

Experts also advise not to chase color seals, since due to the color pigment added to the material, it loses its quality under the influence of weather conditions.

The second article from the series "Entertaining plumbing". As I promised, I will tell you about the installation of threaded connections. Further more interesting !!!

Dmitry Belkin

Threaded seals for water pipes - choose the best

And since the question of the glue remains open, the tape has more disadvantages than advantages, the thread is terribly expensive and this is also not its only disadvantage, then you have to use flax, which has a decent balance between advantages and disadvantages and outweighs more in the direction of advantages. Moreover! I suggest that novice plumbers should not suffer and choose flax for work. Do not worry! It is modern, reliable and highly honorable. Let me remind you that I myself was worried about this, but a professional plumber on this topic very successfully reassured me.

The principle of thread sealing when using various sealing materials

I would like to "load" readers with a fair amount of information about the principle of sealing threads in water connections. I am sure that many do not even suspect that for each material the principle of compaction is different, that is, completely different from others.

Notice! I am not writing a textbook here, but I am reporting my observations to you. If you think otherwise, please comment. Registration is unnecessary for this.

Tape sealing principle

We wind the tape on the thread. We do it tightly. The denser the better. But if you pull the tape too tight, it stretches (another drawback). Since the tape itself is soft and, it seems to me that when the thread is twisted, it also melts, the tape should be wound a lot, but not too much. Unfortunately, when we start to twist our parts, the sharp ends of the threads cut the ribbon into rather thin noodles. Care must be taken to ensure that all the noodles remain in the thread grooves and seal them properly. No lubrication is needed on the tape. It is slippery in itself, and when screwing in, I cannot usually determine how well (tightly or not) the thread connects, that is, the connection is twisted as if there is no seal, or there is too little of it. This circumstance also does not at all contribute to my sympathy for the tape.

Attention!

The principle described above is perhaps not the only one and not the most correct one possible. Check out the comments. There is a tape lover's opinion. The reader tells us how to use it correctly and economically.

Thread sealing principle

When compaction with thread, the principle of use is fundamentally different from other materials. We don't wrap it in grooves. It is wound across the threads. The instructions for the thread say so - "Make sure that the thread does not fall into the grooves." The thread is thin, very strong, and covered in a material that makes it look a bit like a ribbon. I think it's polystyrene or something. When twisting the parts, the thread does not break with the thread (it should not break), since it is very thin and, as it were, lubricated. Moreover, the fact that the thread lies across the grooves prevents it from unwinding and, which is very important, from twisting in the thread. What do I mean by this? The fact that if the thread lies in the grooves, then when we wind anything on our pipe, say a coupling, the thread will twist along the pipe thread together with the coupling and will not seal the thread, but leave from under it. As a result, we will get a not very reliable connection, since it is quite possible that only one or two threads of the thread will be sealed. And the rest of the thread will simply be unscrewed from the thread as the coupling is screwed on.

Of course, winding the thread across the threads is a kind of breakthrough. But in the same way, it imposes a certain duty on the plumber to ensure that the winding is very uniform. If the thread often falls on the thread (on the previous turns), it will give a too thick seal, which will either be cut during winding, or crumpled, and then the result is generally undefined. It can definitely be said that the ability to wind the thread across the grooves is the MAIN difference between the thread and other sealing options.

Adhesive thread seal

I believe that there are practically no flaws in it. There is only one question. Are there such adhesives in reality, and if there is, what is the technology of their use. It seems to me very likely that these can be hot melt adhesives, that is, they soften at a certain temperature. Again, glued thread connections are fantastic, since I have never seen such glues. Well, in general, there are questions about the environmental friendliness of such an adhesive.

No fiction!

For first-hand information from professionals who have dealt with sealants and adhesives, see the comments.

Linen seal.

When sealing with linen, we twist a thread of the required thickness and wind it into the thread grooves. Of course, linen can twist along the thread according to the process I described when I talked about the thread. In order to prevent this from happening, we need to lubricate the surface of the flax so that the coupling (for example) is screwed onto our thread more tightly (tighter). Then the friction between the flax and the pipe will be greater than the friction between the flax and the coupling. This will allow the sleeve to firmly seal the flange into the thread grooves. It is this approach that ensures the primacy of flax when used by professional plumbers. But you need to choose a good and correct material for lubrication.

My personal "grip"

You know, when I was learning how to connect water pipes, I could not find a normal printed manual. He acted exclusively by "typing". It was hard but not too hard. I very quickly found a way to wind flax on a pipe, which I still use today. It is likely that it is in common use, because it lies on the surface. This is how I do it.

• First, I twist a thread from flax, which is the same thickness as the thread. There is no guide here. Purely by eye. Obviously, the thread doesn't have to fill the entire thread. Then there will be no room for the counterpart of the thread on the part that we will wind up.
• Then I wind the flax onto the pipe, but not from the end, but on the contrary, from the beginning of the thread to the end of the pipe. With the first turn, I try to firmly fix the tip of the flax thread on the very first thread. But after fixing and tightening the first loop well, I begin to wind the remaining thread. I screw it in the same direction in which the coupling will be screwed onto the pipe. It is quite obvious that with this method of wrapping, in one place there will be a transition of the flax thread through the thread. But it will be only one for each revolution and does not interfere. You just need to be very careful so that the winding is more or less accurate and there are not very many jumps over the thread. Otherwise, the clutch can cut the flax when screwing it in, jam it and push all the flax out. In practice, it is not easy to wind up this way. It takes some practice and no rush.

That's all. Then you need to cut off the excess flax, lubricate it and start winding the sleeve.

Note!

I got around the breakthrough that was introduced by the thread. I also have flax jumps over the thread. And in the amount of exactly one per turnover. Thus, the thread does not have a single advantage that it (the thread) can be proud of.

Flax grease to seal the threaded connection

Oil paint

But about the lubricant, I saw references in books. In the books of the Soviet era, it was proposed to seal (lubricate) flax with oil paint. And old plumbers use this method successfully. Oil paint, of course, is something. She first lubricates, and then glues the joint almost tightly. I ran into one like this. I took apart one heating and cursed everything in the world. I had to heat almost every connection almost to red. Only then could I unleash it. Note that not everywhere you can just wield a hairdryer or a burner like that. There are all sorts of factors, such as wallpaper on the walls, that you don't want to burn. But you have to.

Silicone sealant

Personally, after I encountered oil paint, I realized that I would not use it. I decided to use silicone sealant. I personally used it myself in my home and in heating and plumbing. And I liked it. The sealant lubricates flax very well. After winding the coupling (for example), a certain amount of sealant is squeezed out and it can be neatly and even beautifully wrapped around the joint (more precisely, along the side formed by the connected parts). And finally, the sealant has the ability to dry, which is also very, very pleasant.

After I used this sealant, I read the warning that it is just silicone sealant that cannot be used in threaded connections. That the sealant is an acid that corrodes the threads completely.

I am glad to inform you. It's a bullshit! As already mentioned in the announcement of the cycle, I changed the plumbing wiring, assembled on silicone 10 years ago. When examining the threads in a magnifying glass, I did not find any (!!!) traces of the action of the sealant on the threads. Moreover, the thread under the sealant retained its virgin shine! Another thing is that it was not easy to tear off the flax with sealant from the thread! But even then I very quickly found a way. I cleaned the threads with a heavy metal brush. As I said, the threads under the sealant loosened up well and stayed pristine, which allowed me to reuse many of the non-ferrous parts.

The next two pictures illustrate the above, namely that the silicone sealant did not spoil the thread, but, on the contrary, made it better. Even the section of the pipe that was exposed to air was worse preserved than the thread under the sealant (in the case of a galvanized pipe).

Modern materials for compaction (lubrication) of flax

Remember I told you about my conversation with a professional? So it was he who told and showed me a tube of special ointment for sealing threaded connections. I bought one and tried it out. I'll be honest. This is something amazing. The effect is amazing. Now I have forgotten about silicone sealant forever and have no idea how I used to live and work.