By Miranda Boutelle
I Like the Style of My Front Door, but It Is Drafty. What’s the Best Way To Fix It?
The front door of your home has a lot of meaning. It sets the stage for the home and is the first impression for your guests. Beyond curb appeal, the front door is a good place to look for energy savings.
Efficient exterior doors seal tightly and don’t allow air to pass through. Limiting this air- flow can result in lower heating and cooling costs. Throughout the years, the construction of exterior doors has improved to increase efficiency. If your door is older, it likely is not insulated.
2 strategies address an inefficient front door: Buy new or work with what you have.
If you want to replace your front door for aesthetic purposes, make it more functional or improve its efficiency, con- sider upgrading to an Energy Star-certified model. Energy Star certification ensures the door you buy meets efficiency criteria for your climate. It also means the National Fenestration Rating Council independently tested and verified the door.
Certification requires any windows in the door to be double or triple pane to reduce heat flow, which results in a more efficient home. While windows in doors offer aesthetics, more glass means less efficiency. Energy Star provides different criteria based on the door’s amount of glass. The bigger the windows in a door, the lower the efficiency. The most efficient doors have no glass or windows in them.
U-factor is the primary rating for efficiency on doors and windows. U-factor is the inverse of R-value—the rat- ing used for insulation. Unlike R-value where higher is better, the lower the U-factor, the more efficient the door. Check the U-factor on Energy Star doors at your local hardware store or online to help choose the most efficient door in your preferred style.
Energy Star-certified doors are made of the most efficient materials, such as fiberglass, wood cladding, and steel with polyurethane foam core. They are built to fit snugly into their frames, reducing drafts and airflow.
When it comes to doors, you don’t have to sacrifice style for efficiency. Many designs are available to match the architecture, whether your home is historical or modern.
When completely replacing a door and the frame, use expanding foam or caulk to fill the space between the door jamb and structural framing. Energy Star doors have specific installation instructions to ensure the desired efficiency.
If a new door isn’t in the budget, less expensive options can still reduce air leakage and improve your home’s efficiency.
All of that coming and going throughout the years can wear out weatherstripping. If you can see daylight around the edges of the door or underneath it, it’s time to stop those leaks.
Weatherstripping around the door jamb can be adjusted to make a snug seal or replaced if it’s too far gone. Apply one continuous strip along each side, and make sure it meets tightly at the corners.
There are many different types of weatherstripping on the market, so shop around for what’s right for you. Don’t forget the door sweep at the bot- tom of the door.
Adding a storm door can also help and is less expensive than replacing the door. Most storm doors have options for using a screen or glass. Swap- ping the screen for the glass insert can help save energy in both the winter and summer if you use air conditioning. Consider a storm door that’s easy to switch between glass and screen to maximize the benefits.
Replacing or improving your front door will help you save without compromising the aesthetics of your home.