Garage door repair
Gap between the garage door and the side frame?
A gap down the side is usually worn or missing stop molding and weatherstrip, and sometimes a track that has shifted. Replacing worn vinyl seal is a fair DIY, but a moved track is not.
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Is this what you're seeing?
You see a strip of daylight down one or both sides when the door is closed.
You feel a draft, or snow and leaves blow in along the edge.
The vinyl seal on the jamb is cracked, flat or missing in places.
The door rubs on one side and not the other.
Mice or bugs seem to be coming in along the door.
What's going on
The wood stop molding that lines the jamb on each side is there to give the door something to close against, and vinyl or rubber jamb seal fills the space between the door and that molding. Sun, freeze and thaw, and the door brushing past it every time, wear the vinyl out. After some years the seal flattens, cracks or comes loose.
Wood moves too. Jamb wood in our dry climate shrinks, nails back out, and the molding shifts, which opens a wider gap. A gap that is the same width the whole way up is usually the seal or molding. A gap that gets wider toward the top or bottom usually points to a track that has shifted or a door that is out of plumb. Often the cause is that the door closes crooked or the track brackets have loosened.
Draft control matters for more than comfort. A garage that shares a wall with the house leaks conditioned air through the gaps, and daylight along the side is usually a place a mouse can squeeze through. Thin gaps are a nuisance. Wide ones that vary are a mechanical issue, and putting more seal on them just hides the movement.
What to do right now
Do
Check the gap with the door closed and compare left to right, and top to bottom.
Look at the vinyl seal and wood molding for cracks, rot or missing nails.
If the seal is just worn, you can replace it by pulling and reinstalling the vinyl on the wood stop.
Photograph a gap that varies in width so we can see it.
Don't
Do not shim or bend the track to close the gap. The track is part of the door balance.
Do not caulk shut the door edge, it will glue the door to the jamb.
Do not stuff foam into a gap where the door has to close.
Do not ignore a gap that is widening, it can mean the track is moving.
How we fix it
This is garage door repair. We look at whether the gap is a worn seal, a shifted stop molding or a track that has moved, then replace the vinyl, reset the molding and align the track as needed so the door closes with even contact all around.
Repair or replace?
Seals, stops and molding are a repair, never a reason to replace the door. If the door itself has bowed or the sections have warped enough that no seal will close the gap, it is worth talking about a replacement door.
Where a track has worked loose, that is a track repair first.
Related questions
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Parts mentioned
Close the gap on your door
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