Do-it-yourself insulation of the entrance and balcony doors

Drafts, cold outside, a light breeze of icy air - you must admit, this does not add coziness and comfort to the house. And it is absolutely natural that every owner of their own square meters wants to insulate themselves, protect themselves from the hated cold. Experts believe that this desire can be realized by taking some measures to insulate doors - entrance and balcony.

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How to insulate front doors

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It is believed that there are only two ways to insulate the front door efficiently and effectively. Moreover, the first of them is suitable only for metal doors, but the second will be the best choice for owners of wooden entrance doors.

How to insulate metal doors

They necessarily have an empty space inside - a kind of cavity between two sheets of metal, which must be used to achieve the goal of insulation. The essence of the "event": fill the void with insulation - it can be anything, but mineral wool or polystyrene is most often used. To do this, follow the following steps:

1. Disassembling a metal door is simple: just remove one of the two metal sheets.
2. We lay wooden blocks / slats along the perimeter of the void. Do not forget that with such a wooden "seal" it is necessary to cover not only the perimeter, but absolutely all the existing lintels of the metal door leaf.
3. All the resulting space is filled with the selected insulation.

1. To provide improved thermal insulation, it is desirable to fill the metal stiffeners with mounting foam.

1. The resulting “sandwich” must be sewn up with sheet or lath material - for example, a fiberboard sheet cut to size is perfect for this. Lay a sheet of fiberboard on the floor, transfer the dimensions of the front door to the canvas, make markings and cut off the excess. Important: do not forget to mark and cut out places for the lock and eyelet on the fiberboard sheet. First, drill a hole for the saw blade from the jigsaw, and then use the jigsaw to go over the marking of the hole.

That's all - it remains only to put the removed metal door leaf in place and you can expect the temperature in the room to rise by several degrees.

Among the shortcomings of this method of warming metal entrance doors, it is worth highlighting the existence of "bridges" of cold, through which both drafts and low air temperatures penetrate into the room. And the “bridges” of cold include the metal elements of the door, which simultaneously “contact” both the street and the interior space - door handles, locks, awnings.

A video instruction on the insulation of metal entrance doors is presented below:

Insulation of wooden entrance doors

The wooden front door should be upholstered with insulation and leatherette. What should be done:

1. The door leaf on one or both sides (this is optimal) must be covered with a thin insulation - it is glued to the surface. Thin and heat-reflecting materials are used as insulation - forget about the old wadded blankets that insulated the front doors in the last century.

1. For decorative purposes, the doors are covered with dermantine or genuine leather - it all depends on the desire and capabilities of everyone.

note: these two ways of insulating the front door from various materials will help increase the temperature in the room by several degrees - and the result will be noticeable almost immediately. But neither modern insulation in a metal door, nor heat-reflecting material in a wooden door protect the house / apartment from drafts.

Fighting drafts

To get rid of drafts, two different methods can be applied. The first of them will not require any specific knowledge or special tools, but in the second case, you will have to carry out quite painstaking work on disassembling / assembling the door frame.

Tight fit of the leaf to the door frame

To ensure a snug fit of the door leaf to the frame, you just need to purchase special insulation strips. They come in two types: foam and rubber. Immediately make a reservation that it is better to give preference to a rubber seal - it solves the problem of eliminating drafts optimally.

Note:both rubber and foam seals are sold with an adhesive side - no need to prepare / cook some kind of adhesive.

The technology for installing seals is simple:

1. Remove dust and dirt from the place where the canvas adjoins the box, lay and fix the seal.
2. Do the same with the door leaf - by gluing a seal on it, an even better fit will be provided.

note:a complete match of the seals is necessary - the one that is glued to the canvas should fit snugly against the rubber / foam rubber “pads” located in the door frame.

Insulate the door frame

This method of getting rid of drafts is more complicated than the previous one. But you should not be afraid - you do not need to do anything of paramount importance. You just need to disassemble the old door frame - because of it, as a rule, the old / dried insulation will immediately fall down. It must be completely removed, and the resulting space filled with new insulation. Everything - it remains only to install the disassembled parts of the front door complex in place.

Note:if an old door door is installed in the apartment / house, then parsing the box and insulating it must be done. Otherwise, even the use of high-quality insulation on the door leaf will not help get rid of drafts.

The listed methods of warming the entrance doors are very effective. But experts say that the best way to protect the room from drafts and cold air will be to install a second door. It is absolutely easy to do - even a novice amateur builder can handle it. Just need to consider a few rules:

1. An interior design can be used as a second door.
2. We'll have to sacrifice a few centimeters of the hallway.
3. When installing the second door, a low threshold is necessarily formed - this will help to “cut off” the cold air.

On sale there are door structures with two canvases at once - this will be the best option, but in this case you will have to carry out a complete replacement of the front door. To do this, you will need to invite a specialist if there is no relevant experience.

To learn how to put a second front door, and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this draft protection method, watch the following video review:

Balcony door insulation

Now a rarity is a wooden balcony block. The popularity, practicality and low cost of plastic structures has long led to the complete replacement of wooden blocks. But even with the high quality of a balcony door made of modern materials, incidents happen - for example, the canvas lets in drafts and cold air. What to do in this case?

Firstly, it is necessary to ensure complete isolation of the space under the door - unfortunately, when installing a balcony block, craftsmen often “save” and do not fill the void under the bottom bar with mounting foam. To fix this, you just need to do the work for the master installers.

Note:check for the presence of such voids the entire balcony structure around the perimeter. For more reliable insulation, you can fill the spaces with polystyrene foam and only then fill it with mounting foam.

Secondly, if the balcony door was installed a long time ago, then perhaps it just sagged - this happens during long-term operation. And in this case, you only need to adjust the door - for this, specialists are usually called, but you can handle it on your own. To carry out the work you will need a hex key in the shape of the letter G.

The whole process takes place as follows:

Note:if it is not possible to independently carry out work on adjusting the balcony door, then invite a specialist - excessive diligence and an improperly conducted process may lead to the need for a complete replacement of the balcony block.

How to adjust the balcony door with your own hands? We present a video instruction for adjusting door hinges:

How to insulate a wooden balcony door

If a wooden balcony door is still installed in the apartment, then it will have to be insulated every winter. You can use the advice on warming a wooden front door and upholster the balcony block with insulation and dermantine. But, you see, this method is not very acceptable in this case - the appearance of the balcony block will be hopelessly damaged.

Very often, drafts are formed due to gaps between the door to the balcony and the threshold - they will have to be repaired. This process is very simple - you can glue the door leaf from the side of the street with foam rubber or rubber, and if the use of the balcony is excluded in winter, then it will be easier and more efficient to use mounting foam. True, it is worth knowing - in the spring it will take a long time and carefully to clean the surfaces of this material.