Weather stripping and astragal serve as garage door seals. These seals are found on all of the door’s edges. Weather seal is used to prevent insects and animals from entering the garage. The seals also work keeping out cold air and moisture, which otherwise would come through the cracks around the garage door. A simple task like weatherproofing can greatly reduce your energy bill and help your building stay warmer throughout the colder months.
PVC stop molding is attached to the door’s wood trim along the top and the sides of the garage door. Upon closure of the garage door, the sections are designed with the intent of being completely flush against the garage frame, but usually, that is not the reality. As you complete the installation of PVC stop molding, the seal will be tightly against the outside of the door. The results are the sealing of the gap between the frame and the garage door.
There is more than one kind of seal, including the reverse angle jamb seal. This kind of seal has a clip portion that attaches to a segment of angle iron. In this case, the flap works like the PVC stop molding, and forms closure to the gap between the garage door and its frame. In addition, there are some kinds of seals that install at the top of the garage door, thus resulting in the flap top seal closing against the garage’s frame.
Another beneficial approach is the use of garage door seal retainers. These retainers are installed around the garage door’s top and sides. There are multiple options, such as brush seal, rubber seal and vinyl seal, that will slide into the garage door seal retainers. Using the retainer is advantageous over one-piece weather seals as they are easier to change than changing the entire seal.
Multiple kinds of seals are at the bottom of garage doors. Nailed onto the garage door bottom in order to make a tight fit with the garage floor is bottom astragal. There are bottom seals that are much more complicated and intricate in design, such as hte twin contact bottom seal. These bottom seal retainers actually serve the same purpose as top or side retainers. They are available in a variety of dimensions and shapes. Based on the shapes of the bottom retainer slots, you can slip rubber or vinyl inserts that have bead-shaped or T-shaped ends onto the retainer itself. Bubble seal then slides into the garage door retainer.
On loading docks, dock leveler seals are used to close off the gap between the dock sides and platform.
