In the past few weeks, our lives have been flooded with images of devastation and damage caused by Hurricane Ian. Everyone in Ohio is thankful we don’t experience hurricanes up in the Midwest. 

Most of our homes and garages couldn’t stand up to the strong winds, rain, and flood water that a hurricane can bring, and luckily they don’t have to. But about the severe weather, we do experience it in Ohio. 

Even though we don’t experience hurricanes we still get strong storms with excessive wind, rain, flooding, and even tornadoes. All of which can still wreak havoc on your home and garage if you are not ready. 

Your garage door is one of your home’s biggest lines of defense. For this reason, it should be strong enough and equipped to withstand extreme elements. How do we do this?

Weather sealing your garage door

It’s important to weather-seal your garage to protect your home from damaging elements like fierce rain, snow, hail, and wind. If water enters your garage, it could freeze, creating ice and water damage that will ruin your floor and potentially seep into your living spaces.

Because it’s vital that your garage door work and seals appropriately, you may want a professional overhead garage door company in Ohio to handle the job.

Here are four ways we can weather-seal your garage door.

Overhead Garage Door Bottom Seal

The bottom seal is the most common type of weather sealing on a garage door. It is a long strip of rubber or vinyl that you see attached to the bottom of your garage door. This weather-strip creates a seal between your garage door and the ground. The objective is to keep water, debris, and pests out of your garage. This seal also helps in insulating your garage door. 

When this seal is not intact or damaged you may get a draft in your garage and see a change in the temperature of your home. You could also get excess water entering your garage and home in the event of heavy rain, snow, or storms.

Garage Door Threshold Seal

A threshold seal is similar to the bottom seal on a garage door, but it is attached to the garage floor rather than the door. Thresholds can be used alone or in conjunction with a door seal. Thresholds often keep out surface water when a driveway slopes down toward a garage. They can also help fill a large gap below a door.

Garage Door Stop Weather-stripping

In addition to sealing the bottom of your garage door, you want to ensure the edges around your garage door are sealed as well. Wind and rain seep in through any crack aligned on the edge of your overhead door.

To prevent this, garage doors usually have rubber or vinyl weather-stripping installed onto the wood door stop molding that is attached to the door jamb and nearly touches the front face of the door.
Install new weather-stripping onto your door stops if your garage door doesn’t have it or if it has old, worn stripping that no longer seals against the door. 

Garage Door Panel Weather-stripping

If you really want to be serious about your garage door weather sealing and insulating you can opt for panel weather-stripping. This is designed to seal the gaps between individual garage door panels. This can be particularly helpful on older wood doors with panels that have flat edges. 

Overhead Garage Door Weather Sealing Professionals in Ohio

Let Hurricane Ian be your reminder of how strong the natural elements can be. What can you do today to ensure your home will be safe in the event of a natural disaster or severe storms? Check out your garage door weather sealing. If you see any concerns, or maybe there isn’t any sealing in sight, give our team at Springfield Overhead Door a call!