Sealing a Converted Garage

The First Thing to Do, and Often the Only Thing

If a converted garage is draughty, dusty, too hot or too cold, seal it before spending on anything else. It is inexpensive, it is quick, and it addresses the largest share of the discomfort.

The Four Gaps

The bottom. A rubber or vinyl strip in a channel along the base of the door, compressed against the slab. It hardens, cracks and flattens over years, and it is the biggest single gap on most doors.

The floor itself. Where a slab has settled or cracked, no bottom seal can bridge the drop. A threshold bonded to the floor gives the seal something level to meet.

The sides and top. Stripping fixed to the jamb down each side and along the header. Frequently missing entirely on older garages, painted solid, or torn off during a repaint.

The panel joints. Rubber between the sections that flexes as the door articulates. Stand inside with the door closed and the light off, and horizontal lines of daylight across the door are cracked joint seals.

Why This Matters More in a Converted Room

In a garage used for storage, a draught is irrelevant. In a room you sit in, it is the difference between usable and not.

It also matters for dust and pests. A gym with a gap under the door gets grit blown across the floor every windy day, and mice need very little space to get in.

And it matters for the air conditioning. A mini-split in a room with an open perimeter is conditioning the driveway.

The Test You Can Do Now

Close the door, go inside, turn off the light and let your eyes adjust. Any daylight you can see is a gap. Along the bottom, down the sides, across the top, and horizontally between panels.

That is the whole survey, and it tells you exactly what needs doing.

What We Fit

Bottom seals matched to the profile of your channel, thresholds where the floor demands it, jamb and header stripping, and joint seals. We also check the door is closing square, because a door running out of true will not meet its side stripping evenly however new the rubber is.

Call Dineoutsomalia at (562) 635-1330.