Garage Door Weather Stripping
Weather stripping is the flexible strip fixed to the door jambs and the header, sealing the sides and top of the opening where the bottom seal handles the floor. In Florida it is fighting driving rain, insects and heat, and it fails from ultraviolet exposure rather than from use. Replacement is usually done alongside the bottom seal as part of a tune-up from $85.
Covered by Garage Door Tune-Up & Maintenance · from $85
The stripping is normally a vinyl or rubber flap on a wooden or PVC stop moulding, positioned so the closed door presses lightly against it the whole way round. That light contact is the seal.
Because it fails from sunlight rather than movement, it goes at different rates on different sides of the same door. The side that takes the afternoon sun hardens and cracks years before the shaded side, which is why you often see one good edge and one bad one on the same opening.
The check is the same as the bottom seal. Close the door, stand inside in daylight, and look along both sides and the top. Light means a gap, and a gap means water and insects.
How to tell this part has failed
- Daylight along the sides or the top of a closed door
- Rain driving in at the edges during an afternoon storm
- The vinyl is hard, chalky, cracked or split
- The strip has pulled away from the moulding or is hanging loose
- Insects and leaves getting in around the frame
- Wind noise around the door in a storm
Why it fails in Florida
Ultraviolet exposure is the whole story here. Florida sun degrades vinyl and rubber steadily, and the material goes chalky, then stiff, then cracked.
Heat expansion loosens the fixings. The moulding and the strip expand and contract daily, which works nails and staples out of the wood over a few seasons.
Moisture in the wooden stop moulding behind it. If the timber is soft or rotting, new stripping fixed to it will not hold, and the moulding needs doing first.
Can you do this yourself
Partly, with limits
Replacing just the flexible strip on sound moulding is a reasonable homeowner job with a pry bar, a hammer and a tape measure. It stops being one if the wooden stop moulding behind it is soft, rotten or has been nailed through repeatedly, because then the job is carpentry and the new seal will only hold as well as what it is fixed to. Check the wood with a screwdriver before you buy anything.
Starting prices for a standard single door. Your final price depends on the door, the model, the wind rating a replacement needs and what we find. You get a written quote before any work starts.
Have a technician bring this part
Leave your details and we call you back to confirm the part, the price and a time. The technician arrives with it on the truck.
Garage Door Weather Stripping
Not sold separately. Price shown is fitted, by a technician who brings the part.
(561) 897-9930Frequently Asked Questions
Does weather stripping help with the heat?
It helps, and it is not the main lever. Sealing the gaps stops the hot air exchange around the edges, which is worth having, especially if the garage is attached and shares a wall with a room you cool. The far bigger factor is whether the door itself is insulated, and no amount of edge sealing turns an uninsulated door into an insulated one.
The seal looks fine but rain still gets in. What else could it be?
Usually the door is not sitting square against the stop, so the seal is touching on one side and standing off on the other. That is an alignment issue rather than a seal issue, and replacing the rubber will not fix it. It can also be the stop moulding itself having moved, or water tracking down the wall above the header and coming in behind the frame.
Should the stripping touch the door hard?
Light contact all the way round is correct. Set too tight it drags on every cycle, wears through early and makes the opener work harder, and on a windy day it can be enough to make the safety reverse trip. Set too loose it seals nothing. That balance is most of the skill in fitting it.
