Weatherstripping, Drafts and Dust in Phoenix

Heat and dust coming in around the door

Weatherstripping, the door sweep and the threshold are what seal a door. The weatherstripping is the flexible strip around the frame. The sweep is the strip along the bottom of the door. The threshold is the sill it closes against. All three wear out in Phoenix sun, and once they're flat or cracked, hot air and dust come in around the edges and the air conditioner works harder to make up for it.

A quick check: close the door on a sheet of paper. If the paper slides out easily, the seal isn't touching at that spot. Daylight showing around the door is the same thing.

Replacing weatherstripping and a sweep is quick. Most frames have a kerf, a slot the strip presses into, and the new strip goes in the same slot. A threshold that's worn or loose gets replaced or adjusted, since many have height screws under the cap.

Water under the door after a storm

Water on the floor inside the front door after a monsoon gets in through a worn sweep, a loose threshold, or a gap at the bottom corner of the frame where the caulk has failed. Most of those are small fixes. If the wood at the bottom of the frame has gone soft, it needs repair before the next storm. Soft wood keeps soaking up water and rotting further, and it takes the threshold with it.

Windows

Older aluminum sliding windows have a fuzzy strip, called pile, around the sliding panel, and it flattens and sheds over the years until there's a gap you can feel with your hand. New pile strip slides into the same channel. The caulk around the window inside and out cracks in the sun and gets recaulked. Weep holes, the small slots along the bottom of the outside frame, let rainwater out, and when they clog with dust and paint, water backs up into the house in a monsoon. Clearing them is a two-minute job that saves a wet carpet.

Outlets and the gaps you can't see

Outlets and switches on outside walls sit in a hole in the wall, and the hot air comes straight through them. Foam gaskets go behind the cover plates and stop it. Under the kitchen and bathroom sinks, the pipes come through the wall with a gap around them that dust and bugs use. Those get foamed or caulked. Gaps under doors to the garage get a sweep and a threshold seal, since the garage is hot and dusty and shares its air with the house.

If the dust problem is from the air system itself, dust blowing out of the vents or a filter that's black a week after you changed it, that's the ductwork, and we can help with that too.

Problems we fix on this page

• Draft around the window
• Dust coming in around the window
• Water coming in at the window in a monsoon
• Window weep holes clogged
• Caulk around the window cracked inside
• Drafts around doors
• Drafts around windows
• Cold or hot air from outlets on outside walls
• Gap around pipes under sinks
• Light around the front door
• Want weatherstripping replaced
• Want door sweeps installed
• Want outlet gaskets on outside walls
• Burning dust smell from the heater
• Dust coming in under the doors
• AC filter clogs fast after a dust storm
• Dust blowing out of the vents

How it starts

Send a photo of the door from outside and one of the bottom edge and threshold. Tell us what's wrong: light around the edges or water. Fixed price up front, no surprises on the bill. Levi is on the job.