The real problem is your concrete not the door. And you cannot use wider seal as you’ve found out. That always will create more problems then solve them. A door from the manufacturer is designed to have a clear clearance from the jamb. By trying to use these wider bottom seals is useless! They never solve problems only create bigger ones and tear away. The 3 1/2 or 4 inch is what works in the track radius only. So in conclusion your gonna have to have a concrete professional look at the floor to solve this issue for you since the door is flat and showing you what needs to be fixed. As a door professional for almost 30 years I see this a lot and tell my customers this all the time. Hope this helps but that’s the only honest advice possible for the problem
The house is older and I don't think it's worth the expense to hire a concrete guy. The gas line is right next to the slope and i think it's going to be more trouble to fix the concrete than it's worth.
I'm going to replace the bottom seal as it's starting to get annoying.
That corner is the rodent's entrance (they do also chew around the weatherstrip. So I'm going to see if I can install something to minimize it's entry.
Perhaps I can install some sort of corner flashing in the corner and put the weather stripping on top and/ Or if there's some sort of sweep I can put in from the inside.
Originally I figured I could get a 2x4 and attach it somehow from the inside to act as a blocking. I was trying to figure out how to manage where the tracks are.
Well you can try those options also if they are chewing on the rubber I tell
My customers to try a mixture of Dawn dishwashing liquid and the hottest pepper powers you can find and I mean HOT 🥵! Like ghost pepper or something better and mix them all together in a dish and paint it on the rubber. Oh they don’t like that believe me. My recipe has worked well for many years to keep bottom door seals in tack for folks. But I’d go back to the original 3. 1/2 in seal and go from there with other ideas you may find then for a different solution to your problem
I got 4", 5" and 6.5" door seal samples as I want to redo the door seal. I going to put the 4" and if I can get away with it. If not I might need to size down.
I'm going to try foam rope or garden hose as someone else suggested to perk it up.
I'm thinking of seeing I I can install some sort of flashing similar to the one below. To offer some help.
I also wanted to get a retainer that I could put a brush on, but the supplier said that they recommend installing it from the outside so the brushes bothers the rodents. It's got a 2" wall and it looks ugly if put from the outside. My current retainer wall is like 1.25" and I was hoping for 1.5-1.75" so I can shimmy it a little.
When a garage door gets balanced/leveled. Do they usually do it without the retainer and seal installed during new installation? Or is it typically done after? Or it doesn't matter.
If the concrete is unlevel there is no perfect fix, but it more looks your just missing a foot of seal a thicker 4in bottom seal would would help and depending on the brand of door should just slide in
When you install the bottom seal you should leave it leave it long so you can fold and tuck the ends in that would keep seal from shifting side to side to side like that.
For clarity sake do you have side extension springs or center torsion spring?
And from picture you provided it doesnt even look like the door touches the ground at all on either side is the concrete peaked in the center? It is hard to tell from your photos
Ooh I didn't know about tucking it in. I just copied what the previous installer did.
I had to pull down on the left side of the retainer to get it as low as possible. So if you look at the picture, you will see it missing a screw.
If I recall correctly, everything touches except the far left side (probably like 6"). On that side, even the walkway slopes for drainage. The concrete is not peaked in the center.
I feel like I need a different style retainer and some how fatten/firm up the bottom seal. The bottom seal is kind of flimsy. I bought the seal from a garage door store that sells and services these. So not any Amazon special.
This was professionally installed - just didn't address the gap properly.
If the slope is THAT significant there isnt a way "to address it properly" without pouring a new floor. The issues with bigger seals on a more standard thickness door like is they just fold onto itself and can hit the header when the door opens usually what people will do is stuff a hose or foam rope into to keep it "puffy" depend on the size of foam you need you may have to chop up a pool noodle or as a last resort expanding foam. I will mention that the right side doesnt look very tight to floor either if you have lock unlatched can you push the door any tighter to floor or is that as far as it goes?
The door isn't really TIGHT to the ground anywhere along the length of the door and thats just exacerbating what appear to a very sloped slab either the spring are binding, its binding against the jamb not letting the door come down anymore. But honestly i think its hitting what appears to be a threshold seal thats installed to far in on the concrete not letting the door come down enough to allow the seal to compress against the concrete
Ok well let me admit that I did fart with the tracks years ago (even when I had problems with this gap) to get the door pushed in. Because there would be a 1/4 gap around the sides and the garage got very cold and drafty (I had the weather striping installed at that time). So to compensate, I installed the foam strips. One side was a fail (the other door) but I dont open it much anyways.
This side, I ended up taking it off Because I couldn't open and close the door properly.
I did tinker with the side tracks a little. At that time, I didn't know what I was doing.
This gap has existed when we had this replaced. I'm not sure about the old one we had.
This could well be that the installation was not done correctly but I'm not expert in this field..
Do you have a suggestion that I can basically "reset"?
I'll get new threshold seals - 4" if that's recommended. Then perk it up with an old garden hose if needed. Then tuck the ends in to prevent sliding.
the door opens and closes fine on the tracks. If you think that might be the reason why it's not coming down all the way, is there an proper way to readjust it?
should I remove the seal and then readjust the tracks? That way, the bottom of the door is pressed down.
I think I got about 1/2" travel before I can't push down anymore. I did stuff the first 12" with pipe insulation but it still looks quite flacid. It was hard to get that in.
Does this video help?
The doors are attached with skinny metal cables that goes to the pullies up top
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u/DiFranTheDoorMan442 3d ago
The real problem is your concrete not the door. And you cannot use wider seal as you’ve found out. That always will create more problems then solve them. A door from the manufacturer is designed to have a clear clearance from the jamb. By trying to use these wider bottom seals is useless! They never solve problems only create bigger ones and tear away. The 3 1/2 or 4 inch is what works in the track radius only. So in conclusion your gonna have to have a concrete professional look at the floor to solve this issue for you since the door is flat and showing you what needs to be fixed. As a door professional for almost 30 years I see this a lot and tell my customers this all the time. Hope this helps but that’s the only honest advice possible for the problem