“We’re tired of sweeping leaves out twice a day and bugs getting in.”
The cover photo is a before picture of a job we did recently. Our client leases a small storefront space in an older strip mall with, much like most of Georgia, a lot of trees around the parking lot. As you can see, they had quite a bit of beautiful, natural lighting underneath their front door. They reported leaves making it inside throughout the day (with extra help from leaf blowers on lawncare days), water bugs from the storm drain visiting regularly, and water getting inside during heavy storms. Unlike residential doors, with many commercial doors you cannot simply replace the door bottom weatherstripping. And with an uneven gap like this door, installing an entire bottom would cause it to be too tight on the sides and unable to close. So how do you fix a large gap under a door?
There are two simple products that can be used. The first, and less expensive, is installing a sweep on the door. Typically a strip of vinyl or brushes fixed to an aluminum strip is fastened to the bottom of the door- you’ve probably seen them at businesses or might have them at your home and never noticed. Sweeps are an easy fix for smaller gaps where the main concern is debris coming in from under the door. However, we’ve found that while sweeps can sweep leaves and such out of the way when the door is opened, they can also drag them inside as the door closes. Additionally, sweeps don’t provide an actual seal around the bottom of the door so they don’t do much for your A/C bills or keeping water out.
The second, slightly more expensive, option is an automatic door bottom. We all know what automatic doors are, but what is an automatic door bottom? As the name implies, it is mounted to the bottom of the door, just like a sweep. When the door is open, it sits flush with the bottom of the door and clears the floor without dragging. When the door closes, it automatically drops a bar of weatherstripping which seals the door bottom. And they’re entirely mechanical- no power required. You can usually hear the difference before and after installation. An often overlooked product that’s a great solution for doors with large or uneven gaps at the bottom. If you’re tired of the natural lighting under your own door, we’ve got it covered!
