As winter settled down, I noticed a cold chill every time I walked by the back door. I looked under the door frame and saw a small gap between the door threshold and the tiles. I used silicon in a caulking tube and laid a bead of it in the crack. When the weather was warmer outside, I had looked at the space between the door threshold and the door. Then the space between was equal from the left to the right and the old door sweep covered it just fine. Now that the weather had gotten colder, the wood had shifted. After tightening the door threshold on the left side and loosening it on the right side to close the gap, the door threshold had a half-inch gap on the left side and a one-inch gap at the right side measured from the bottom of the door excluding the door sweep. The old door sweep that sat in the grooves at the bottom of the door was not doing its job.

At Lowe’s I picked up a U-channel door sweep to match the dimensions and color of the door and a small bag of white-head screws. I removed the old door sweep and placed the new door sweep next to the door to measure the length to be cut. With a hacksaw and a miter box I made a straight cut across the sweep. I marked, with a pencil, four spots on each side of the sweep for where I wanted to put the screws. Eventually I placed three screws on the interior and two on the exterior to hold it in place. A little cooking oil dabbed inside the channel made slipping it on much easier. I pre-drilled a hole on the far left portion of the sweep into the door and hand tightened a screw. Leaving it loose, I closed the door then adjusted the positioning on the right side so that the sweep sat down flush with the door threshold and then secured the right side with a screw. I want to fill the end gaps with silicon to seal out any moisture.