How many of you struggle with door air infiltration in your home or office? Does it seem like your exterior office or home doors or perhaps, your overhead doors leak like sieves? How about if you could just brush those air drafts good-bye with a simple weatherstripping product? Look no further. Memtech weatherstripping and draft sealing brush door sets offer an affordable alternative to stop those nasty drafts.
So, how did I find Memtech? Believe or not my energy star house suffered from leakage from its front doors in the winter. My double front doors were custom made and were installed with a special locking device on the bottom which did not leave any room for a sweep to stop air from infiltrating. When we moved into the house in the Spring, there wasn’t any noticeable leakage. But when winter came around and small specks of snow was seeping under the door, I knew I had a problem.
When it was windy, air poured in like I dream o f Jeanie when she came out of the bottle. I cursed those doors. The only way to stop the infiltration was to install ugly black vinyl guards made by the same company who created the locking device to stop the air. (They came in other colors but black was the most inconspicuous.)
I resisted for several years and laid thick towels in front of the doors to stop the drafts. (See picture at the beginning of the article.) From a design stand point, the multicolor mismatched towels would receive a place in ugliness decor contest, if there was ever such a contest. This year I finally gave in and put the vinyl devices on the door. Poof! No more draft. Plus, it doesn’t look that bad.
When I struggled with what to do with my own doors, I started to look at neighborhood commercial double doors to see how air infiltration was stopped. One day I saw this brush system running up the middle of the double doors at my school and had an “ahh” moment. I could use something like this own my own doors. I failed to mention that where the two doors met, air was coming in too.
I googled the words commercial doors and brush weatherstripping and up popped Memtech. I loved their product but we ended up solving the air between the doors by re-aligning them as well as installing the vinyl pieces. (See picture below.)
In the last couple of months, I have been working with building owners to help make their buildings more energy efficient and operations greener. Two of the buildings have tremendous leakage from the outside doors. One of the buildings had its doors installed improperly. The door is at least 1-2″ above the threshold, and the builder who installed it went bankrupt.
In a large commercial building, what’s 1″ to 2″ inches air infiltration above a door? Don’t kid yourself. This is like having your window cracked open the whole winter long. The same goes for your home leaky exterior doors.
As I was looking at those commercial doors with their gap, I recalled my conversation with Memtech that I had several years ago. As the facility manager complained of the costs to deal with the doors, a light bulb went off in my head that Memtech’s brushes might be an easy and affordable fix.
For a quick preview of their products, see here. According to the Memtech’s website:
“The use of nylon brushes as air seals and weatherstripping have been proven as superior air sealing barriers. The nylon bristles on our brush mountings for our weather strip and door seals conform to irregularities around the door as chemical free pest control and keeping heat out and cool air in. They come in a wide variety of bristle lengths, thicknesses and mounting extrusions allow for any door sealing application. Memtech nylon brush door seals and weatherstripping far outperform vinyl or rubber strips.”
In addition, the Company states “their type 6 nylon weatherstripping and brush door seals are UL. Rated as “Gasketing Material for Fire Doors” (viable from -100ºF to +200ºF).” Their products comes in a bronze, brown, and anodized clear. The clear product is their most popular choice. Memtech mostly sells its products to door manufacturers but will also sell to the public. Their products are for both commercial and residential applications.
To give you an example of cost, a straight mount AOO brush for double doors costs $3.50 a foot. For pricing, call the company’s sales department. I spoke to Linda, who was very helpful.
Their seals can be used on a variety of doors including hollow, sectional, overhead doors, double doors, single doors, and rolling steel doors. For each type of door, the website contains detailed illustrations of the brushes, specifications, information about the compatibility of certain brushes and doors, and different mounts that can be used. In addition, the seals can be used to control different situations in a building such as pests (including birds and rodents,) light, dust, air, and sound.
When I asked Linda the life of the product, she explained as long as the life of the door. I have already replaced my rubber sweeps on all of my exterior doors. They were only five years old.
Why have a building where your doors seems to be always open when a simple solution like Memtech could stop those drafts dead in their place?
So readers,
- Does your home or office buildings suffer from drafty doors?
- Have you stopped drafts in either your home or office buildings? If so, how?
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Condo Blues says
Will these work on sliding glass doors? My sliding glass door leaks air where the two doors meet and overlap. I tried making a draft dodger of sorts but it really don’t do much to keep the cold air out.
.-= Condo Blues´s last blog ..Tooltalk: Let’s Compare Screwguns! =-.
Green Talk says
Condo Blues, they have a door product for sliders. See http://www.memtechbrush.com/br.....-doors.htm. Ask for Linda if you need to call them. She is really knowledgeable and nice. Anna
Screen Doors says
My age old trick for draughty doors is to use a rubber strip across the gaps and silicon to finish things up, but this sure is impressive and also very reasonably priced. Thanks for posting and sharing this great product.
Green Talk says
Screen Door, how would you seal a wood door which contracts and expand when it meet the door jamb? I have a door in the winter that buckles a little at the bottom and thus is not as air tight as I would like it to be. In the summer, it expands, and it is back to normal. Anna
Nick Williams says
From colourful towels to memtech door sweeps – way to go! Seriously, these look like great additions to the home from an energy saving point of view.
Bathroom Radiators says
My only complaint is that the strips often come away from the door after a short period of use. Is there any alternative glue that is long lasting as there is nothing more unattractive and frustrating to have your draft strips falling apart.
Anna@Green Talk says
Bathroom, I think these are screwed on so they won’t come off. Anna