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Hey there. I'm Jeff with Home Repair Tutor, and in this video I'm going to share with
you how to replace your door sweep. Now why do you want to do this? Well, a door sweep
is the simplest thing that you can do to your entry door or to your exterior door that will
help lower your heating and cooling bills. So that's a good reason to do it, right? And
it doesn't cost very much money—20 max. So let's get to it, and before you know it,
you're going to learn how to do this simple repair and your heating and cooling bills
will be much lower. Let's get started. As you can see here, my entryway is bombarded
with snow. So I need to put a door sweep on this entry door that goes into our garage.
Now here's the deal. This is the best door sweep in my opinion. Now you can challenge
this on the comments section, but it's a U-shaped or U-channel door sweep that you can put on
the bottom of the door. And it's got lips on it so that it protects the full edge of
your door—both on the inside and the outside. I know I needed this door sweep because, well,
there's light coming in from underneath it. And I took off the old one in the summer.
To install a U-shaped door sweep, you should remove the door from the hinges. You can use
a nail set and a hammer to do that. Just place the nail set underneath the pin and tap it
with the hammer. If you can't pull the pin out by hand, you
can use a pair of channel locks or pliers to yank it out—kind of like a tooth.
Oh, and by the way, I wanted to give you a hot tip. Keep the door in the closed position—so,
in the door jam—when you pull the pins. It's so much easier to do it that way.
Now I could remove the door and place it on the floor— Good thing I ate my Wheaties
today, right? So there are three things that you need to
do—three things—before you buy a new door sweep. Number one, you need to pick out a
door sweep that will accommodate the gap between the bottom of your door and the top of the
threshold. So in this case, it was about 7/16 of an inch. The second measurement that you
need is the width of the door. So in this case, it's about 32 inches. The third measurement
that you need is the thickness of the door. So in this case, my door thickness is about
1¾ inches thick. You could use some width to cut your door
sweep to size. Or you could dry fit the door sweep onto the bottom of the door. And just
mark where you need to cut it. Now you can use a hacksaw and a miter box
to cut the door sweep. The one thing I'm going to do to make sure
that this installation is really good and going to be super secure is add a bead of
caulk to the bottom of the door. That way, the door sweep will stick to the caulk. And
I'm going to screw it down—I'm going to show you that next. Place this bead of caulk
here—a nice, thick bead that's big enough such that it will touch not only the bottom
of the door but the top of the door sweep. Okay, the next step is to make sure that when
you place your door sweep onto the bottom of the door, the holes for the screws are
going to be on the inside portion of the door, or the—in other words—interior portion
of the door that will be inside your house. So place the door sweep into the bottom of
the door, and just lightly tap it into place with your hand. And because this is a metal
door, I'm going to pre-drill some holes into it.
Anywhere that there's a hole in the door sweep, make sure that you pre-drill. So here, down
here, down here... And if you need an extra hole, like I do right here, just go ahead
and drill one right through the door sweep. And that way you'll have an extra screw on
the edge where you need it. Now the other thing I'm going to do is drill
holes into the bottom of the door sweep because there's already caulk in the center. What
I want to do is have screws go through that caulk and secure the bottom of the sweep to
the door. So again, anywhere there's a hole on the side
of the door, I'm going to put one on the bottom so that they partner up and really, really
make this door sweep super secure. Now all you need to do is add your screws
starting from the center and working your way outward to both sides of the door.
Oh, as a side note, I'm using 3/4 --inch no. 6 metal screws—pin head screws.
Once you're done attaching all those screws to the side of the door, add the screws to
the bottom of the door sweep. Okay, now all you have to do is put the door
back in place—easier said than done, right? All right. Looks like it works. Looks like
the door sweep works and it's keeping all the cold air from coming underneath the door
and into the house. Well there you have it. That's the best door
sweep that I think you could put on your entry door or exterior door. Let me know what you
think in the comments, but again, it's a U-shaped door sweep. And I like it because, especially
if you got a metal door like this one or even a wood door, it protects both the interior
and the exterior portion of the door so that it doesn't corrode or just waste away over
time because of the elements outside—like rain and snow.
So let me know what you think in the comments section. And if you ever own hot tips, please
add them there because we all want to learn as a DIY group.
And remember, if you haven't already done so, you can join me over on YouTube. Subscribe
to my YouTube channel. And you can sign up for my email newsletter over at HomeRepairTutor.com
'cause every single week you're going to get a new tip that's going to help you save money,
time, and again, remember, prevent you from being overwhelmed when you do your own DIY
project. So until the next video, I hope you have a
great day. And I'll talk to you soon. [Outtakes]
Well, there you have it. That's what I think is the best kind of door sweep to put on your
entry door or your—the door isn't closed.
Woo! It was like 6° when I started, but now it's warming up. I didn't even shave this
morning 'cause I wanted to preserve some facial heat.