How often should you check your weatherstripping?

Why bother

Worn seals leak heat and money. Standard upkeep. Dull and cheap, and a lot less dull than whatever it's quietly preventing.

What the job involves

1. Close every exterior door and operable window, then look for daylight along the edges. Where you can, slide a dollar bill into the closed gap. If it pulls out with no grip, the seal has given up. On a windy day, run a hand along the seams and feel for the draft.
2. Look at the strip itself. Cracked, brittle, flattened, torn, or chunks missing means it is done. Felt and foam go first, vinyl and metal last longest, so check the cheap stuff hardest.
3. Peel or unscrew the old strip and clean the frame of leftover adhesive and grit so the new one seats flat. Cut the replacement to length and press or fasten it in. The DOE has a chart pairing felt, foam tape, vinyl V-strip, and metal to where each one belongs.
4. Close it back up and check your work. No daylight, and the dollar-bill test should now grab. Recheck twice a year, before heating season and before cooling season, while you are thinking about it.

Do it yourself, or pay someone?

Yourself, for most homes. A roll of foam or felt tape runs under $10 and one door is about an hour's faff. The DOE rates it among the cheapest, fastest fixes going. Hire it out and you are mostly paying labor: Angi puts a pro door at about $284 on average, usually $132 to $437. Worth a pro only if the threshold or frame needs work too, or for a fussy storm or garage door.

What skipping it costs

Somewhere around $50 to $200 a year, leaking out a little at a time. EPA and ENERGY STAR reckon sealing air leaks, caulk and weatherstripping together, saves an average of 15% on heating and cooling, about 11% of the whole energy bill. Against a typical US home's $1,800 to $2,400 a year, the share you can pin on worn weatherstripping lands on the order of $100 to $300, of which the strips themselves are a chunk. It is not a repair bill that arrives all at once. It is the furnace and the AC running longer every season the gaps stay open, paying for themselves in about a year and bleeding money after.

Signs it's overdue

• Daylight along the edge of a closed exterior door, or a dollar bill that slides out of the closed gap with no grip.
• The strip looks cracked, brittle, flattened, or torn, or has chunks missing. Felt that has gone matted and droopy is the same story.
• A draft near the door or window on a windy day, or one room that sits noticeably colder or hotter than the rest of the house.

When to start thinking about it

A few days' warning does it. Grumpty grumbles 5 days out, then leaves you alone. Mark it done and Grumpty sets the next one, every 12 months, so you can go back to forgetting it exists.

Questions people ask