Fixing a drafty door?

[WindyCityMom]

We live in a poorly insulated basement so every cubic inch of warm air we can keep in is extremely valuable!  

Our door leads to the laundry room, which leads out to the laundry room, which leads to an enclosed back porch (NOT insulated at all) that leads to outside.  Every window and door is extremely drafty.  I sealed up our windows today with a translucent shower curtain that I was supposed to birth on (had to use it somehow, right?!)  

The door is my next task.  Replacing it is not an option.  I need to find a way to seal the cracks, which go all around the door.

I remember, when I was around 14, my mom used to smoke a LOT and I'd get teased in school.  I sealed up my bedroom door with magazine pages taped up around all the edges of the door, so when I closed it, the cracks were sealed.  I also kept a rolled towel at the base of the door to seal up that crack.  It worked quite well ;)  I imagine something like that is in order here, but I'm afraid that would look really ridiculous!

Any ideas?  I'm off to do some googling but I was hoping someone here could chime in.

Oh- and should we seal up the windows and doors in the laundry room also?

[Otto]

My kitchen door leads directly outside with no real storm door in between. I've had pretty good luck with EPDM self-stick weatherstripping from Ace Hardware. It's pretty cheap and also removable. The appropriate thickness and whether to apply it to the jamb or to the outside of the door (so it compresses against the lip) may require some experimentation, but it's decent stuff. There are also rubber caps that can be attached to be bottom of the door, but I haven't tried them. (I assume you're also aware of the Chicago heating ordinance; there's a point where this should be on the landlord's dime.)

[WindyCityMom]

Thanks!  I'll look into that.  They're like $3 per pack so that should help.  

My landlord happens to be my MIL and we're in an illegal apartment (hopefully this will change in the spring).  We're not paying rent but we're not exactly supposed to be living down here either.  

ETA: MIL doesn't give a hoot about anything, especially if it's going to cost money to fix (even if she'll save more in the end).

[_ktg_]

I had a very leaky/drafty back door and also front door.  For the winter - we actually seal (in plastic) off the front door from use and then hang a thermal insulated curtain in between the foyer area and the entrance into our living room. That helps tremendous to block a lot of the cold air from the living room and also doesn't let the warm air escape into the cold foyer area.

Since you can't seal off that door - because of the laundry etc.  I would recommend the curtain trick - I think target has them (get the quilted ones with thinsulate in it) for like $20 bucks, and a $2 curtain rod).  I would also consider running beads of silcone around the windows of both doors (your laundry door & the enclosed back porch door) to stop any drafts there, along with the weatherstriping like the PP recommended around the outside seal of the door.  Also is there a door sweep on the bottom? That will help block out drafts too.

I've done both to my back door and I have noticed a huge drop in how drafty my little mud area is in the winter, unfortunately it took me 2 winters in WI to figure out our system!!

[WindyCityMom]

thanks _ktg_!  The curtain thing will probably work in the laundry room because there's a short little hallway that leads from our door to the main area of the laundry room. 

We can't put the door sweep in because the floor outside of our door, in the laundry room, is concrete and our floor is stone tile.  There's about a 1" drop when you step out. (And you can imagine how cold our floors are,  being STONE!)

Another thing- our refrigerator is flush with our wall because there's a hole for it in our wall, like a doorway.  The back of the fridge is in another room that the laundry room leads to, which has the water heater and some pipes in it.  I'm thinking of doing the weatherstripping on that door (that leads from that room to the laundry room) as well since we have major drafts coming in from around our fridge.

[_ktg_]

Originally Posted by WindyCityMom 

thanks _ktg_!  The curtain thing will probably work in the laundry room because there's a short little hallway that leads from our door to the main area of the laundry room. 

We can't put the door sweep in because the floor outside of our door, in the laundry room, is concrete and our floor is stone tile.  There's about a 1" drop when you step out. (And you can imagine how cold our floors are,  being STONE!)

Another thing- our refrigerator is flush with our wall because there's a hole for it in our wall, like a doorway.  The back of the fridge is in another room that the laundry room leads to, which has the water heater and some pipes in it.  I'm thinking of doing the weatherstripping on that door (that leads from that room to the laundry room) as well since we have major drafts coming in from around our fridge.

You are very welcome!  Oh and I know your pain re: the cold floors - I have 2 bathrooms with ceramic tiling, and the previous owners did not install the thermal warming coils under them.  Seriously there should be a ban on stone/tile floors in the northern parts of the Midwest!!

For the hole - check out home depot/lowes as they sell sheets of styrofoam insulation.  We bought a pack to be able to stick in our fireplace (when we are not using it) with a towel right now wrapped around them to fill in any gaps. I think they typically have a low R-value, but you can tape them together to increase it, and cut out holes into the sheet for pipes and etc. Finally there is some wonderful foam sealer which you can squirt into cracks and odd places to create a seal (like in walls, concrete etc).