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SaugeenDoor SpecialistsOpen 24/7 (226) 909-6720
Black bottom seal along a closed white garage door at a concrete threshold. — Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement, Owen Sound

Repairs · Owen Sound

Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement

One end of the bottom seal has slipped out of its channel and hangs down like a loose shoelace. Each time the door closes it folds under, each time it opens it flaps, and the gap beside it keeps growing.

In plain words

A seal visit runs in a set order. With the door closed, the technician looks for daylight along the floor line and notes whether the gap is even or concentrated at one point. The door is checked for level and the bottom section for straightness, then the retainer is identified and measured. The opener is disconnected and the door secured before the old strip comes out and the channels are cleaned. A new seal, cut a little long, is fed into the channels and trimmed. Finally the door is closed onto the new seal, the opener's limits are reset, and the reversing test is run before the tools go away.

Sound familiar?Owen Sound

The call
With the door closed and the lights off, a bright line of daylight runs along the floor from one side to the other. Leaves and grit have blown in under it and gathered in a neat drift against the back wall.

NextHow the visit goes

Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement · Owen Sound

How the visit goes

Illustrative garage doors scene — Owen Sound
  1. Scene 1

    The bottom section and its rail

    The seal can only be as straight as the edge it hangs from, so the bottom section gets a careful look. On a steel door the technician checks the bottom rail for rust where salt water has sat, dents from a bumper or a shovel, and any bow across the width. On a wood door the rail is checked for rot, cupping and the upturned corners of an old door that has dried unevenly. Fasteners for the retainer and the bottom brackets are checked for corrosion. A sound, straight rail lets a standard seal do its job; a damaged one is pointed out so you can decide on repair, a taller seal, or both.

  2. Scene 2

    Taking the old seal out

    With the door secured, the ends of the old strip are freed from any caps or folds and the seal is drawn out of its channels from one end. A supple seal slides; a hardened one is coaxed with a flat blade and a little silicone, or cut into short lengths and removed a piece at a time. Old nails come out of a wood rail with a claw. The channels are then cleaned of grit, rust flakes, salt crust and any remnants of the previous strip with a wire brush and a scraper, because a clean channel is what lets the new seal feed through without tearing.

  3. Scene 3

    Keeping the new seal from freezing down

    The habit that does the most for a bottom seal in a cold climate is a wipe of silicone spray along the seal face each autumn and again mid-winter. It leaves a film that meltwater struggles to bond to, so the strip lifts off the slab cleanly on a frosty morning. Avoid petroleum-based sprays, which soften vinyl. If the door does freeze to the floor, leave the remote alone: free the seal by hand with gentle warmth from a hair dryer or by working a plastic scraper along the line, then run the door. A minute of patience keeps the new seal whole.

In the van

  • Self-drilling retainer screws
  • Bulb or U-style bottom seal
  • Silicone spray lubricant
  • T-style bottom seal
  • Aluminum bottom seal retainer

What shapes the quoteSaugeen Door Specialists

Wood door nail-on strip
A wood door with a nailed strip takes a different product and more fastening time than a channel seal, and adding a retainer to a wood rail is a further option to consider.
Opener adjustment
Resetting the down limit and force and repeating the reversing test after a taller seal is fitted is a short step that the quote names whenever the door has an opener.
Perimeter seals done together
Jamb and header weatherstripping renewed in the same visit is quoted per length of stop moulding, and doing it alongside the bottom seal saves a second call-out.

FeesSame any hour

Have it ready

Before you call · 0 / 3

(226) 909-6720

Your questions, answered

How long should I allow for the work?

Plan on an hour or two for a straightforward replacement on a standard door, including the inspection and the opener reset. A retainer replacement, a hardened seal that has to come out in pieces, a wood door with a nail-on strip or the addition of a threshold seal each add time. The technician will give you a realistic window once the door has been looked at.

What happens during the visit?

The technician maps the gap with the door closed, checks the door is level and the bottom section straight, and identifies the retainer and profile. The opener is disconnected and the door clamped at working height. The old seal comes out, the channels are cleaned, a new seal is cut and fed in, and any retainer work is done. The door is then closed under power, the opener reset, and the reversing and photo-eye tests run.

Will I need a new retainer as well as a seal?

Only if the existing one is damaged, and most are reused. A retainer that is straight, tight to the rail and free of heavy corrosion stays. One that has been kinked by a bumper or shovel, spread open so the seal slips out, or eaten by salt is replaced with a matching aluminum extrusion so the new seal seats properly. The inspection at the start of the visit settles which applies.

Owen Soundinformation

GreyOntario

Town
Owen Sound, Grey
In business
21 years
Hours
Open 24/7
Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
Visits
On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.

2021 census: what it means at the door

Every square is one home in a hundred.

  • 72 in 100 homes · older homes
  • About 72% of homes in Owen Sound were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Older garages tend to have lower headroom and narrower single openings, so replacement doors and openers are chosen to fit the space rather than the other way round. Measuring the header, side room and ceiling depth is the first step on every one of these visits.
  • Single-detached houses make up about 51% of homes in Owen Sound (2021 Census).A blend of housing means a blend of garages: spacious attached garages with full headroom on the detached lots, and tight tandem garages with little side room in the attached units. Openers, tracks and springs are all sized at the door rather than assumed from the street.

Source: Statistics Canada, Census Profile

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On-site assessment

Request a visit.

One end of the bottom seal has slipped out of its channel and hangs down like a loose shoelace.

(226) 909-6720, open 24/7.