Door Insulation and Air Sealing
Learn how to insulate and air seal a door by taking off the doors exterior and interior trim.
Great Stuff Insulation
During the construction of your home, the contractor installed a door and door casing in the rough opening for the door, but not necessarily door insulation. There is a space between the door casing and the framing. This space needs to be insulated and air sealed to stop the outside air from finding it’s way inside.
The space between the casing and the framing is covered up by exterior and interior trim. The trim is only designed to cover the gap, not to air seal or insulate that section of wall.
A conscientious builder and insulation contractor will see that this space is insulated and air sealed during construction. With older homes and speedy contractors, the space is often ignored. For the life of the home, the wall has a weak spot in it’s thermal barrier.
The interior door trim can be removed. If your careful, the trim will come off without damage and then can be re-installed. Just stuffing the cavity full of fiberglass insulation will insulate the space, but will not effectively air seal the space.
This may be a job for spray foam insulation. Spray foam insulation called Great Stuff is available at most building stores. Great Stuff comes in three different formulas. For door insulation and air sealing, be sure and select the one for doors and windows.
If you fill the gap around the door with expanding foam, the foam may push the door casing out of alignment. The door may not shut as well as it did before.
Tip: Once you spray a little foam out of a can of Great Stuff and then let it sit for awhile, it will be almost impossible to get the foam to spray again. So get the whole job lined up and ready to go and then start using the spray foam.
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