Garage door letting in
drafts, light, or leaves?

A garage door is the biggest gap in most houses, and the only thing closing it up is a few strips of rubber. That rubber bakes in the sun all summer, and by late August it's usually stiffer, flatter, and more cracked than it was in the spring — right before West Michigan asks it to keep out fall rain, then wind, then a real freeze. Checking it now, while it's still warm enough to work with, is the cheapest hour you'll spend on the garage all year.

The three seals doing the actual work

"Weatherstripping" isn't one part — it's three, and they wear differently.

The bottom seal is the thick rubber gasket along the base of the door that presses against the concrete when it closes. It seals the single biggest gap in the opening and takes the most abuse, since it drags across the floor on every cycle and sits in whatever the weather leaves behind — grit, road salt, standing water.

The side and top weatherstrip — sometimes called stop molding — is the narrower strip along the door jambs and header that the door closes against. It seals the edges rather than the bottom, and because it's mounted vertically it tends to dry out and crack from sun exposure before it wears out from contact.

A threshold seal is a separate strip glued to the garage floor itself, used mainly on an uneven or sloped slab where the bottom door seal alone can't make full contact. Not every garage needs one, but it's worth knowing it exists if your floor was never quite flat.

How to check yours in five minutes

Two simple checks catch most worn weatherstripping without any tools.

The second check is just your hand: run it along the base and up the sides of the closed door on a breezy day. A draft you can feel is a draft that's there whether or not you can see it. While you're down there, look at the rubber itself — cracking, flattening, or tearing means it's past its useful life even if it's not leaking yet.

Why it matters more heading into fall

A worn bottom seal that's a minor annoyance in August becomes a real problem once West Michigan's fall rain and early snow show up — a flattened or torn seal lets water track in under the door instead of shedding it. Gaps at the sides and top do the same with wind-driven rain and, later, cold air pooling along the garage floor. Fall is also when mice, leaves, and other debris go looking for a way into a warm, dry space, and a tight seal is the cheapest thing standing between them and your garage.

There's a practical reason to act now rather than in January, too: cold makes rubber stiffer and more brittle. A seal that's merely worn in September can crack outright the first time you try to work with it after a hard freeze, turning an easy swap into a fight with frozen rubber.

Replacing the bottom seal — a homeowner job, most of the time

The bottom seal is sold by the foot at most hardware stores and comes in a couple of common track profiles — bulb and T-style are the two you'll run into. Measure your door's width, check which profile your track uses, and it's generally a matter of pulling the old strip out and feeding the new one through. Side and top weatherstrip is a similar swap, usually stapled or nailed to the jamb.

Where it stops being a weekend job: if a fresh seal still doesn't seat flush against the floor or jamb, the problem usually isn't the seal — it's what it's sealing against. A bowed bottom panel, a track that's drifted out of alignment, or an opening that's gone slightly out of square over the years will defeat even a brand-new seal. That's worth a technician's eyes rather than a second trip to the hardware store. A threshold seal, since it's glued down and needs a clean, even bond to work, is also usually a cleaner job done by a pro.

When it isn't just the seals

New weatherstripping fixes exactly what it's designed to fix: the specific gaps at the bottom and edges of the door. It won't help much if the underlying issue is elsewhere — a door that's sagging or bowed, a track that's pulled loose, or an opening that's shifted out of square all show up as "the seals don't work" even after they've been replaced. If you've put on fresh weatherstripping and you're still seeing daylight or feeling a draft, that's a sign to have the door itself looked at rather than buying a second roll of seal.

Worn weatherstripping is also a natural thing to knock out alongside a fall tune-up — see our guide on how often to service a garage door for why the season change is exactly the right time. And if you're weighing whether to go further and insulate the door itself, we cover that trade-off in are insulated garage doors worth it.

If the seals check out fine and the door is still sticking, dragging, or binding, that's often a humidity issue rather than a sealing one — see garage door sticking in the humidity. And if something underneath turns out to need real repair, we're out seven days a week for a garage door repair with a free, up-front quote.