Gaps under garage door flashing

[Seavs]

Good afternoon all,

I have a questions about the flashing on the side of the garage (at least I think it's called flashing, it's the metal form with the rubber seal on the outside of the door).

I have a two-car garage and a separate one-car garage. On both the flashing is pulling away from the house, kinda floating out in mid-air. My question stems around the fact that both are about 1/2" short of contacting the concrete slab of the garage. Is it okay to use some sort of filler/sealer to bring this down to my slab? The reason I ask is this, living in AZ I've found more than one scorpion in my garage, and I'd like a better seal than this offers (same goes for the seam in the floor which I'll be putting a chalk seal on), as I've already found a couple dead scorpions here and there, one in my tool chest. Best i can figure is that it's a way for water to run out of the garage around the door, seeing that the water heater is in the front left corner of the two car.

Any thoughts on the reason for this gap and the repercussions (if any) of sealing them up? Thanks!

Seavs

 

[s10xtremist]

I'd say it's just the installers cutting them a hair too short. I've never used the metal weather seals. What we had was vinyl with an embossed woodgrain that looked like 1/4" thick by 2" wide wooden trim. It had a vinyl flap formed inside of it that sealed up against the door. I always cut it to be flush with the concrete and even followed the slope if there was one. If it were me, I'd replace the metal trim with the vinyl stuff, cut as close to the concrete as possible. Then, use caulking to seal off any remaining gap. If there's a considerable gap under the wooden jams, fill it in with Great Stuff, trim/shape it smooth, then paint it. I'm not saying this is the best solution, but this is how I did mine because of all the widows (brown and black), beetles, etc. crawling in.

Vinyl weather seal:

 

[Seavs]

Thanks for the reply. The flashing I currently have is in pretty good shape, just that the bottom has come away from the home. I'll use some longer nails to get them back in place and then use some small wood pieces and chalking to close the gap. If I ever need to replace them I think I'll look into the vinyl one your showed. They are in such good shape otherwise I'd hate to put them down.

 

[Andybull]

How about pictures?

 

[ctgoodman]

I too have the vinyl weather seal on mine. So far it's kept the critters out when the door remains shut. I religiously check it. The kid forgets to shut it when he goes out to shoot hoops. I would replace it if it where me. Be sure you aren't having water or anything get in behind the metal. That happened on our old house. The first sign was the seal started to pull away.

 

[Seavs]

Hmmm, didn't think of water damage causing the pull away from the wall, though being in AZ this would be pretty suspect. I'll snap some pics tonight.

 

[ctgoodman]

I know, I would have never thought it either. The builder did a poor job with the metal work around the opening and it make a 1/4" gap between the siding and the metal. any water that struck the siding just washed down in between the metal and the wood frame. It was too late by the time I really got to looking at why the gasket was just falling away. Lets see some pics of what you have. You may have something completely different.