Garage seals, concrete, winter weather

[PAndaemonium89]

I’m on a mission to seal my overhead door as best I could short of buying new doors before committing to a mini split. R6ish, 2-layer door with single pane top glass living the life in MN.

Bottom seal - replaced this summer. Flattens, freezes and sticks to concrete, ice melt draining from bottom seal when door is up, freezes on bottom. Tried silicone spray, may try petroleum jelly. Anyway to mitigate the water drops and freezing? Have people ever cut grooves in concrete running parallel to door?

Side seals - GREEN Hinge seems to be doing the trick, may need to adjust top

Windows - thinking about simply taping window kit plastic around them. Gotta do something, right?

Overall with an insulated the garage, it maintained 26-30F inside when it was -20 outside, and most of the time holds above freezing.

Lastly the footings are above grade and may feel a slight draft between wall and footing. Anyway to control that? Any other suggestions from the garage pros in cold climates?

 

[bbxlr8]

Been fighting that here in PA. I found some heavy-duty bottoms at either HD or Lowes and they have been great and seal well. They are not smooth, black U-shape facing the floor and have had no issues with sticking over the last 5 years. Not cheap & sorry it's not a better description. Did all the doors...

My doors are insulated but my issue is the side seals or lack thereof in the bottom 10", especially. Taken to shoving a towel on the worst one. Will follow and be interested in others' solutions.

 

[firebirdparts]

About your freezing question - When we built onto the house, and also built the garage, I gave it a 3' overhang in the front and generously sloped the ground away from the door. That is probably too hard for anybody to do after the fact, but it sure makes me happy. Later I redid the driveway and built a trench drain in the driveway for dirt to fall into (don't really need it for drainage). that hole is more or less aligned with the end of the overhang. So it's pretty bulletproof in the south, but wind-blown snow would certainly defeat it.

 

[firebirdparts]

Been fighting that here in PA. I found some heavy-duty bottoms at either HD or Lowes and they have been great and seal well. They are not smooth, black U-shape facing the floor and have had no issues with sticking over the last 5 years. Not cheap & sorry it's not a better description. Did all the doors...

My doors are insulated but my issue is the side seals or lack thereof in the bottom 10", especially. Taken to shoving a towel on the worst one. Will follow and be interested in others' solutions.

Installing side seals is a really easy job. Is there something about the house that prevents that?

 

[PAndaemonium89]

About your freezing question - When we built onto the house, and also built the garage, I gave it a 3' overhang in the front and generously sloped the ground away from the door. That is probably too hard for anybody to do after the fact, but it sure makes me happy. Later I redid the driveway and built a trench drain in the driveway for dirt to fall into (don't really need it for drainage). that hole is more or less aligned with the end of the overhang. So it's pretty bulletproof in the south, but wind-blown snow would certainly defeat it.

Nothing to do with overhangs for me. My garage is sloped so car melt rolls down and meets the garage door bottom seal and anything that creeps under freezes. The bottom seal is also accumulating water somehow and all it drains out the sides when the door goes up- contributing to more ice buildup.

 

[AC-WC]

Well at least the floors doing what it's supposed to-drain outside. How about pipe heat tape on the floor or electric floor mats? Might allow just enough heat to flow the water outside and not freeze?

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

Clean the dirt off where the door seal lands. Should seal better and reduce sticking/freezing.

 

[JuncleJohn]

I have a floor drain in the middle of the center stall in my 3 car attached garage. The floor slopes to the drain, so snow melt flows to the drain and not the door.

John

 

[BillK]

One thing I see is the surface where the bottom seal sits is very rough ? Is there a way to smooth that off ? Mine is almost glass smooth and I have never had an issue with the door sticking. But then again I don't get much snow melt etc. I would try cleaning the bottom seal and putting on a good coat of ArmorAll ?

 

[Overboost44]

Maybe try something like Fluid film on the bottom of the door seal? Problem there is you may have to do it every few times you open the door.

 

[PAndaemonium89]

Attempt to install plastic layer on my single pane windows initially looked good but the weather seal duck tape failed overnight. Didn’t really stick to polystyrene backing.

Aluminum foil tape might be better??