Doors and Windows - Today's storm doors: good for stopping drafts?

Hello, I have an old back door that looks nice with its fine wood jamb, but it is also terribly drafty in the winter.

I'd like to install a storm door on the outside with a view of eliminating the draft. Is this a solution to my problem? Because, insulating tape certainly wasn't!

J

A storm door can help providing it is installed and sealed properly. Also be sure any gaps in wood trim are caulked as they also can be a source of air leakage.

Marksr is correct that a storm door will "help". However it will not make your door "draft free". A storm door acts as a barrier to the weather, but storm doors are not designed to be "air tight". The best type of storm doors have magnetic weatherstripping that seals the perimeter of the door very well, compared with the fuzzy weatherstrip of times past. The adjustable threshold sweep is just a rubber fin, and it barely contacts the threshold... any tighter and the door will not close on its own.

The most vulnerable areas of a storm door are the 4 corners of the door and the bottom of the z-bars. Some air leakage is these areas is normal.

A more thorough solution is to remove the door trim on the inside, add insulation and caulking, reinstall the trim, and caulk around the trim. Check to see if caulking is needed between the threshold and the floor.

The door must fit tight against the stop all the way around and have good weather stripping.

To compliment the other posts, if your house faces east or west, you don't want a good seal. Heat build up will tend to crack your door by trapping air and the sun will super heat it with no place for it to go. I would go with repairing the main door and installing either a new threshold or door sweep to keep down on the draft, as well as insulating between the jamb and framing of the house.

I agree with the previous posts on this topic - storm doors are not air tight, and they're not supposed to be.

REASONS WHY A STORM DOOR SHOULDN'T BE AIRTIGHT:
1. It would create an air pocket that would prevent the storm door's closer from completely closing the door.
2. It would create a trapped airspace that when warmed from the sun could potentially crack the main door.
3. Rain water that would pass through the screen during the summer would not be able to weep out, rotting the bottom of the door jamb and the sill (if the sill is wood).
4. The storm door would not allow the air pocket between the two respective doors to "breathe," possibly causing condensation to form on the storm door because the humidity between the doors can't easily escape.
5. They're not designed to be airtight. Never were.

To reduce drafts, the best way is to make the inside door (called the exterior door by the way) as airtight as possible, not the storm door. The storm door is supposed to breathe. It's main purposes are to protect the main door from the brunt of the weather, act as a windbreaker to reduce (not eliminate) drafts, function as a source of ventilation when the screen is in place, and provide color/design/aesthetics to the design of the house.

Tru_blue,

I need to print out your reply and give it to all the people who like to caulk the z-bars to the jamb.

Oh, and then when you remove the storm door they want you to save it and put it back on. :madhell:

XS, when you put it back on, do you re-caulk it in place? :D

I did it once for a customer, but did so under duress. :thumbdn: The customer is always right, you know... even when they know nothing about it! Hee hee.

Of course, the trick was to always leave the self storing storm window up, so that it shut like a dream. They ought to make storm door closers a little stronger. Some of the newer storm doors sure have wimpy cylinders!