The Ill-Fitting Door

The door to the sleeping porch...

I guess I 'm at a loss for words (which is not something that happens often on this blog...).  So I'll cover only the relevant bits here.

Note the giant gap between the edge of the door and the frame.  It's almost a half-inch!

It is supposed to be only about an eighth-inch.  This gap is wide enough that a decent breeze from the right direction will blow the door open.  That's awesome in the winter time.  Especially for our heating bill.

Another interesting thing is the existing weather-stripping.  This spring bronze weather-stripping is great stuff.  It seals well and lasts forever (unlike most modern stuff).

When it's installed correctly.

Note that the strike plate for the deadbolt is covered by the weather-stripping (see  the spot on the jamb missing it's paint about eight inches above the strike plate for the doorknob).  That means the deadbolt doesn't work because the bolt has nowhere to go...

Cooler still (no pun intended) is that the edge of the weather-stripping is up against the stop.  That means is doesn't flex like it's supposed to.

As I took the old weather-stripping off so I could fix this, it got better.  Behind the old weather stripping was a layer of duct tape.

I have no idea why.

One layer of duct tape isn't really enough to make any appreciable difference in sealing the half-inch gap around this door.

Oh yeah, what's this blob of electrical tape doing near the top of the jamb?

Yet another one of those things that makes you scratch your head in bemusement...

Of course, because none of this worked, several other things were added to the mix.

See that gray stuff just left of the strike plate.  No, not the duct tape, the foam rod that is tucked behind the weather-stripping below the strike and is sort-of held in place by the duct tape above the strike.

Um yeah.  That didn't work either.

So, I have an idea...

Lets add another piece of molding with a kerf so we can add a piece of felt weather-stripping as well (see black line just left of the gray foam rod).

Yeah.

And that didn't work either.

Surprising (or not!) considering that every type of weather-stripping known to man was installed on this door.

At. The. Same. Time.

I'll give them credit, at least they tried something new every time.

Still made the same mistake, though...