Elgin, TX homeowners: when to repair a drafty door, when to replace it, which materials hold up to the sun, and the install details that stop leaks.
Try this tonight. Turn on the porch light, switch off the lights in the entry and look at the edges of your front door from inside. Any light you see around the frame or under the bottom is a path for summer heat and winter drafts.
A lot of Elgin doors fail that test, and not always because the door is old. Houses here move. Elgin has a long history of brick-making, which tells you something about the ground: there's plenty of clay around town, and clay swells when it's wet and shrinks in a dry summer. As a slab shifts a little, door frames drift out of square and gaps open up along the edges.
Many door problems are cheap to solve. Before you shop for a new door, check these:
If the slab itself is warped, cracked or rotted at the bottom, or the frame is soft when you press on it, those fixes won't last. That's when replacement makes more sense.
Fiberglass is a popular choice for Texas entries. It doesn't warp or rot, it takes paint or stain well and its foam core insulates. It also shrugs off small dings.
Steel doors cost less and are very secure, but they dent, and a dent in steel is hard to fix cleanly. On a west wall they can get hot to the touch. Wood looks great on an older Elgin home, especially near downtown, but it needs refinishing every few years in this sun and can swell in a wet spring.
Decorative glass in or beside a door lets in light, but it's also a weak spot for heat. Ask for low-E glass in any door panels or sidelights, the same kind of coating used in energy-efficient windows.
Storm doors deserve a warning. A full-glass storm door on an entry that faces west or south can trap heat between the two doors. That heat can fade or blister the finish on the main door, and some door makers caution against it. If you want a storm door for airflow, pick one with a screen panel, or use it on a shaded side of the house.
The back door often gets the least attention and the most use. Old aluminum sliders are common in older homes around town. They leak air where the panels meet and roll badly once the rollers wear. A new vinyl or fiberglass slider with double-pane low-E glass closes easier and seals tighter. French doors are another option if you want a wider opening, though they need careful adjustment to seal well in the middle.
A good door installed badly will still leak. When you get quotes, ask how the installer plans to handle each of these steps:
Ask, too, whether the threshold is adjustable. On clay soil, a threshold you can raise or lower later lets you keep a tight seal at the bottom as the house settles through the seasons.
A new door seals one opening. If drafts are coming from several places, look at the whole house. Our windows guide for Elgin explains which glass blocks the afternoon sun, and our Elgin roofing article covers hail and attic heat. You can read more about the area we serve on the Elgin page.
Not sure the door is the real problem? A free home energy audit from Texas Energy Pros will show whether the drafts are coming from the door, the windows or the attic. Contact us and we'll set a time to come out.
