The Best Type Of Garage Door Seal For Keeping Out Pests, Water, And Drafts

Your garage door is more than just an entryway for your vehicles; it is a barrier that protects the interior of your home from the elements and unwanted intruders. A worn or damaged door seal can compromise this protection, allowing pests, water, and drafts to sneak in. Faulty seals are often a result of not properly maintaining your garage door, but by choosing the right type of seal, you can ensure a comfortable, dry, and pest-free garage. 

Smalls gaps in your garage door seal are to blame for most intrusion problem. A properly installed seal gets rid of those gaps and acts as a physical barrier just like the foundation, roof, windows, and siding do for the rest of your home. T-seals stand out the best as they are versatile and a well-fitting, effective choice for the most homeowners (and garage door types). This type of seal works best on concrete floors that are smooth and level.

By choosing a durable seal material such as vinyl or rubber, you can create a robust T-seal barrier. And naturally, we recommend regularly inspecting your seal and replacing it as needed to maintain this barrier, the same as you would with any other seal in your house. Note that pricing varies depending on the material, door size, brand, and whether your door needs any repairs before you can install a seal.

Garage door bottom seals are designed to create a tight barrier between the bottom edge of your garage door and your garage floor. T-seals, named for their T-shaped edges, are a popular choice mainly for their universal compatibility for garage doors. The standard "T" design fits around the single-channel retainers found on the majority of residential garage doors, making them easy to use.

When your garage door closes, the flexible bottom portion of the T-seal compresses against the garage floor. This compression creates the precise barrier that keeps the elements and pests out. While other specialized seal types might offer unique benefits for specific situations, the T-seal provides a good balance of effectiveness and versatility for the average homeowner. It's worth noting that you can also use them in tandem with threshold seals for your garage door, if you need some extra protection against intrusion.

One of the other great perks of a T-seal is essentially simple DIY installation. All you need to do is slide the old seal off the retainer channel at the bottom of the door, and slide on the new T-seal, and voila! You are all set.

A good quality T-seal is designed to create a watertight barrier when the door is closed. If you don't have a good seal, water might seep under your garage door during rainstorms or snowmelt, which can lead to issues such as dampness and mold growth. The flexible material design of a T-seal gives it the perfect ability to fit well around the underside of your garage door, thus ensuring no water intrusion.

Unsurprisingly, this makes T-seals just as useful for stopping drafts from entering. This may not seem like a big deal, but the temperature of your garage can impact the temperature inside your home, which in turn impacts your power bill each month. By keeping cold air out during winter and hot air out during summer, you can have a more comfortable garage temperature and better overall energy efficiency for your house. These seals are also great at preventing pests from entering and finding places to live if you have not recently decluttered your garage.

While specialized garage door seals exist for unique, one-off needs, T-seals offer a must-have combination of versatility, easy installation, and effective protection against pests and the elements alike. We love that they work on virtually any garage door, and that they are readily available for DIY at most hardware stores. By ensuring you have a good quality T-seal installed, you should notice fewer (if any) weather and pest issues. Your garage will thank you.