Sound familiar?Toronto
- The call
- After a spring rain there is a puddle inside the door that reaches the tires. The driveway slopes toward the garage, the slab has a low corner, and the flattened old seal is not making up the difference.
One end of the bottom seal has slipped out of its channel and hangs down like a loose shoelace. Each time the door closes it folds under, each time it opens it flaps, and the gap beside it keeps growing.
In plain words
In this climate the bottom seal lives a hard life. Meltwater from the car pools at the threshold and freezes the seal to the slab, and the next press of the remote tears it or drags it out of its channel. Road salt stiffens the vinyl and eats the aluminum retainer; deep cold turns a supple strip rigid. Replacement puts a cold-rated profile on a sound retainer, sized to meet the floor without over-compressing, and the technician shows how a wipe of silicone each autumn and a clear threshold keep the new strip from bonding to the ice. The door closes softly onto rubber again, not onto a frozen ridge.
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement · Toronto
How the visit goes
Scene 1
The floor and the threshold
The concrete under the door is half of the seal. The technician looks at the slope of the driveway toward the opening, the condition of the slab edge where the seal lands, cracks, spalled patches and any step between the slab and the apron. A garage floor that has heaved or settled over the decades is common, and the shape it has taken decides whether a standard seal, a taller bulb profile or a threshold seal glued to the floor gives the most even contact. Where water arrives from outside, the path it takes is noted so the seal and any threshold are placed to meet it.
Scene 2
Taking the old seal out
With the door secured, the ends of the old strip are freed from any caps or folds and the seal is drawn out of its channels from one end. A supple seal slides; a hardened one is coaxed with a flat blade and a little silicone, or cut into short lengths and removed a piece at a time. Old nails come out of a wood rail with a claw. The channels are then cleaned of grit, rust flakes, salt crust and any remnants of the previous strip with a wire brush and a scraper, because a clean channel is what lets the new seal feed through without tearing.
Scene 3
A door that meets the floor in one line
The first thing you notice is the absence of daylight. With the door closed and the lights off, the floor line is dark from one jamb to the other, and the draft that used to move across the floor is much reduced. The door lands softly, because the opener now stops when the seal is gently compressed rather than driving the section into the concrete. Leaves, grit and drifting snow are kept out far more often. If you crouch and look, the new bulb sits evenly along the slab, filling the low corner the old strip used to hover above.
In the van
- T-style bottom seal
- Aluminum bottom seal retainer
- Track clamps
- Seal end caps
- Threshold seal and adhesive
What shapes the quoteHumber Valley Garage Door Co.
- Floor and threshold shape
- A dished, sloped or heaved slab may call for a taller bulb profile or a threshold seal on the floor, each of which is quoted as a separate choice you can accept or leave.
- Door width
- A single door takes a shorter length of seal than a double, and the widest doors need more time to feed the strip evenly across. The quote starts from the width measured on the day.
- Retainer replacement
- If the aluminum or plastic retainer is bent, spread open or corroded, a new extrusion, fasteners and the time to fit it straight along the rail are added as their own line.
FeesSame any hour
Have a question?
What does a new bottom seal do about water coming in?
It closes the gap between the door and the slab so rain and meltwater meet a continuous barrier. Where the driveway slopes toward the garage, or the slab edge has dipped, the seal alone is working against gravity, and a threshold seal glued to the floor adds a lip that turns water back toward the drive. The technician looks at where the water comes from and recommends the combination that suits your threshold.
What is the difference between T-style, bead and bulb seals?
The names describe the edge that grips the retainer and the shape of the part that meets the floor. A T-style seal has T-shaped edges that slide into slotted channels along the bottom rail. A bead seal has round edges for the rounder channels found on many older steel doors. A bulb, or U-style, seal is a larger tube that compresses further and suits rough or dished floors. The retainer on your door decides which one fits.
Does a wood garage door use the same kind of seal?
Usually not. Wood doors most often carry a flat or angled strip of vinyl or rubber nailed directly to the bottom rail, rather than a profile that slides into a retainer. Replacement means removing the old strip and nails, checking the rail for soft or cupped wood, and fastening a new strip so its lip angles outward and meets the floor along the full width. A retainer can be added to a sound rail if you prefer a channel seal.
Repair & Maintenance
- Garage Door Tune-UpTwice this week the door started closing, stopped a metre from the floor and reopened on its own.
- Off-Track Garage Door ResetOne side of the door hangs a hand's width lower than the other.
- Garage Door Panel ReplacementThe inside face of one section has started to bow outward and the outer skin has a soft, wavy look.
- Garage Door Perimeter WeatherstripThe vinyl strip around the door used to be soft and white.
- Garage Door Manual Lock RepairThe outside handle wobbles in your hand and the inside knob spins round and round with nothing attached.
Torontoinformation
TorontoOntario
Garage Door Bottom Seal Replacement · Bloordale Gardens, Eringate, Etobicoke, Glen Agar, Islington, Princess Margaret, Thorncrest Village, West Deane Park
- Town
- Toronto
- In business
- 22 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (289) 804-5885
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
2021 census: what it means at the door
Every square is one home in a hundred.
- 58 in 100 homes · older homes
- 23 in 100 homes · mostly attached
- About 58% of homes in Toronto were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Older garages tend to have lower headroom and narrower single openings, so replacement doors and openers are chosen to fit the space rather than the other way round. Measuring the header, side room and ceiling depth is the first step on every one of these visits.
- Single-detached houses make up about 23% of homes in Toronto (2021 Census).In attached housing, a resident's remote or fob may open both their own door and a shared gate, and lost devices are a real security concern. We clear old codes from the operator, program replacements, and explain to management how to keep the access list current.
Nearby
On-site assessment
Request a visit.
One end of the bottom seal has slipped out of its channel and hangs down like a loose shoelace.
(289) 804-5885, open 24/7.