Sealers are the most important part of an entrance iron door in each house. If suddenly you notice that cold air has begun to blow in the corridor, and you can perfectly hear what the neighbors are doing outside the door, in the entrance, then it's time to think about seals.

What is a sealant?

Seals are a material that serves as a kind of "protection" for the front door. In addition, the material has excellent sound insulation and thermal insulation, the effect of which is enhanced by a special porous filler.

In most cases, metal door seals come with an adhesive base, so gluing them is not difficult. Of the minuses, the same reason can be distinguished: how quickly they stick, they can also come off quickly.

However, not all seals are identical in appearance and installation method. There are also interior door seals, which have less noticeable sound and heat insulation qualities, as well as seals for plastic doors.

In this article, we are talking about seals for entrance doors, and they, in turn, are divided into several types and subspecies, depending on the type of material, installation method or type of product.

What are the types of sealant?

So, seals, of course, do not have one type and method of installation. The sealant is selected taking into account the features and requirements of the door.

For example, according to the method of installation, the sealant is divided into an adhesive-based product (self-adhesive) and a product that must be installed using screws or self-tapping screws. It is noteworthy that the first type is installed specifically on metal entrance doors, and the second - on wooden entrance doors.

Seals also vary in material. For example, the highest quality seal is made of rubber. It does not let in cold air from the street, and serves its owners for a long time and reliably. Usually rubber seals are self-adhesive and are installed on metal entrance doors. Silicone seals are less resistant to weather conditions, so they are used mainly in the installation of interior doors, where it serves in an excellent way. Well, and finally, the most budget option is a foam rubber seal. The negative properties of foam rubber, which affect the quality of the product, are a complete inability to withstand temperature extremes, which leads to compression and, subsequently, to crumbling of the foam rubber filler, on average, a year after the start of operation.

There are also sealants for sliding wardrobe doors - brush or fleecy tapes. They do not have the qualities of heat and sound insulation, as they are unnecessary. The "purpose" of these seals is to keep dust and dirt out of the cabinets.

When installing seals in the slots of the entrance doors, it is worth remembering that the products are divided according to peculiar “profiles”:

1. C-profile - installed in a slot with a gap of no more than 3 mm.

2. Profile type E (K) - helps to seal gaps of the same size, however, is a higher quality product due to the double groove, which best protects against drafts and excessive noise.

3. P - profile - seals gaps up to 5 mm. It got its name because of the peculiarities of the cross section, which in the section resembles the letter "P".

4. V - profile - also "closes" gaps up to 5 mm.

5. D - profile - helps seal up to 7 mm gaps. The name was given due to the fact that in the shape of the cross section it has a pronounced letter "D".

6. O - profile - insulates gaps larger than 7 mm. Due to its cavity, the sealant of this profile can be installed in smaller slots.

Let's dwell on the profiles of type D and E, how to install them?

How to seal iron doors yourself with self-adhesive D and E profiles

As you know, many modern metal doors already come with a seal installed taking into account the design features. When choosing a door, we advise you to focus on such models. But it is not always possible to choose something suitable, and if you bought a door without a seal, it does not matter. Installation of these self-adhesive seals will not be difficult even for novice “household craftsmen”. However, you need to remember some of the subtleties of these seals before installation.

First, you need to know what gap the door has. If this gap is not very large - from 1 to 3 mm - it will be necessary to get by with an E-seal, but if this gap is large - about 7 mm - then you cannot do without a D-seal.

However, these seals are very easy to install as they are self-adhesive.

An approximate algorithm for self-assembly of a sealant for any of these profiles looks like this:

1. First you need to stick plasticine of the desired thickness between the door and the frame. Then very strongly close the door and immediately open it. It turns out a kind of "cast" of the required thickness. We directly glue the seal itself, taking into account the size and thickness of the gap. Carefully remove the sticker and, in the course of work, glue the seal along the entire length of the frame. At the bottom of the door, cut off the remnants of the seal with a knife. Installation can be considered complete. It happens that after a while the seal comes off. You can stick it on a strong glue, such as "Moment".

How to seal iron doors yourself with a magnetic seal and an elastic band?

It should start with the fact that it is impossible to install a magnetic seal on your own. This will require a master. So what is the essence of magnetic seals?

This type of seals is mainly installed on the doors of refrigerators. Such a seal works by attracting magnets with the help of attraction poles. If refrigerators are installed, for the most part, magnetic seals with two circuits, then on an iron door - with three, for the best operation of the structure. Magnetic seals are already included with the door, and are not really that great. The fact is that in the case of a strong attraction of the magnet, difficulties may arise with the operation of the door. A child, and sometimes not even every adult will be able to cope with such a design, and if the attraction of the magnets is weak, then why install such a seal at all? After all, if you buy it separately, it will come out for a considerable amount!

However, there is a major plus in this design: the door will no longer slam when opened, because the attraction of the "poles" is in effect, so the neighbors will not hear how you enter or leave the apartment. Perhaps, for the sake of this, it is worth buying such a seal.

If you do not want problems with the installation of the seal, perhaps you can advise you to purchase special sealing gum. Moreover, this method is the easiest. Such a thing is glued into a special recess in the door frame. The mechanism for installing rubber bands is as follows:

1. First you need to measure the box by area. That is, how many meters of sealing gum are needed for this door.

2. Measure the width of the recess in the door frame.

3. To measure the thickness of the seal, you need to take plasticine, wrap it in cellophane and clamp it in the door. The thickness obtained in this case will be, in fact, the thickness of the future sealant.

4. Go to the store and buy the right sealing gum. There can be no difficulties with the process itself, since this gum is self-adhesive.

Video tutorials on installing the seal

If you still consider yourself insufficiently competent in installing door seals, you can watch numerous video tutorials.

Here, for example, shows how to insulate the front door:

And here, how to insulate a door or window with a sealing gum:

Installation of rubber seals on entrance metal doors

Even the most modern entrance doors for cottages and country houses need additional insulation. The fact is that such doors go directly to the street, which means that they are strongly influenced by climatic conditions. Therefore, quite often the owners of country houses notice that cold air from the street passes through the door, and it is not always possible to isolate oneself completely from street noise.

In order to cope with this problem, in many cases it is enough to install a special door seal, which has not only heat-insulating, but also sound-absorbing qualities. Thus, as a result of installing such a door seal, you can make the door of your cottage ideal.

Installing a sealant on the front doors of a country house is a fairly easy task, so any cottage owner can handle it on their own, without inviting specially trained and experienced professionals for this. And manufacturers of such seals make this task much easier by producing products that take just a few minutes to install.

Types of seals for doors and features of their installation

Today, manufacturers produce door seals from a variety of materials and with a variety of fastening methods. And this makes it possible for the owners of country houses to choose exactly the seal for their entrance doors, which will ideally meet their requirements and fulfill all the tasks assigned to it.

• Foam seal.

This is the simplest sealer in existence today. It is a foam "tape" with different thicknesses. Such a seal is fastened to the door frame or to the end edges of the door itself using wallpaper nails (if the frame or door is made of wood) or with glue (for a metal door).

The cost of this seal is quite democratic. But it also has its drawbacks, the main of which is insufficiently good door insulation, in other words, foam rubber can still let cold air through. And the service life of such a seal leaves much to be desired. These shortcomings have led to the fact that the foam seal in the front doors of country houses can be found extremely rarely.

But for interior doors, such a sealant is perfect - it will not only allow the doors to close more tightly, increasing their heat-saving and sound-proofing qualities, but also make the operation of the doors more silent.

If you still chose a foam seal for your front door, then it is best to attach it with glue. Thus, you will reduce the possibility of blowing cold air through the door in those places where the foam rubber is pressed against the door frame or against the door leaf with nails.

• Rubber seal.

This seal is universal, as it is installed in doors made of any material - both wood and metal.

Today there are two types of such a seal:

• self-adhesive rubber seal;
• sealant, for the installation of which a metal profile is used.

Installing a self-adhesive seal takes just a few minutes - after all, you just need to attach it to the end of the door frame or to the door itself with the adhesive side and press it. As for the seal with a profile, first you will need to attach the profile to the door frame or to the door, and then insert the seal into its groove.

The dimensions of such a seal can be different - its height can be in the range from 8 to 15 mm, and its width can vary from 9 to 21 mm. Thus, you can always choose a rubber seal that will fit the width of your door frame or door. The advantages of such a seal include a fairly low price and the ability to perfectly protect the house from the penetration of street cold and noise for several years.

When buying a seal, pay attention to its service life specified in the technical documentation. It can be different - from 3 to 9-10 years, depending on the technical characteristics of the rubber from which it is made. This figure will just show you how long the seal will have to be replaced: the fact is that after the specified time, the rubber will lose its elasticity, that is, it will become rigid, and cracks will begin to appear on its surface. As a result, the seal will cease to perform its functions.

• Silicone seal.

It has the same characteristics as the rubber seal, and its installation is exactly the same. The only drawback of the silicone sealant is that after a certain time its surface becomes sticky, as a result of which the silicone is torn.

• Thermoplastic elastomer seal (TEP-seal).

The main advantages of such a seal include:

• its strength and the highest elasticity;
• its environmental friendliness;
• the ability to withstand ultra-low air temperatures - studies have shown that it does not let the cold through even if the temperature drops to minus 60 degrees;
• pleasant appearance;
• very long service life - if properly installed, the TEP seal will serve you up to 15-20 years.

As for the disadvantages of this sealant, the main one is, of course, the high cost of the sealant. But if we calculate the difference between the service life of other types of seals and the service life of a TEP seal, then we can understand that the overpayment, in this case, is only visible, since in these 15-20 years seals of a different type will have to be bought and changed more than once.

Also, the relative complexity of its installation can be considered as a disadvantage of the TEP seal. It is installed on door frames made of wood, and in order to fix the seal, it will be necessary to cut a groove in the door using a disk or end mill. The groove should be 5 mm deep and 3 mm wide.

If you look at the seal itself, you can see that on one side there is a herringbone shank - it is this shank that is inserted into the groove made with the help of a cutter. The design features of the shank are such that, getting into the groove, it “opens up” and prevents the seal from moving back or sliding down.

Features of installing a seal on the door

In order for the door seal to perform its functions as fully as possible, pay attention to some features of its installation. In most cases, the installed seal for entrance doors allows cold air to pass through if, during installation, insufficient attention is paid to its fastening at the corners of the door or frame. In order to avoid this problem, you must use the special corners that are included with the factory seal.

Installation of such corners is carried out over the installed sealant on the corners of the doors or in the corners of the door frame, and fastening is carried out with the screws included in the kit, which pass through the holes in the corners, the sealant and are screwed into the tree.

In order to ensure that the quality of the seal is not affected by the position of the door, which may change slightly during operation due to shrinkage of the house or due to the weakening of the door hinges, installing the seal on the door frame would be a more reliable option. Since the seal itself consists of materials that can change its volume, it will reliably fill the gap between the door frame and the door, regardless of the position of the latter.

Sometimes a situation arises in which the door begins to let the cold in from the street, not only because of the lack of a door seal in it, but because the door itself has slightly changed its position due to shrinkage of the house, weakening of the hinges or deformation of the canvas. In this case, before installing the door seal, it is necessary to align the door itself, having previously found out exactly what defects have arisen in it.

To do this, you can use several methods:

1. First of all, inspect carefully the place where the door slammed - this will help to find out in which places the door does not fit snugly enough to the door frame and vice versa - where it "clings" the box.
2. If visual inspection did not give any results, then try to find places where the door is too weak or vice versa - it fits too tightly to the box using a sheet of thick paper. Insert this sheet into the gap between the door and the frame and slide it from top to bottom. In those places where the sheet will slide too freely, it is required to lay an additional layer of sealant, and if the sheet cannot pass somewhere, it means that in this place the door touches the frame, and, therefore, it is necessary to straighten it before laying the seal. door position.
3. You can also find the place of the door skew with the help of chalk, for this you need to draw a line with chalk at the place where the door adjoins the door frame and close the door tightly. In places where the door is too tight against the frame, the chalk will be rubbed off.

All these methods will help to identify how the position of the door has changed. And only after it is straightened out, it will be possible to lay a seal around the entire perimeter of the door or in its individual places.

In any room, it is important to always keep warm, especially in cold seasons. Therefore, it is advisable to insulate not only windows, but also doors through which cold, wind and dust penetrate into the room no less, if not more. For this purpose, a variety of door seals are produced, which take care of the maximum preservation of heat in a house, apartment, office, public institution.

Purpose

Door seals are designed to eliminate cracks and gaps, due to which cold air and winds enter the room. It is impossible to do without them in a private house with doors facing directly onto the street. The door structure (especially if it is wooden or made of similar material) tends to dry out or, on the contrary, absorbs a large amount of moisture during rains and dampness. Deformation of door frames creates conditions where the door cannot fit snugly against the jamb. It must either be replaced, which, of course, is not always possible, or use a saving inexpensive option in the form of a good sealant, which will extend the life of the door and help keep the heat in a residential or work space.

In addition, there is another function of the seal - cushioning, which is not directly related to the heat-saving function, but provides a softer contact between the door and the jamb, preventing loud blows and unnecessary creaking.

Requirements

Of course, in order to perform its main function, the seal must certainly be of good quality.

Therefore, it must have the following properties:

• durable materials of manufacture - it is on them that the service life of the sealing tape depends. If the tape is not of very good quality, it will quickly fall behind the door and will simply be unusable;
• a good insulation should be hermetically sealed to the surrounding surfaces. This provides an obstacle to the penetration of cold air, winds and street dust into the room;
• resistance to constant mechanical stress is also a necessary quality, because when opening and closing doors, as well as under the influence of any external factors, materials of poor quality will undergo rapid wear;
• the material should not only be durable, but also be able to bend well, not tear when trying to close door gaps and crevices with it, be as soft as possible in order to minimize the sound of the door hitting its box.

Kinds

All types of door seals are produced in the form of a tape, which has a different length, width, thickness and color depending on the size of the cracks and gaps, as well as the color of a particular door in order to preserve aesthetics. Types of seal profile may be different. A profile is a form of insulation that can have a cavity inside the material, the task of which is to eliminate gaps and seal cracks of various sizes and shapes. Compressing, a good insulation does not acquire any damage. This property is possessed by high-quality polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or polyurethane. Profile shapes can be in the form of letters of the English alphabet: P, V, C, E, O and other configurations.

Sealing tape made of foam rubber - the most popular and inexpensive type. A self-adhesive film is attached to the foam, its thickness may vary. The methods of fastening the foam tape are different depending on the material from which the door frame is made. If it is wooden, the foam rubber is fixed on it with wallpaper nails, and if the entrance structure is metal, you can use strong glue, which is suitable for working with metal with it. Of the minuses of the foam rubber tape, it should be noted that it does not differ in wear resistance and it does not last long. Also, foam rubber, due to its porosity (especially when it comes to tapes of large width), tends to let cold air through, so it is best to use it as a heater not for entrance doors, but for interior doors.

Tubular seal It is a thick dense tourniquet, inside of which there is a rather large cavity. It is thanks to the strength of the material in combination with the internal cavity that the door adheres to the jamb without cracks and unnecessary gaps. The tubular seal is made of rubber, which has a porous structure, which provides heat saving and sound insulation. Often it is self-adhesive, which makes it easy to install. Of course, any "self-adhesive" will simply fall over time, but usually it lasts from one to several seasons, and then it can also be easily replaced with another one. Most often, rubber is used for doors facing the street.

Groove seals are made specifically for plastic doors of various designs and are a softer rubber product than a thick tubular seal. Installation of such a product is more than simple: you just need to gently insert it into the door grooves. The groove method ensures minimal impact of external factors on the seal itself and lasts much longer, withstanding bad weather and sudden changes in temperature. This type of insulation can only be used for plastic doors. Unfortunately, it will not work for other door designs. By the way, an interesting fact that all owners of plastic doors should take into account is that each manufacturer, in addition to selling and installing doors, also manufactures seals that can be immediately purchased as an additional and useful accessory.

glass seal is also a separate type of seals, designed specifically for glass elements of doors of different sizes. Their profile has an individual section, and the material of manufacture is flexible and soft silicone. It is enough just to moisten such material in water, and then immediately install the door in the right place. This type of silicone is different in that after soaking, after a certain amount of time, it adheres firmly to glass surfaces and does not “stick off”, unlike simple self-adhesive seals.

Magnetic seals are made in the form of a frame, repeating door contours with an accuracy of a millimeter. They are used for metal doors and are recommended by experts as the highest quality and durable. Each of them has two components: an insert with a magnet and a soft material. Such a seal is not cheap, and certain rules must be observed when installing it, however, wear resistance and high quality can contribute to its acquisition.

Magnetic products have a high degree of tightness and shock absorption, so the door will not make noise when opening and closing, and the attraction of the door to the jamb will ensure the complete absence of cracks and gaps. The only drawback may be that, due to the magnetic attraction, additional physical effort will sometimes have to be applied to open the door. A special place among the seals is occupied by the threshold, the purpose of which is not only the insulation at the bottom of the doors, but also the increased load that the dense rubber or rubber from which it is made can withstand. When purchasing such an idea, you need to pay special attention to the quality of rubber.

contour seal good for its ease of use: it is attached to the door along its perimeter. If there is a special groove, it can be inserted there, or you can simply lay it along the edge if there is no gap or groove. Contour heaters are often made of rubber and foam rubber. For rooms with an increased fire hazard, a thermally expanding type of insulation is often used. Visually, it looks like the most common, but with a sharp increase in temperature during fire and smoke, it tends to immediately expand and foam. Thus, air does not enter the room, and the flame can quickly go out.

Also for fire doors, a triple, or three-layer seal providing additional sound and noise insulation effect. The seal, consisting of three layers (or contours), can be used in both apartments and offices for optimal comfort and safety. Additional rigid ribs make the door leaf much thicker and increase its weight, so it is important to ensure that the door frame and its fittings are as strong as possible. Such a heater, perhaps, retains heat best of all when used for front doors.

Liquid insulation option used for metal entrance doors and requires certain conditions of use. It is produced in metal cylinders and applied to the required places by spraying. In fact, it is a liquid foam rubber, which, when applied under gas pressure, quickly hardens, providing good thermal insulation properties. Its peculiarity is that it does not like places with a high level of humidity. Also, when spraying, a certain skill is required in order to apply it as accurately as possible so that the door does not acquire unnecessary cosmetic defects.

Liquid heaters are made from neutralized chemical compounds and are absolutely safe for the human body and animals.

Pile or fleecy species heaters are known to many people since childhood, mainly because their main representative to this day is felt. At the present stage, there are also synthetic analogues of fleecy insulation, but since felt is made from pure wool, despite its certain features (in particular, it is not so easy to attach it to doors), this is still its undeniable advantage. There are different types of felt that have a certain designation, but any option is suitable for doors, the main thing is to cut the material correctly, having made the necessary measurements before that.

Of synthetic pile materials, it is often popular thin pile tape on an adhesive basis. Its task is to keep dust out of the room. It is rarely used as a door seal, but it is often used for installation on wardrobe doors.

There is still the most expensive, but at the same time reliable TEP seal in the production of which thermoplastic elastomers are used. These materials have high wear resistance, and therefore manufacturers claim that they can last from 15 to 20 years without replacement. High-tech flexible plastic is able to withstand extremely low temperatures and provides excellent thermal insulation even in temperatures below 50 degrees. In addition to the high cost, such a seal is notable for a certain complexity during its installation, but subject to all conditions, its price will justify itself very quickly.

Dimensions

Seals come in different sizes: thin, thick, wide. Dimensions are selected based on the size of the gap or gap. With a slot width of 1-4 mm, a rectangular profile is used, and the material can be PVC, foam rubber or polyethylene. For smaller gaps - up to 3 mm, a C-profile seal is suitable, as well as K or E. P- and V-profile products cover holes from 3 to 5 mm. Seals with wide cavities inside O and D are mainly designed for entrance doors and are installed in the gap between the door and the jamb, the dimensions of which can be up to 7 mm.

These products are usually produced in large rolls. The footage may be different, depending on the manufacturer and the type of sealing material. When buying, you should be guided by the fact that for one front door you need to purchase from 5 to 6 meters of insulation. A little less can go to interior doors, but it’s better to always take it with a small margin: it will never be superfluous on the farm, and if suddenly any part of the sealing tape wears out, it can always be replaced.

If you need to seal the gap between the door leaf and the jamb, the size of the gap can be removed very simply: you need to insert a piece of plasticine wrapped in plastic wrap between them. You will get an impression, which will help to correctly determine the desired width of the seal.

materials

Foam rubber seal is one of the most popular and simple. It has a self-adhesive base with which it can be easily attached to the door. The thickness and texture of the tape can be different. Foam rubber is nailed to wooden door structures with wallpaper nails, and if the front door is made of metal, you can fix the foam rubber with special glue, which is also designed to work with metal. The advantage of foam rubber has always been in its low cost and availability for everyone, however, it is known that its service life ends very quickly: often foam insulation is barely enough for one season, and under especially adverse weather conditions it can wear out much earlier. Of course, you can always buy it with a margin, but these features should be taken into account when buying.

Rubber insulation is rightfully called universal, because it is used to eliminate slotted gaps both in interior and exterior doors. You can work with it, insulating doors made of wood, chipboard and any metal. It can be of two types: either on an adhesive basis, or designed for installation in a door profile specially prepared for it. As you know, there are door models that are already produced with inserts designed to install a future seal.

The undoubted advantage of rubber seals is their wide range: they are available in the form of bundles of various diameters or tubular products with a cavity inside. Along with low cost, rubber has excellent sealing properties. When buying, it is very important to pay attention to its expiration date, as rubber loses its elasticity over time.

Silicone is similar to rubber, but it is softer, more ductile, quickly torn and abraded due to constant mechanical stress. In addition, after a while it acquires unnecessary stickiness, which is also an inconvenience. However, it also has its obvious advantages: silicone is very light and aesthetic in appearance, and in addition, it is considered an environmentally friendly material. Therefore, it is it that is most often used to insulate doors in kindergartens, schools, hospitals and clinics, and ease of use always ensures that there are no serious technical problems if it needs to be replaced.

Felt sealant is certainly familiar to everyone. Along with foam rubber, it is the most popular and well-known material that was widely used in the Soviet era. Felt is no less popular in use today, and even against the background of modern high-tech materials, it still has its obvious advantages. Felt is now easy to install and affordable compared to TPE seals.

The main advantage of felt is high wear resistance during operation. This natural and strong material is able to withstand harsh weather conditions and not wear out over a long period of time, especially if the installation was done correctly and conscientiously. Due to the fact that real felt is still made from pure wool, its internal structure does not collapse over time, unlike synthetic types of seals, and it can last for years without losing its original qualities. Felt is very dense, it perfectly absorbs sounds, perfectly retains heat and, contrary to popular belief, is a fireproof material precisely because of the density of its structure.

Previously, felt was widely used to insulate any doors and even windows. However, it has several features, due to which many consumers still prefer more modern types of materials. Since it is still made from natural wool, following centuries-old traditions using complex technologies, its price is often quite high. In addition, the process of mounting felt on the door is not easy, and the master should have certain skills in order to do everything as correctly and accurately as possible. First of all, you will need to cut felt strips from sheet material yourself, while other types of seals are already sold in finished form and are mortise, which do not require special preparation.

Colors

At the present stage, you can choose for every taste and color not only a window or a door, but also a heater for it. The color range of seals made of silicone, PVC and rubber is not limited: a white seal is ideal for plastic doors of the same color, and black rubber material will become a reliable protector from the cold and extraneous sounds if you fix it on the front door. Classic black and white colors have their own specific scope: it is clear that black seals are better suited for massive doors made of iron or any other metal, while white ones can hide cosmetic defects and gaps in interior doors.

For colored metal-plastic doors, multi-colored seals are provided, which, as already mentioned, can always be purchased from the same manufacturing companies that produce doors. Transparent silicone types are suitable for those door owners who want the material used to be as inconspicuous as possible on the surface and at the same time perform its main functions.

Manufacturers

The leading manufacturer of expensive but reliable seals is Gasket LLC is a Russian company specializing specifically in thermoplastic elastomers. The assortment includes not only ready-made seals: at the request of the customer, measurements can be made and the product of any non-standard dimensions can be provided, taking into account the features of a particular door structure.

Volzhsky RTI plant Since the Soviet era, it has been producing rubber products on an organosilicon basis. Now this plant produces rubber door heaters of various sizes and profiles, intended for general consumption. The quality of rubber is high, such materials serve for a long time, and their price is very moderate.

LLC PKF "Kazpolimer"- an enterprise located in Kazan and engaged in the production of all types of PVC and plastic seals. The assortment includes heaters for both entrance and interior doors, as well as materials with which you can eliminate gaps not only in doors, but also in furniture, both new and old.

Firm "Bars-profile" from St. Petersburg has long been engaged in the production of various seals made of wear-resistant PVC materials for doors of any type. The company mainly specializes in European-style insulation for both doors and windows, producing products of virtually any color and profile, already prepared in advance for doors of various types. This company works in full compliance with the quality requirements in accordance with GOST.

Kazan firm "Polynor" specializes in paints and varnishes and construction products, but it is she who produces a high-quality liquid sealant for metal entrance doors with the same name. It is environmentally friendly and easy to use: in order to correctly apply it to the right place, it will be enough to carefully read the instructions.

Which to choose?

Before buying, it does not hurt to test the seal yourself for its quality. To do this, you just need to slightly press on it. If the quality is good, then the material returns to its previous shape after a few seconds, and if it is bad, it will remain in a “compressed” position or straighten out, but with signs of obvious deformation. It is not recommended to purchase such a sealant, and you should not look at the fact that it can be cheap: it will wear out or tear very quickly when in contact with the door structure, unable to withstand constant mechanical stress.

For the front door, as a rule, dense rubber seals are used, which have both tubular and rectangular shapes, depending on the size of the slots and the "age" of the door. If we are talking about a metal one-piece structure of the door frame, it can be insulated with a liquid material by gently spraying it from a cylinder. Magnetic heaters are ideal for steel and iron doors - they will provide the most tight closing, but will somewhat make the already weighty structure heavier. Magnetic heaters, as well as TEP options, will serve for a long time, being fixed on movable pendulum structures.

External and street doors can be insulated with felt, of course, by inviting an experienced craftsman for this and taking into account all the necessary costs associated with the material and the work process itself. Also, magnetic insulation (if we are talking about external metal doors) will be an excellent and less energy-consuming option. It should be borne in mind that felt can be used to insulate door porches, its dimensions, due to the specifics of the material, can be “customized” in the course of work.

In a log house, special attention should be paid to fire safety, so for any wooden door (made of oak or other woody material), a good alternative would be to use thermally expandable insulation, which in the event of a fire hazard will prevent oxygen from entering the room, which can prevent the rapid spread of flames.

As for interior doors in general (including sliding and compartment doors), in this case, you can use more aesthetic seals made of soft silicone or plastic of the appropriate color. Since we are talking about moving structures, it would be better, in addition to the adhesive base that the seals have, to additionally fix it with glue on wood or chipboard, depending on the material from which the door is made.

By the way, to prevent the accumulation of dust and dirt in the sliding structures of cassette-type doors, self-adhesive fleece tape, which is not very popular among door seals, is ideal, which is used to eliminate small gaps in wardrobes, chests of drawers and other furniture.

The main value of home doors, regardless of their price and device, has always been the ability to tightly close the doorway. The contour of the fit of the leaf to the loot of expensive high-quality doors was adjusted with maximum accuracy so that it was impossible to insert a razor blade into the joint.

In simpler designs, a door seal made of the finest woven leather cords impregnated with a wax distillate was placed in the gaps and crevices. In modern door designs, they are made of rubber, polymers, silicones and other mass-produced chemicals.

Good and bad door seal

The most common in households, offices and public buildings remains a rubber door seal. Thanks to a large number of rubber brands with various mechanical properties, technologists managed to select a material that is very soft and at the same time elastic, which is best suited for door seals.

The thin door seal has to work in difficult conditions:

• Contact pressure with closed doors can reach 30-40 kg/cm 2 , while the material can be in a compressed state for tens of hours in a row;
• Every time the door closes and opens, a thin strip of door seal experiences friction that destroys the soft surface;
• When under pressure, the drafty rubber material of the door seal ages quickly, becoming brittle and hard.

Important! The average service life of a new sealant made of rubber-like masses does not exceed 4-5 years, after which degradation occurs, and the material turns into ebonite.

In order to make the door seal as soft and resistant as possible, manufacturers give it a tubular or K-shaped section, apply protective coatings, replace flat surfaces with comb ones, but the issue of door seal longevity has not been fundamentally resolved. Therefore, along with rubber sealing strips, materials with completely new properties have appeared.

The most durable and high-quality brands of seals are still rubber and fiber materials, but the appearance and design of such seals are far from perfect, so their main place of application is production facilities and various equipment.

How to choose the right sealing cord

The main purpose of sealing materials is to ensure the tightness of the joint, but different doors are made from different materials and often work in completely disparate conditions.

For the manufacture of door seals are most often used:

1. Spongy and plasticized rubber in the form of strips, tubes or more complex profiles;
2. Silicone materials of similar design;
3. Foamed polyurethane, foam rubber, modified PVC composites.

For your information! The determining factor when using a sealant is the effective cross-section, width and thickness of the material. In addition, the material used for the seal is primarily oriented towards the design of the doors.

Seal for entrance and home doors

The more massive the door and locks, the tighter the seal must be.

For example, entrance doors, heavy and massive, are stressed by air currents and drafts, odors and dust. Therefore, the door leaf has to be pressed harder, respectively, the load on the door seal increases. If we add low temperatures and frost to this, it becomes clear that an ordinary rubber strip fails more.

The seal for interior doors works in more favorable conditions, so often the seal of an aluminum profile home door is a thin strip of profiled rubber with a corrugated surface or “comb”. Most often, in a door structure made of plastic and aluminum, there is a groove for laying a sealing cord, which allows you to simply replace it with a new one when the seal is worn.

For wooden and prefabricated door structures that do not have mounting grooves, self-adhesive door seals are most often used. The material is produced in the form of a tape of foamed polyurethane, rubber or PVC. On one side, a layer of very viscous adhesive or resin is applied, covered with a paper or polymer protective tape. When sticking, it is enough to remove the tape and lay the seal along the contour of the door.

Self-adhesive materials are successfully used for urgent and seasonal repairs, for example, for the door to the veranda of the cottage for the winter. A similar version of the seal can be made with your own hands from a foam tape, and instead of self-adhesive, use ordinary rubber glue.

A very good seal used for steel heavy door structures is a fabric-rubber material. A thin cord made of soft sponge rubber is placed in a bag made of polyester or Kevlar fabric. Rubber does not wear out and does not oxidize, so the service life can reach 10-15 years.

To repair wooden doors, ordinary rubber material is used. To do this, at the end of the door leaf or more often on the loot, a groove is cut out with a depth of 10-15 mm using a manual electric cutter, into which a standard door seal is inserted.

The service life of such a seal is at least 5 years.

Features of the seal

The hinged hinged door design is not very suitable for the application of solid and hard sealing profiles, therefore, the wider the door, the softer and thicker the sealing layer should be. According to the technology of designing and arranging sealing contours, when doors are closed, the sealing material should not deform by more than 20-25% of the height for soft and hollow profiles, and by no more than 12-15% for solid rubber, rubber or silicone tapes.

This means that for a thin strip of foam rubber 4 mm glued along the contour of the doors, when closing, the change in height due to being pressed by the door leaf should not be more than one millimeter. In areas of compaction that are as close as possible to the axis of rotation, the foam rubber will be compressed two to three times stronger than at the periphery. Therefore, the new, freshly laid material seals well the hinged part of the doorway and mediocrely - the vertical surface in the area of ​​​​the lock.

After several years of operation, the seal in the area of ​​the door hinges fails, and the rest of the material partially retains its functions.

In order to reduce the uneven pressing of the rubber or polyurethane foam tape, hinges with an increased angle of rotation are used in the design of the entrance doors. For interior door structures, they try to compensate for unevenness through the use of mounting grooves and seal materials with an increased degree of deformation. Relatively low pressing force allows the seal to easily compensate for the existing slots and gaps.

Among the various options for door seals, two important varieties should be noted - silicone and fire seals. The first, as a rule, is produced in the form of transparent tubular profiles and is used for glass door structures. The specificity of the smooth surface of the glass is such that any other type of seal, such as rubber, adheres very well and leaves marks on the transparent material. PVC and PPU, on the contrary, do not provide a reliable seal due to their high contact stiffness. Silicone material is best for glass. In addition, the transparent texture of the seal does not spoil the design of the glass door.

Fire seals were previously used only for fire doors and dampers in manufacturing. Today, safety standards require the use of such materials in the home. Inside the composite profile made of heat-resistant rubber is a special material that expands when heated. With a sharp increase in temperature, the seal makes the door absolutely impenetrable to the main enemy in a fire - carbon monoxide and plastic combustion products. Of course, the door must also be made of heat-resistant materials.

Why does the door seal break?

In addition to mechanical impact, the seal material experiences destructive processes associated with oxidation and secondary polymerization. For example, PVC material may lose elasticity due to sunlight. Rubber sealing is intensively oxidized by air under the influence of heat and moisture. Silicone seals eventually lose some of the solvent and softeners and turn into a very hard solid mass.

Aging processes can be prevented by annual treatment of the seal with special fluids. For example, to protect the rubber of door and window structures from destruction under the influence of the sun, frost and heat, experts recommend using silicone oil in aerosol form.