Garage Door Bottom Not Sealing, Need Advice

[DwightFrye]

My home is only 3 years old. I have the typical 2 car wide size aluminum roll up garage door. When I get heavy rain I get water intrusion from the bottom right hand size. The builder did a poor job installing the original seal and it was short several inches on one side so today I installed a new one of those U shaped neoprene seals made by ProSeal.

Looking along the bottom of the door when closed now there is a gap of about 1/4" for a length of about 5 feet. I made sure that the seal is completely installed in the T shaped tracks on the aluminum bottom piece on the door.
I suspect either one section of the concrete driveway has settled or maybe the house has settled and the bottom of the door is no longer parallel with the contact surface of the garage floor or driveway. I can see that the new seal is being compressed when the door is closed.

- Do I try the adjustments on the garage door opener to make sure it closes down as far as possible ?
- Do I try and shim one side of the bottom of the garage door ?
- Or do I try and build up the concrete for a section maybe 6" wide and 5 feet long and a quarter inch high where the door makes contact on that side to ensure the bottom seal compresses good and tight ?

Stuffing an old beach towel in the gap wasn't that good of a solution and I thought a new bottom seal would do the trick but it doesn't look so great.

 

[WylieCoyote]

Mine is like this on the left side. The concrete isn't quite level in one spot. I installed a new seal, and inserted a section of tubing into that end of the seal, and adjusted the garage door opener to close semi-tightly, but not so much to put the belt under constant tension, as that makes the garage door open in a jerky manner. That's the only reasonable fix I've come across. Water doesn't come under but I see light under it.

 

[Kuato]

Add some bulk to the seal; you should be able to move it away from the door and add the bulk between the door and the seal to close the 1/4" gap.

If the door is working properly I wouldn't mess with the geometry, that's asking for future issues with operation.

 

[AZjeff]

You can get oversize seals that have more reach, also glue down rubber thresholds.

 

[bcossa2020]

Pool noodle on the door bottom.....

 

[JHZR2]

I agree with the other recommendations to try to build up the seal from the inside of it with something else... tubing, pipe insulation, etc.

Id probably start with either caulk backer rod or a slip on foam pipe insulation from any home improvement store, and go from there...

 

[Hall]

The rubber seals shrink over time but in only 3 years seems pretty short of time in your case.

My old neighbor was a garage door tech and he told me to use a garden hose to help keep the rubber seal from "squishing" so much and staying compressed. Leave it long too to make up for the part of the seal that shrinks.

 

[bruckus]

Unhook your opener from the door. Manually close the door. See how it seals now. If it seals good adjust the down setting on the opener. If it still doesn't seal then follow some of the other recommendations.

 

[mrsilv04]

If the guy who finished the concrete garage floor had shown a basic level of knowledge, this wouldn't be an issue at all.

The real problem isn't with the door, or the seal. The problem is the concrete. Water doesn't tend to run uphill, and the concrete guy missed that one. The hints above to work around the problem are valid. Good luck.

 

[FT92]

If the guy who finished the concrete garage floor had shown a basic level of knowledge, this wouldn't be an issue at all.

The real problem isn't with the door, or the seal. The problem is the concrete. Water doesn't tend to run uphill, and the concrete guy missed that one. The hints above to work around the problem are valid. Good luck.

agree 100%

 

[Donald]

Look at the seal below. This company sells a wide variety of seals.

Make sure that the door is being allowed to close 100% on both side. That some cable or spring is not preventing it from going all the way down.

A threshold is also a possibility.

If rain bounces off driveway a seal should stop it. But if water is flowing toward garage door from rain it will be hard to stop with a garage door seal.

https://www.northshorecommercialdoor.com/ulrugadottub.htmly

 

[DwightFrye]

I pulled the handle on the rope for the manual trolley release and was able to push the door down a tiny bit more.

The person that I bought the house from did not leave even one owners manual for any of the major appliances including the Generac generator or the Liftmaster garage door opener. But thank god for the internet. I was able to download a manual for the opener and it included instructions for resetting the opening height stop point and closing stop point.

I followed the easy directions and now I get enough compression of the bottom seal that I think it will be more weatherproof. I did perform the safety test to make sure that the door would reverse if it hit an object. If it turns out that the seal is getting too beat up and needs to be replaced every couple of years, no big deal. It was only about $30.

Thank you all for your advice.

 

[Hall]

The person that I bought the house from...

...threw away all of the owners manuals along with the boxes that stuff came in within days of getting those things new.

 

[eljefino]

Yeah it's not a watertight seal, it won't keep a lake out.

I go through this in March when my driveway is a mound of ice and snow... water backflows into the garage, gross.

The real answer is in re-grading your concrete lip that sticks out, and possibly the driveway beyond.

 

[bcossa2020]

For several years I have been waiting to use a few leftover coils of old garden hose.

Just finished pushing it into my garage door bottom seals. Neat trick!! Be sure and grease/oil the hose before you start.... makes it much easier.....

 

[TCL]

Can't you just throw a level on it and see what the real problem is? Door or concrete?

 

[Hall]

Can't you just throw a level on it and see what the real problem is? Door or concrete?

At this point, it really doesn't matter. You can't really fix the concrete now (not in a practical nor cost-effective matter).

 

[DwightFrye]

I only had the problem when really torrential rain overflowed the gutter over the front of the house and water was pooling up in front of the door faster than it could run off. The water was coming in on the side where the bottom seal was about 4 or 5 inches short of reaching the full length of the door bottom. I carefully trimmed the new seal to get maximum length, and now that I have adjusted the door travel to really squish the seal down it looks like the gap is sealed as well as it can be. I guess I'll find out next time I get a monsoon, if the problem persists I'll call a concrete guy out and maybe have him add some cement to that area and grade it away from the door.

 

[benjy]

i keep any + all info that comes with anything i buy until its gone, BUT today many times you need to go on line to get any info!! my old craftsman snow blower had ALL the part #'s made getting belts EZE. my newer bigger costly husqvarna had NOTHING, info on line only + of course they want you to buy their OVERPRICED OE parts + thanks to my lap top i saved $$$ many times + shopping could not be any easier IMO!!

 

[Donald]

i keep any + all info that comes with anything i buy until its gone, BUT today many times you need to go on line to get any info!! my old craftsman snow blower had ALL the part #'s made getting belts EZE. my newer bigger costly husqvarna had NOTHING, info on line only + of course they want you to buy their OVERPRICED OE parts + thanks to my lap top i saved $$$ many times + shopping could not be any easier IMO!!

I like to keep manuals or even directions when I buy something. Can I find them? Maybe.

I find a lot of manufacturers do have most manuals online.

For my new to me boat, I bought 3 hole punch paper, printed out the manuals I could find. And they are all in a binder. Need the manuals to be when needed, possibly when I am in on the water.