Alright, elections over, back to our normal sub activities

How would you insulate these French doors? The draft is wicked bad and my thought, as of now, is to tape foam along the seams on the outside of the door but wanted to see if I could crowd source some better ideas.

I like the look of them and thinking taping foam (think of those strips you’d put in your window with an AC unit) on the outside will still make it look nice since we’re not really gonna use the deck in the winter so it’d be out of sight, out of mind

Curious to know too. Gotta do some insulating myself. I assume you would want a more permanent solution. Probably an adhesive with a small barrier to fill the gap

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Install a door sweep and peel/stick rubber channel for the sides and top. If you don’t plan to use the space for the season the best way is actually put a thick mil ply film over the entire door, you’ll save the most in heat loss via that method.

Hows the weatherstripping on the existing frame? It probably has the cheap stuff, or has worn down a lot over time. Replace it. Get a door sweep too. If you want to keep access, you can always hang a heavy quilt/moving blanket or even a curtain will help over the door. Or, if you dont care about access, you could use window insulation film around the frame, but the tape will probably mess up the molding. Ideally, get some more energy efficient doors if you can.

Also, reminder to everyone to take your window screens out to let in more sunlight. Removing them lets in more of that radiant heat, and prevents screens from getting damaged over the winter.

3M does as well! I purchased some for my last house as the weatherstripping started to fail and it did a good job blocking the draft.

3M makes an outdoor rated blue painters tape made of plastic. So it's pretty weatherproof, but still peels off easily. If you're looking for something to tape up all of the cracks from the outside, and removing the spring that might work. No guarantee that it will come off without damaging paint but it seems pretty likely as long as you don't peel it off while it's still too cold for that to work well.

But you'll still be losing a lot of heat through the glass, and having more layers with airspace between them will really help so putting a plastic shrink film over the whole inside will also help.

You could also think about replacing it with a single regular door with a side lite next to it. We replaced our 6ft sliding glass patio door with a 2.5 ft square window above a regular insulated wall section for 1/2, and then a 3 ft wide regular door, with a triple-pane window in it, for the other half. It looks great and the space inside of there is much warmer than it used to be.

Weather stripping is essentially non existent.

Replacing the door is potentially a next year thing but I won’t be doing it this year

Door sweep with be a definite for the bottom and I’d rather not put a big, heavy quilt over it since this door is smack dab in the middle of my kitchen. The other door to the deck in the mud room I wouldn’t mind doing that with tho

Thanks for the info!

Edit: for clarity

You can buy insulated drapes, or double drapes with the back set being made of flannel or an insulating type material. Even if there is a small gap around the edges, it will make a huge difference in the amount of cold getting into the room. I made a set from drop cloths a few years ago (don’t laugh). Made a huge difference.

In addition to making sure the door seals are in place I would install a curtain rod above the door and in winter close a pair of heavy curtains. The process is easier if the rod you use has a cord operated mechanism that opens/close both side at the same time. We have this arrangement for some sliding doors and it makes a noticeable difference on cold days. We just close them at night.

r/homemaintenance might be a lot more helpful. Not that a lot of the advice isn’t good. I just think there would be a person on the other sub that would know this exact door.

Seriously install a curtain rod and buy insulated drapes. We did this for the all window side to the house for our 3 season porch (when I was a kid) and this literally was a game changer.

Temprary foam weather stripping for the season. Keep it shut and locked and get a thick curtain to cover it with an insulated door sweep(I use my kids old 3ft long stuffed alligators for our walk out basement french doors).

In addition to what others said, heavy curtains helps with drafts.

Another way to look at this, is the only reason cold air is coming in through the door is because warm air is escaping out the top of the house somewhere. Hire a pro or learn up and DIY a Blower door test to negatively depressurize the house and then point an IR camera around should help you find those air leaks and many can be plugged with a simple can of spray foam.

Why wait until next year? It's easy to replace. Peel off the old stuff and stick on the new.

I don't have a French doors but I plan on making 4 ft x 6 inch sandbag inside a bag made from a fuzzy blanket, to place at the bottom of the door and restrict air flow. The ones I've seen in stores, don't cut it.

If you're not going to use the doors all winter you can use shrink film to seal them off. I've used it for windows but I know they sell bigger. Make sure it's drum tight and there's no breaks in the edge tape.

I meant the door would be a next year thing. Reviewing my prev statement I left that very vague lol

Depending upon the sand you use, it will absolutely blow out the fabric warp and weft of a fuzzy blanket. Try to get some canvas of heavy quilting cotton for a tighter weave. Then less chance of sand on the floor

This and also noting that at least one shrink film brand makes outdoor rated clear tape to ensure it stays in place.

I was thinking of visiting a pet shop that sells stuff for fish. Use the colorful rocks , bigger agrigate than sand and keep it in the plastic as well as a blue poly bag with zipper. It will be heavy but the door won't be opened much.

Are they intended for external use? They look like interior grade doors.

I’ll be honest I have zero clue. Bought the house last year and I never thought to ask

I used playground sand making window snakes for my town library windows. Sounds like you have a plan!

Replace the seals. love the look hate to see a slider there

The effort is well worth the reward in heat savings I don’t think you want to put it off another season it’s not expensive like replacing the doors are

I have thermal insulating curtains with noise reduction. They work fantastic.

My replacement comment was about the door itself but the way I worded the original comment t made it seem like I was talking about the stripping

Gotcha yeah the doors would be $$$$$$$$ and they look pretty nice! Maybe a refinish and re seal/ adjust after install

Honestly? French doors suck for insulation.

Shrink wrap is the best option.

Its a long answer. Id post to home improvement. Some karma chaser will tell you everything.

Astragal in middle Weatherstriping at bottom Weather stripping at outside May need some putty added where glass meets wood Make sure casing is caulked good

That should stop air migration. Single pane glass sucks so if you do those things and still sucks, may need to plastic over the glass. May also want to pop off casings install spray foam then reinstall.

Great idea

Works, but why have the doors then?

You can open the curtains to let light in during the day if you want. If it's a warm spring day, you can open the doors.

This ⬆️ my parents hung thermal curtain panels during winter and remove leaving the decorative rod in warm weather

The thermal panels can be scrunched to expose the doors if you want to yes or see thru

If you can use a sewing machine, buying a quarter yard of heavy cotton canvas at Joann's and a bag of playground sand will make you a much less annoying draft dodger that will hold a nice narrow shape all winter. I bought this with a 50% off coupon and made 4 of them last winter in about an hour.

Thanks for the tips. I will use sand. I am sure its much less than the 3x $30 per bag I was looking into.

I just stared at that for a minute and wondered why someone would do this. It looks nice but I personally prefer to have storm doors on exterior doors and I'm guessing that there isn't a way to do that on these doors.

There’s another set of French doors on the other side but they’re just screens. Like during the nice weather we can just open those doors and let the fresh air in

I personally would’ve gone a different route given winter alone but I admit, I do like them for the majority of the year

Could you get glass panes that fit into the screen fixtures?

Potentially, I’m not sure tbh. For my front doors, for example, I can easily swap out a screen with a glass pane but I haven’t seen a way to replace the screens on that set of doors