How to insulate a wooden door - options and combinations

Why do we need to make a wooden door? The answer suggests itself: in order to prevent the loss of heat from the living room during the cold season, reduce heating costs. Any person can do this in any of the ways suggested in this article.

Конечно, если озаботиться этим вопросом ещё на этапе строительства или капитального ремонта жилья, и сразу поставить на входе wooden warmed doors, то впоследствии никаких действий предпринимать будет не нужно. Если как раз сейчас перед вами стоит такая задача, вам будет полезно узнать, как выбрать хорошую дверь.

Choosing a door

If you decide that you just need a wooden door at the entrance, then it should be at least a three-layer. Outside on both sides it can be wooden panels or wood-like sheet material, and between them - a layer of insulation (see Insulation for doors: types and parameters), which is most often used foam plastic with a thickness of 30-50 mm.

Another option is to buy or order two warm wooden doors in one block. This is possible if you have an opening of sufficient depth to install such a unit. Between the two closed doors will be a layer of air, which will act as a heat insulator.

Everyone knows that the main source of penetration into the cold room are cracks. They can be either between the door leaf and its box, or appear in the wooden door itself, if the wood was not well dried.

In order to avoid any troubles during the operation, such as cracked and cracked wood, choose insulated wooden doors, made in accordance with GOST, the quality of which is confirmed by the appropriate certificate (see GOST wooden doors - GOST guarantees quality).

As for those gaps that are inevitable - the gaps between the door and the box, the penetration of cold air through them is blocked by installing a seal. This should also be taken care of by the manufacturer.

Ways of wood door insulation

To choose how to insulate wooden doors, you need to proceed on the basis of what causes heat leakage:

1. If these are cracks in the door itself, then they need to be filled with sealant or puttied special putty for wood. The appearance of the door after such a repair leaves much to be desired, so it will have to be painted or sheathed with a decorative sheet material.
2. If a wooden insulated door began to adhere poorly to the box, most likely the reason is its misalignment or changing geometric parameters. In the first case, it is necessary to adjust or change the hinges, and in the second - to trim the door with a plane, adjusting the panel to the frame (see Repair of wooden doors - do not rush to throw out the old door).
3. If blowing through the gap between the door and the box, you need to install the seal around the perimeter of the door.
4. If the cause of drafts in a worn wooden threshold (see How to make the threshold of the entrance door and why it is needed) - it must be replaced or nailed to the door from the outside by a heat-insulating roller.
5. If the whole door requires insulation, several more options are possible: upholstery, upholstery or installation of insulation in the cavity of the door (if it is collapsible).
6. We have already talked about the device. If there is an opportunity to put a second door at the entrance, it must be used.

The last points require more detailed proceedings.

Wooden door seal

If you need a warmed wooden door, you must first eliminate all the cracks through which cold air can enter the apartment (see What to do if it blows from the front door). The easiest way to install a factory rubber seal on a sticky basis, choosing the desired profile and thickness.

Attention! Do not rely on the quality of the sticky base. So that the seal does not fall off after a few days, put it on a good glue.

As practice shows, homemade seals are much more durable and reliable. To make them, they take a strip of foam rubber, wrap it with leatherette or other upholstery to match the door and nail the resulting roller with nails around the perimeter of the wooden door frame. And let such warm wooden doors not shine with an elegant look, but in the house it becomes cozier and warmer.

Threshold weatherization

This can be done in three ways:

• Dismantle the old threshold and set a new one in its place.By adjusting the height exactly to the level of the door leaf.
• Make the same roller of foam and leatherette, as described above, but of greater thickness, and nail it to the bottom of the door.
• Attach the sealing brush to the bottom of the door.

Door trim

The best insulation for wooden doors is foam. It almost does not weigh down the structure and is easily mounted. But the door with the foam stuck on it is not the most aesthetic spectacle, so it will have to be decorated with either sheet finishing materials, or leatherette or vinyl leather.

When using leatherette, the steps of the insulation process are as follows:

1. Remove the door from the hinges, lay on a horizontal surface and dismantle the door hardware.
2. Make rollers of foam rubber or polyethylene foam, wrapping them with strips of leatherette, and nail them around the perimeter of the door.
3. Insulation for wooden doors cut to size and obtyanite his leatherette. You can connect them with glue or "welding" with a hot knife.
4. Glue the decorated polystyrene to the door leaf on furniture glue or liquid nails.
5. Cut holes for the handle, keyhole, and door peephole and reinstall them.
6. Put the door back in place by brushing the hinges.

If you want to use sheet finishing material, for example, laminated fiberboard, then along the perimeter of the door you first need to fix the frame of planed bars, the thickness of which must coincide with the thickness of the foam.

The foam is cut to the inner frame size and glued to the door. A sheet of LDWP is laid on the frame and nailed with furniture nails. Visible ends of the frame are painted in the appropriate color.

Wooden door upholstery

Этим способом insulated wooden doors делали ещё в советские времена. Сейчас он не пользуется популярностью, но вполне может использоваться, если вы ограничены в средствах.

The process of upholstering the door begins again with the manufacture of rollers and mounting them around the perimeter of the door leaf. Then, a layer of insulation is glued to or fastened to the surface free of rollers, and a padding is placed on top of it (see How to upholster the front door).

Attention! If you insulate the door in this way from the inside, then the door should be upholstered only within the lumen of the door frame.

Choosing insulation, do not make it too thick, otherwise your wooden insulated door will look ugly and close poorly. A very dense and heavy insulation will increase the weight of the door leaf and can lead to a misaligned door.

airlock device

If your entrance door is flush with the plane of the outer wall, and the depth of the slope allows you to install another door in it, use this and install the second door. It can be interior and match the design with the other doors in the apartment, but for better thermal insulation it is necessary to make a threshold.

The main thing is that in the space between the two doors fit the door hardware, especially the door handles.

On the Internet you can find a lot of detailed information and video plots on the subject of insulation of entrance doors in each of these ways. All of them will help you to significantly improve the microclimate in the apartment. And if you use any combination of these methods, the insulation will be maximum.