Insulation of the entrance door

General recommendations

Since it is better to prepare a sledge from summer, it is recommended to warm the house or apartment in the warm season before the season beginsrains and first frosts. According to the research, if the quality of the thermal insulation of a simple entrance door is made, the temperature inside the room will rise from 3 ° C to 5 ° C.This seemingly insignificant difference can become a decisive factor - you will not have to walk in your own house, wrapped in a sweater or blanket, you will become less sick, the microclimate in the room will noticeably improve.

Thermal insulation of the entrance door will not only reduce the cost of heating and permanently get rid of drafts, but also make the "face" of your apartment more beautiful and reliable. Today, all developers are commissioned apartments in multi-storey buildings with metal entrance doors. Apparent at first sight reliable and strong, this design is an ordinary tin, which can often simply be pierced with a can opener.

Needless to say, this security door does not inspire a sense of security, and there can be no question of any insulating qualities. Through it you will clearly hear what is happening on the landing, the metal cools very quickly and lets the cold into the room, and even this sheet of iron will not protect it from drafts.

The thermal insulation of the door guarantees not only protection from the cold, but also provides good sound insulation and increases the strength of the door leaf. If your house has a plastic front door, then its insulation will need special tools and knowledge. But since in most cases we have to deal with wooden and metal doors, we will stop on them. To cope with this work any master or mistress who can handle elementary "household" construction tools - a hammer, a screwdriver, a hacksaw, etc., can do it.

Before proceeding to work, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the material from which the door is made. For example, wood is rather soft, it is easy to work with, but on the other hand, it is because of its "compliance" that cold bridges arise. When the temperature outside decreases, the wood contracts, becomes denser, and as a result, crevices are formed, even if the door block is fitted very accurately.

A gap of a couple of millimeters is enough to substantially increase the heat loss of the apartment and to provide the residents with a lot of discomfort. And the colder the atmosphere from outside becomes, the stronger the wooden door will shrink, the gap will become larger accordingly. About how to insulate the wooden door, we'll talk a little later, but for now we'll talk about metal structures, since they are most common in modern cities.

If you are lucky to move into an apartment with an entrance door made of a bare sheet, then it is necessary to proceed immediately to thermal insulation works, not hoping that the cold will not reach your floor. If the apartment is located on the first, second or third floor, the insulation must be as good as possible, because all the cold from the street will be your door.

Of course, you can change the iron door to insulated, and many are advised to do so without bothering to figure out the details. A good insulated metal front door costs decent money, but even a multi-valued number on the price tag does not always guarantee quality. If you look at the standard insulated door in a section, then its structure will be unpleasantly surprised by its elementality - it is a usual "sandwich" made of steel sheets from the outside and a heater inside. And here is the protective characteristics of the door depending on which heat-insulating material is in the middle. In inexpensive doors there are foam plates of small thickness( the cost depends on the thickness of the insulation).In higher-quality models, foam foam, extruded polystyrene foam, mineral wool and other materials are found.

Metal door

Insulation for doors can be any, and the main determining factor here is the financial possibilities. The optimal option for an apartment in a multi-storey house is a foam plastic. Even if you buy the thickest slabs, it will cost much less than changing the entire door, especially since you only need a few pieces. To fix the foam, you need to use a special glue.

Step-by-step instruction for the insulation of the metal door:

1. Remove the door from the hinges. To do this, slightly open it, place the mount between the floor and the door and slightly press the improvised lever to raise the blade. Remove the door completely will only be in its open form, otherwise it rests against the upper crossbar of the box.
2. Place the door on the floor or table, remove the removable protective sheet.
3. Inside the door leaf, lay the foam, greased with glue at several points. Before this, the plates of foam should be cut so that they are 0.5-1 cm larger than the inner surface - this will allow them to hold tightly inside.
   
4. In most cases, the thermal insulation material can not be laid flat with no slits. Cutting small pieces of polystyrene to close them would be too tiring, long and inefficient. It is much easier to blow out the gaps with mounting foam.
5. Install the removable door leaf to its original position and secure it.

But if the door leaf is not disassembled, then the thermal insulation should be carried out in a different way. This applies to the boxes of Chinese doors, which are full in modern multi-storey buildings. They cost very cheap and have a presentable appearance, so many developers install them on sites. However, such doors do not understand, and they are not as easy to insulate as others. The only way to "get inside" the canvas is to cut off the outer sheet, and then fix it in place with welding.

How to insulate the non-separable metal front door:

1. Remove the door from the hinges in the manner described above.
2. Remove all adjusting fittings including handles and locks.
3. Screws a wooden beam with a section of 10 mm around the perimeter of the inner side of the canvas( which will be in the apartment).
4. Place the selected insulation material( foam, mineral wool, expanded polystyrene) into the formed box.
5. Close the cover for the door. First, attach it to the upper bar and, tightly pulling, nail to the remaining bars along the entire perimeter. Nails can be nailed with decorative hats or regular staples using a construction stapler. Fasten every 10-15 cm.

Useful tip: For greater durability and aesthetics, you can make a frame from the beams not only along the perimeter of the door, but also lay the bars inside, making several cells-compartments in which the insulation is located.

It is worth considering that such a door will take away a little of the interior space of the room, but it will give warmth in the cold season, peace and comfort.

Wooden door

Wood has always been valued for its good insulating qualities and the ability to keep heat in the house. The most warm baths and strong houses are still built from wood. But modern entrance doors made of wood for some reason do not please high thermal insulation characteristics. The fact is that for the manufacture of doors for a long time do not use ordinary wood - they are made of pressed chips and other wood processing waste. If you try to raise the entrance or interior door in any apartment of Soviet construction, it will be very heavy - much heavier than any wooden structure. This is explained by all kinds of impurities, polymers, pressing, etc.

But, be that as it may, today in many apartments there are entrance wooden doors desperately in need of warming. Over time, these structures begin to sag on hinges, loosely close, crack or even crack. And before proceeding with the warming of the old wooden door, it is necessary to identify the cause of the appearance of drafts. If it is a crack in the canvas itself, it must be sealed with putty or a suitable size peg. If the door sagged, then it must be tightened or replace the hinges completely with new ones. If the replacement of the hinges did not help, and the door still does not clearly rise in the opening, it may be necessary to remove the sagging interfering part of the plane.

Insulation of the entrance door with your own hands:

1. For carrying out heat insulation work, the wooden door, like metal, must be removed from the hinges and placed on a flat horizontal surface.
2. Remove all hardware, including locks and handles.
3. Along the perimeter, cut a shallow groove for the scallop layout.
4. As a heater for a door made of wood, mineral wool, thick foam, foam, etc. can be used. But it's better to take a soft material, so that the door from the inside looks more comfortable and aesthetic. Glue the door leaf with foam rubber( you can use wood glue or universal building glue).Unlike the installation of a heater in the metal door, here the material should not be glued exactly to the shape of the door. Leave 2-2.5 cm of empty space around the edges, so that after stretching the upholstery the bevels are smooth and beautiful.
5. At the top of the heater, pull the upholstery material, attaching it with decorative nails or using a construction stapler.
   
6. To make the door more beautiful, stretch the brass string diagonally under the nails - so the picture will "sell" on the upholstery. By the way, it is not necessary to make standard rhombuses - after nailing more nails, you can weave a more intricate pattern.

Helpful Hint: for additional protection from drafts, nail the seal to the bottom of the door - then the threshold will never blow.

Thermal insulation does not help - what to do

If the insulation of the door does not work, and in winter you still feel the cold at the entrance to the apartment, it is possible that the insulation was not laid properly, its quality leaves much to be desired, or it simply can not cope with the load. In some cases, the cold can penetrate through the voids inside the canvas, which are not completely filled with mounting foam, so do everything as qualitatively as possible, in order not to disassemble the door again.

Another reason for the high heat loss is the wrong position of the door. Perhaps it's a little crooked, and you need to tighten the hinges. It should be borne in mind that the heater and the lath for it give an additional burden to the fittings, so if you have insulated the door in the summer, it may slightly croak by the winter. Be sure to use a rubber sealing tape to prevent drafts.

From the door it will be cold, if the builders made a mistake when installing the doorframe and loosely blew the voids with mounting foam. To exclude this factor, bring a lighted candle or lighter to the door and walk around the perimeter of the box - if the flame deflects, then the box misses drafts.

Double door

Sometimes the insulation of the front door can take a lot of time and effort, and it's much easier to install a second door. For example, if you do not want to mess with the indiscriminate Chinese metal door, then putting the second sheet from the inside you will provide reliable protection against cold.

Even if the second door is made of ordinary wood without insulation, it will still give its positive results. Heat losses will be reduced by the light of that between the external and internal doors there will be an air buffer zone, where cold air will be retained and heated. Thus, you will make a mini dressing room, which will be your guarantee of warmth and comfort.

However, it should be borne in mind that the installation of the second door will "take away" at least 20 cm of interior space, but this is a reasonable sacrifice in exchange for the lack of drafts. For good thermal insulation, you may not even need to buy a new door - you can take a regular interior( of course, without glass inserts).It is also recommended to set the thresholds. Installation takes place according to the classical scheme, the only thing is better to attach the sealant or foam tape around the perimeter of the door.

If you want to make an apartment as warm as possible, significantly reduce the cost of electricity and heating, insulate the front door, but do not stop there - order the insulation of the facade, change the old windows and make warm floors.

Entrance doors, photo

Finally we suggest you look at various insulated entrance doors: