How to insulate a balcony door for the winter with your own hands

• 1 Materials for self-insulation of a balcony door
• 2 About the choice of insulation
• 3 How to insulate a wooden balcony door
• 4 Work on the insulation of a plastic balcony door
• 5 Insulation of slopes and door adjustment

With the arrival of autumn, many people begin to think about the imminent onset of cold weather and the need to insulate their home. For residents of multi-storey buildings, the most relevant information is how to insulate a balcony door for the winter, because if the balcony is not glazed, it is from its door that most of all can blow and the apartment will be cold.

We insulate wooden doors

One of the primary reasons for cold access to an apartment is the installation of a wooden door on the balcony. In principle, if we assume that the door leaf is a wooden structure, then such a door is simply irreplaceable. But often, the doors to the balcony consist of panels that are not able to cope with such a task as keeping the precious heat in the apartment. Too many problems drag such doors to the balcony with them:

• poor sealing of joints;
• poor insulation, and often generally non-insulated door leaf;
• drafts;
• poor-quality embedding of slopes.

First of all, before starting work, you should determine all the reasons, and only then proceed to eliminate them. And if you carry out everything in a complex, then the result is guaranteed.

Cutting and laying insulation

The next step in warming the door leaf will be laying the material that will make it warmer... To do this, you need to arm yourself with a clerical knife. Thermal insulation is cut along the length and width of the web so that there is no empty space. If the door is a frame with voids, then they need to be filled with insulation.

Insulation is tightly inserted between the bars

All pieces must be tightly inserted between the bars to prevent the formation of cold bridges. At the same time, the material should not bubble, which will indicate an excessively large margin. In this case, it is worth cutting off the excess material a little. As soon as everything is adjusted, you need to fix the insulation with staples. This can be done quickly and efficiently with a construction stapler.

Necessary materials

To carry out work on the insulation of wooden balcony doors with your own hands, you first need to stock up on all the materials that are required for this. First of all, you need to purchase insulation. This material is different for each direction. For example, for arranging the door leaf, we stock up on foam rubber, insulate the slopes with foam or glass wool, to seal the joints we use a conventional seal. You will also need wood putty, door upholstery material and plaster mixes for finishing slopes.

How to insulate front doors

By and large, the plastic construction is a frame made of a load-bearing metal-plastic profile with plastic or glass inserts. The first, as a rule, are arranged according to the sandwich principle and include a heat-insulating layer. Glass windows are designed as sealed windows: a mixture of inert gases is pumped between the glasses, which act as a heater. That is, the design, in principle, ensures the preservation of heat in the room.

It is important to achieve not only thermal insulation of the door block itself, but also the tightness of the structure, that is, the tightness.The entrance insulated plastic door is upholstered perimeter with a sealing rubber tape. For greater density, it is recommended to lubricate the tape with a special grease.

It is possible and necessary to insulate plastic doors for the winter in a private house based on the reason for the loss of heat.

• Oddly enough, the glass inserts are the first factor here. Despite the tightness of this design, glass itself does not contribute to heat retention in any way. The heat insulator is air, an inert gas or even a vacuum between the glasses. The main reason for the dysfunction of such a gasket is a violation of the tightness, for example, if the sealant is damaged. In this case, the glass inserts on the entrance sash must be replaced with airtight ones.

In order to make a street sash of such a plan insulated, energy-saving glass can be installed. They retain heat better under all circumstances, but this solution is more expensive.

• The second reason is the poor sealing of the gaps during installation. Such gaps need not only be closed, but insulated and carefully repaired. To fix the situation with your own hands, you need to remove the foam by cleaning the gap. Then you need to fill the gap with foam as tightly as possible, and then foam or plaster.

In their home, such repairs are performed independently, since there is nothing complicated in this work. In the office building, repairs are, of course, carried out by specialists.

• The third reason, which is equally common both in a private house and in an office building, is the sagging of the street sash. Over time, any product wears out and this fully applies to a plastic door. In this case, insulating for the winter means adjusting the sash.

To begin with, they determine exactly how the door sagged, since in appearance it can be completely invisible. Consider the seal: in places of displacement it will be more crushed or even damaged. Correlating the location of the damage with the displacement of the entrance sash, they begin to adjust in order to make the door insulated.

So, if the upper corner of the sash has shifted and ceased to fit snugly, with a hex wrench tightens the screw on the upper hinge, having previously removed the plug from it. If the lower corner sags, do the same with your own hands with the lower loop.

In those cases when the street sash descends under its own weight, vertical adjustment is carried out: for this, the screws on the lower hinges are turned clockwise.

Step-by-step instruction

With the problem of how to insulate a wooden balcony door with your own hands, this instruction will help you figure it out:

• We clean the door leaf from the old paint and carefully examine it for where there are defects in the thermal insulation. We seal all the joints of the panels with putty.
• We release the door leaf from all kinds of fittings: hinges, handles and other things. We arrange it so that it is convenient to carry out the work. We cut the upholstery material in pieces with dimensions that will be slightly larger than the insulated surface, and attach it along one edge of the door. For this, it is better to use special upholstery nails.
• We put foam rubber on the surface to be insulated.
• Gradually pulling the upholstery fabric from the fixed edge, we continue to fasten it every 15–20 cm. At the same time, do not forget to tuck the edge of the upholstery inward.
• Then three foam rubber strips are cut in accordance with the following dimensions: the width is equal to the thickness of the door, and the length of two strips is its height, and the third is the width. We also harvest strips from upholstery material. The length of these strips is the same as that of foam rubber, and the width is about 10-15 cm. Strips of finishing material are nailed on three sides.
• We equip a seal made of foam rubber strips, wrapping them with already attached upholstery, and then fix them so that they can block the gap between the door frame and the canvas itself.
• We mount the hardware on the canvas and install it in place. For additional sealing, you can lay a seal around the perimeter of the box. However, if all the insulation work is done correctly, then this may not be necessary.
• In order to qualitatively insulate a balcony door for the winter, it is necessary to close up the gaps between the door leaf and the glass.

Related article: Glazing of a balcony with a roof: we insulate the last floor

You can insulate the door leaf on one side or on both sides at the same time.

In addition, it should be remembered that the balcony door is not always the cause of heat loss. Cold can also penetrate through the slopes of the window structure, in this regard, they should also be given special attention.

How to choose a heater?

High-quality insulation helps to avoid cold getting into the room and prevents heat loss. Materials designed to get rid of the cold in rooms can be found in any hardware store. When choosing a heater, you need to know the varieties and the main advantages of each of them.

• Foam rubber
  ... Relatively cheap and easy to use. It can be fixed with special glue or with nails. It is easy to insulate a room with foam rubber, but its main disadvantage is fragility. Due to the difference in temperature and humidity, after 2-3 years, it collapses and loses its insulating properties.

Foam rubber

• Plastic wool
  ... Despite its popularity, it has some drawbacks. It absorbs moisture well, creating suitable conditions for the reproduction of fungal organisms. After some time, the layer of formation wool is displaced, which affects its insulating properties.

Cotton wool

• Izolon
  ... Refers to a group of modern heaters. It has a number of undeniable advantages. High thermal insulation and minimal insulation thickness provide reliable protection from the cold. Relatively resistant to climatic changes. A significant drawback is the high price.

Izolon

• Expanded polystyrene
  ... It is a thermoplastic polymer. You can insulate the balcony door with polystyrene foam yourself. It retains heat well and is easy to use.

Expanded polystyrene

• Polyurethane foam
  ... Fills in gaps around the entire perimeter of the door. Affordable and easy to use. Insulating the gaps with polyurethane foam is the best solution. It reliably protects the room from the effects of cold air and is resistant to temperature extremes.

Polyurethane foam

• Penofol
  ... Perfect for carrying out heat-insulating work with a wooden door. It is a combination of polyethylene and aluminum foil. It retains heat well and has good sound insulation. Penofol can be fixed with ordinary nails, which will not affect its insulation properties.

Penofol

We insulate plastic doors

The process of insulating a plastic structure as such is impossible, since the structure is manufactured in finished form and does not provide for this kind of work. Based on this, when ordering the appropriate PVC products, it is worth consulting with specialists in advance and choosing the required configuration.

Types of double-glazed windows

It is best when the ordered products contain a two-chamber or three-chamber double-glazed unit. Although there are times when doors are installed without using double-glazed windows. But it doesn't always look aesthetically pleasing. Answering the question of how to insulate a plastic balcony door, we come to the following conclusion. Since PVC doors are a sealed structure, the problem of cold air entering the apartment should be solved by eliminating cracks in the slopes and thresholds, as well as replacing the sealing gum. Another reason is the incorrectly adjusted door.We will figure out how you can eliminate all these disadvantages with your own hands.

Insulation of a wooden balcony door

We will consider the insulation of a plastic door later, and start with a wooden one. The whole process can be divided into three main stages. And they should be applied in a comprehensive manner to achieve maximum effect.

Stage one - elimination of gaps between the door and the frame. The best place to start is at this point. It is necessary to visually see the fit of the wooden door and the frame around the perimeter. If there are large distortions or irregularities, you may have to use a plane, but we hope that everything will go by simply adjusting the loops. After the distortions are eliminated, it is necessary to glue the usual seal at the joints, which is sold in any store, or in the construction market. And after that, you can proceed to the second stage.

Determine the reason

Choosing a way to insulate a balcony door on your own for the winter, we determine the weak points. This is not difficult at all, you need to follow these steps:

• Inspect the slopes. The fact is that when performing work on the installation of a balcony structure, the integrity of the slopes is most often violated. Voids may appear when the cracks are blown out with polyurethane foam. You can check this fact with a lit candle. Its flame will tell you exactly where the cold air flows.
• Checking the threshold. This is one of the weakest points. He gets the most attention.
• After installing the door structure, we check the tightness of its abutment. If necessary, we carry out the appropriate adjustment of the fittings.

Do not forget that the density of the door to the door frame in winter and summer should be different. Therefore, twice a year we carry out the procedure for regulating the structure - transfers to the appropriate operating modes.

Freezing reasons

The reasons why the front door freezes during the cold season are presented in the list below:

• Sudden changes in air temperature. When the rooms are warm and cold outside, the canvas experiences stress, as a result of which condensation forms on the surface, which eventually freezes and turns into an ice crust.
• Poor insulation. If, during installation, the owners saved on insulation, or did not resort to using it at all, one should not be surprised if the front door is frozen under the influence of low temperatures from the outside.
• Small thickness. The thinner the door, the more it is exposed to freezing, the speed of which is inversely proportional to the thickness of the leaf.

In the conditions of the Russian climate, freezing of the front door is becoming a serious problem, which should be addressed long before the next cold season. You can avoid freezing - you can actually carry out the necessary measures on your own.

Insulation of slopes

Sectional slope trim

Related article: Bathroom renovation in Khrushchev

This process is performed in several ways, for clarity, we will pay attention to plastic slopes and consider an example of their insulation. The work should be performed according to the following algorithm:

• First of all, the crate is mounted. It is better to execute it from a metal profile, since it is in these places that a large amount of moisture accumulates. The wooden structure can be deformed.
• We attach the starter strip of plastic to the edge of the PVC structure.
• We put insulation inside the crate.
• Insert plastic into the starting strip and close the gap between it and the opening with a special plastic corner.

Before starting the insulation of the balcony door with sealing the slopes, do not forget to check how well the foaming of the joints is made.

In a similar way, you can insulate the slopes using drywall. But in this case, you will have to perform additional work on finishing the slopes.They will need to be putty and painted. Slopes are also insulated with foam. For this, special adhesive mixtures are used. After installing the foam sheets, they should be reinforced and putty.

How to insulate a wooden door leaf?

Not so long ago, as a material for insulating wooden doors used cotton wool, which, although it has high thermal insulation parameters, absorbs moisture very strongly. And, as you know, dampness leads to the appearance of harmful microorganisms, mold and mildew. At the same time, the operational resource of the wadded insulation is no more than 3 years.
To date, a wide range of heaters has appeared on the building materials market. Therefore, the consumer can choose a suitable thermal insulation for a wooden entrance door. from the following list:

• Foam rubber is considered practical and easy to install. But due to the fact that it strongly saturates water, after a fairly short period of time it loses its main characteristics and it will need to be replaced.
• Mineral wool is a basalt and synthetic fiber insulation that does not rot. But due to the ability of the material to sink under the upholstery, it is difficult to achieve the visual appeal of the door leaf.
• Synthetic insulation - isolon. This material has high thermal insulation characteristics with a small thickness.
• Foam boards are a material with a minimum weight. But insulation with foam is slightly different from using roll materials.