The Gaping Portal

The Hundred Acre House has several entrances on it's wide-flat-face, but the two car maw for the garage is grandest of all. We often use it in lieu of the official front door when it comes time for unloading the groceries, but it hasn't housed a vehicle since we've lived here.

I get LivingSocial and other such coupon deals sent to me all the time. I used to use them to get cheap tickets to entertainment, but as a homeowner, I'm constantly on the look out for improvement deals. One that came up recently was to have a garage door opener inspection and tune up. I don't know how old my opener is or what kind of condition it's in, but I'd like to keep it for a while. So I paid for the service.

Made my appointment and had the thing looked over, tightened up, and lubed ("that's what she said"). The inspector gave it a clean bill of health but made one suggestion. The castors that rolled along the guide track were metal. These can wear themselves and the rail out over time. He suggested upgrading to nylon and would take the price of the inspection out of the cost. So I took him up on the offer. The added perk that it would be quieter seemed nice, but I was blown away by how much of a difference this made. The thing in nearly silent now (except for the opener's motor itself). I continue to be amazed by how awesome this is.

Mind the gap

One thing the inspector pointed out that he couldn't do anything about was the crowning of my driveway. Basically, houses and their walls are heavy. So much so that it causes the whole building to sink into the earth. But the hollow part of the garage experiences virtually none of this crushing weight. So while everything slowly descends, the center stays practically where it started. The bottom of the garage door, also unaffected, doesn't hug the contours of this curvature. This leaves very large gaps at either end. Let's just say that they won't keep out mice or snakes (I have found both). He suggested a concrete worker might be able to do something.

I decided to take the matter into my own hands. It seems the previous owners had as well. Along the bottom edge of the door were two layers of sealers. The first likely came with the door and was a rubber lip. Attached to this, badly and well worn, was a layer of the type of Styrofoam insulation one would normally find around pipes. At the Home Depot, I found a kit that would help make things all better. It contained some metal rails that you would mount a rubber tube to.

The old insulation and strip

Originally, my plan was to remove the horrible looking and not so well working pipe insulation but to keep the original lip. However, as I started mounting the guide rails, they tended to warp with the thick cushion. So I pealed this off as well. I made sure to pull the multitudes of nails and staples that had been used to hold on the other two layers.

Making wedges

Next, I cut a scrap 2x4 into some wedges to fit the gaps at both ends. This wasn't the most scientific or engineered of solutions. I simply measured the gap at it's widest point, measured that far in with my board, and spit it with an ax. The grain of the board made for a pretty natural slope according to what I needed. I shaved, sanded, and painted (not necessarily in that order) these two boards and they did pretty decent job of filling the holes. After attaching them to the underside of the door, I was ready for the final stage.


I cut the metal guides from the kit to fit my garage. The kit fits up to an 18 foot door, but mine is only 16. I attached the guides, fed the rubber insulation hose down (which was actually a lot more difficult that I had imagined) and finished up with something that wasn't quite perfect but is doing a pretty damn fine job. There are still some minor gap issues to figure out, but it's so much nicer than before.

The Finished Product