Install Caulking and Weather Stripping

Installing caulking and weather stripping is an inexpensive method of ensuring that your home is energy efficient. Often called weatherizing, installing both caulking and weather stripping prevent cold air from leaking into your home—and warm air from leaking out—during the winter months. Weatherizing is needed even when your home is well insulated. By some estimates, not weatherizing your home results in as much as a 40 percent loss of heat from your home.

Caulking and weather stripping is used in various places around the home, including joints where the walls and floor meet; furnace vent stacks; around interior and exterior window frames; around exhaust fans and dryer vents; where plumbing pipes and telephone and electrical wires enter the house; and around door and window frames.

What is Caulking?

Caulking is an easy do-it-yourself project. A rubber-like material that comes in a pre-mixed cartridge, caulking is meant to be applied with a caulking gun. Sold at hardware stores and home centers, there are two types of caulking available: liquid and semi-liquid. Caulking can be used indoors or outdoors, so be sure to ask which one is best for your intended application.

What is Weather Stripping?

Weather stripping is a strip of foam, vinyl, felt, or rubber material that is primarily used anywhere there is both a fixed and moveable part; for example, around a door or window frame. It prevents drafts from entering the house by filling the gaps between frames and moving parts (e.g. the door). Weather stripping is sold at hardware stores and home centers, usually by the roll or in a kit.

How to Install Caulking and Weather Stripping

Both caulking and weather stripping should be installed under dry weather conditions with temperatures no colder than the mid-40s. One cartridge of caulking covers approximately two window frames or two doorframes. First, remove any old caulking or flaking paint. Then, thoroughly clean and dry the area to be caulked. Any gaps wider than ½ inch wide should be filled with foam or caulking cotton. Next, cut off the tip of the caulking gun and squeeze the trigger. Holding the caulking gun at a 45-degree angle, apply the caulk in a smooth even line making sure to cover the gap completely. Allow it to dry.

Weather stripping is also easy to install. To measure how much weather stripping is needed, measure the linear feet of the doors or windows and add 10 percent for waste. Weather stripping is made of many different materials, so it's important to choose the best one for the job. There are two basic types of weather stripping: those that are self-adhesive and those held in place with nails or tacks. Make sure to clean and dry the surface on which the weather stripping will be applied, and then follow the manufacturer's directions.

By Heleigh Bostwick