# Help with drafty door
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 6, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701 "2018-12-06T19:33:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2018, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701/1 "2018-12-06T19:33:14Z")
I just had a new door hung and because the whole house is sort of crooked, there’s a gap at the top. What’s the best way to block it? I could use one of those metal and rubber dealies that go on the bottom, but I feel like that would look weird and ugly at the top.
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### Author:  [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701/2 "2018-12-06T20:13:25Z")
Did you have it done professionally? Or did you have a “handyman” do it?
In any case there should be no gap between the newly hung door & the door jamb. Whoever hung your door should “make it right” as Mike Holms likes to say.
Seriously, almost all homes that are over one year old are not square any more. This is a very common issue that anyone doing this kind of work will run into an a weekly basis, if not daily.
My son has done at least four of them for himself & they all look & work well. I will have him help me with mine as I have never installed a pre-hung door before. I suspect that it is fixed with shims just like the non-pre-hung doors that I have worked with are.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2018, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701/3 "2018-12-06T21:18:47Z")
Easy way (assuming you can’t get the installer to fix his screw-up) is a wedge-shaped piece of foam glued or sticky taped to the top of the door.
Yes, it will look like crap from the inside.
Same foam on the underside of the top frame.
Yes, it will look like crap from the outside.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701/4 "2018-12-06T21:49:32Z")
You always hang the door straight to its jambs. In fact if it was a new door assembly it comes with the latch pinned together and the whole thing triangulated until it is temporarily in place. Shim to fit the crooked opening and let the trim hide the uneven gaps. Sounds like they fit the jambs to a crooked opening without squaring the assembly.
Dennis
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### Author:  [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2018, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701/5 "2018-12-06T22:32:00Z")
The previous door had a gap at the bottom which I told them I wanted eliminated; that happened, but now the gap’s at the top, which I didn’t anticipate. In retropsect I don’t see how they could have avoided a gap unless they got a door bigger than the frame, which they I guess they didn’t, and trimming both ends.
As for making it right, the work was done by a contractor friend of my FIL and I’ll live with the door rather than make a family fuss, and never hire the guy again.
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### Author:  [@pabstist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pabstist)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701/6 "2018-12-07T02:42:02Z")
Same thing with our front door, which we never use. I just covered the gap with duct tape. The door will open in an emergency.
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### Author:  [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701/7 "2018-12-07T17:21:30Z")
Hmm, that is a consideration. It’s actually half of a double door and the reason I had it changed was to put in a dog door. We’ll rarely, if ever, actually open the door, so maybe stuffing the top with foam weatherstripping will take care of it.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-drafty-door/825701/8 "2018-12-07T17:50:34Z")
They sell some rubber gasket stuff. It’s tubular and white. If you install it neatly it shouldn’t look too bad.