Cold air coming in under the door, water seeping in when the snow melts, or a threshold that’s worn, rusted or rotted? We adjust, reseal and rebuild door thresholds and sills across Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley to stop drafts and leaks at the bottom of the door.
A damaged threshold can leave gaps beneath the door that let in drafts or water. The threshold is where people step, where the bottom of the door seals, and where melt water, road salt, rain and freeze-thaw all take their toll, so it’s often where homeowners first feel the cold or find water on the floor. At Fix My Door Now Ottawa, we inspect the sill, seals and surrounding frame to find out what needs repairing.
A threshold problem can be as simple as a settled adjustable cap and a flattened sweep, or as involved as a rotted sub-sill that needs rebuilding. We figure out which it is, fix the actual cause rather than caulking over it, and leave you with a doorway that seals against winter, sheds water outward, and crosses cleanly underfoot. It’s closely related to our weatherstripping work, but focused on the bottom of the door, and on residential front entries it’s part of our front door repair scope.
If you can feel cold air — or slide a sheet of paper — under a closed exterior door, the seal between the threshold and the bottom of the door has opened up. Usually the adjustable threshold has settled too low, the door sweep has flattened and torn, or both. We raise the threshold cap to the right height, fit a fresh door sweep or bottom seal, and set the two so they meet and close the gap. In winter, this fix can noticeably reduce the draft across the floor.
Water on the floor inside the door is more than a nuisance — left alone it rots the sub-floor and frame. It points to a failed sill seal, a threshold that's dropped so water runs back inward, or a damaged or missing sill pan beneath the doorway. We trace where the water is entering, reseal or replace the threshold and sill, and make sure the assembly sheds water out and away from the home instead of letting it pool and run inside. Homeowners who keep finding puddles after every thaw often start with the same checklist in how to stop water coming under a door.
Melt-and-freeze cycles and road salt are hard on doorways. Wood sub-sills go soft and spongy, and aluminum thresholds corrode and pit until they no longer seal. When the base of the door is rotted or rusted through, an adjustment won't hold. We remove the failed threshold and any rotted sub-sill, rebuild the base with solid, rot-resistant material, and fit a new threshold so the doorway is structurally sound and weather-tight again. Where the rot has spread up into the jambs, this overlaps with door frame repair and dedicated rotting door frame repair. On steel commercial leaves, salt and standing water at the sill often show up as bottom-rail corrosion first — the pattern covered in why the bottom of a door rusts.
Most modern entry doors use an adjustable threshold — a cap that rides up and down on screws to meet the bottom of the door. It works well until the screws seize with corrosion or the cap won't hold its setting, leaving the door either drafty or hard to open. We loosen or replace the adjusting hardware and set the cap to the right height, so it seals against the sweep while the door still opens easily and the threshold is safe to step over.
Cold air or water coming in under your door? The longer a leaking sill sits, the more it rots the floor beneath it. Call 613-265-3667 for flat-rate threshold & sill repair across Ottawa & the Valley, or request a free quote online.
The sweep along the bottom edge of the door wears out over time: its fin or brush flattens, tears and hardens with age until it no longer touches the threshold. We replace worn sweeps and bottom seals and pair them with a properly set threshold so the two actually meet. A new sweep over a sunken threshold still leaks; the fix is getting both halves of that seal working together.
Sliding patio doors and storm doors have their own sill and threshold seals that wear and leak just like entry doors — patio-door sill tracks fill with grit and lose their bottom seal, and storm-door sweeps flatten out. We service patio and storm door sills alongside standard entry doors. If your sliding door also drags or won't lock, start with patio door repair or sliding door repair.
Threshold problems usually travel with other sealing and frame issues. These pages will help:
Real door repairs, installations, and security work completed by our Ottawa and Ottawa Valley team.
Send a couple of details and we'll reply with a flat-rate price — no obligation, no pressure.
We’ll give you a flat-rate quote before starting, and our repairs are backed by a written parts and labour warranty.
Other door services we provide across Ottawa.
What Ottawa homeowners ask us most about drafty, leaking and worn door thresholds and sills.
Call us about threshold and sill repair, or send a photo of the problem and we’ll give you a free, flat-rate quote.
