Many do not think about the fact that they need to insulate their doors. Windows are a large draw on air temperature control; that is easy to see. Insulation into the walls is also a more commonly thought of solution for reducing heating bills. But, doors are just as important to consider. By improving the amount of insulation within the home, you will reduce the energy requirements of your home and provide your family with a safer, more comfortable home to live in.

There are several reasons to consider insulation methods.

Improve the amount of moisture coming into the home. Insulation helps to block out moisture that could potentially cause damage to your home's interior or may even lead to potentially hazardous mold and mildew growth.

Improve the amount of drafts coming into the home. Doors are notorious for allowing air to pass underneath them as well as through the seals surrounding them. Most often, you eliminate these drafts through insulation rather than just placing a towel along the bottom!

Reduce the amount of insects coming into the home. Even the smallest holes, cracks and crevices surrounding the door are likely to draw insects in. This can happen during the spring, summer and fall months, mostly, but year round infestations do happen. Even larger animals like rodents can fit into very tight spots. For example, a mouse can contour their body to fit through an opening the size of a penny!

Dust and debris filter through these openings as well, bringing with them all of the dirt from the outdoors into your home. Once thrown up into the air by your furnace or air conditioning units, this debris lands throughout your home including on furniture. Dust and dander coming in like this can lead to potential problems with allergens, too.

Save on energy bills! Any crack, crevice or unsealed location will cause heated air to leave your home during the colder months and cool air to leave the room during warmer months. Heat is highly like to escape because it naturally moves from warmer locations to colder ones, therefore causing the current room to become colder. Your heater then must work overtime to get the room back up to temperature, which causes you to use more energy that you need to.

How Can Insulation Help?

There are various methods to insulate your doors to prevent these situations. Nearly every home that has doors that are older and worn will see improvement from adding insulation surrounding the door, or through other methods. If the door worn and features too many cracks in it, replacing the door with an insulated door is a good step in the right direction. This is not always necessary through.

Many can benefit by calling professionals to improve the insulation of their door. This may include adding blown in insulation to the walls surrounding the door, repairing the door jam or by improving the way that the door is sitting in its frame. Various other solutions are also available. The goal here is to determine what the problem is. It could be a leaking seal around the door window or too large of a gap underneath the door. There can be cheap methods to fix this. Alternatively, it could be more complex.

The key factor is improving the energy use throughout your home and giving yourself a healthier living space. You can do this through improving the level of insulation surrounding your doors. You can look at each door individually to determine what methods to improve it. You may be surprised at just how you can easily improve.