How do I treat my doors for winter? We show you how

With winter now upon us it’s not just Christmas and festive cheer you should concern yourself with. The inevitable cold snaps can have a hugely detrimental effect on your home, specifically on any timber doors at your premises.

With the, at times rapidly, changing weather this can cause major stresses to the wooden doors and frames. If left unaddressed this will lead to degradation and quickly you’ll find leaks and cracks start to appear at the worst times possible.

In order to best pre-empt, treat and protect your doors from adverse weather conditions it’s wise to educate yourself on why they react badly in these situations.

The two main problems that your doors will face is the cold weather causing the timber fibres to contract, and then expand as the temperatures rise. Couple that with the increase in moisture and you’ll find your doors are being put under intense strain.

If there is one door at your property that you don’t want to be put under pressure to the point of failure, it’s your front door every time.

Since your door will only have a few millimetres of space between itself and the frame, a little warping from the cold and wet can quickly cause the door to stick and scrape, usually along the floor first.

This will lead to you having to pull increasingly more powerfully on your door to open it. Before long you will develop cracking around the hinges and you’ve got an expensive problem developing.

Another issue to look out for, albeit less common, is cracking on the internal side of the door. With the cold weather battering the front half of the door, no doubt you’ll have your heating on full bore on the inside. This battle of temperatures adds further strain and compounds problems further.

So what to do?

Thankfully, there’s a number of approaches you can take to counteract the awesome power of our wintery weather. So fear not, let’s have a look at some of our top recommendations

Firstly, make sure you treat your wood with a fresh coat of door wax or door sealant every year. It will soak into the wood and block the moisture creeping in and causing you issues. Prolonging the life of your door countless times over, and keep it looking as good the day you first laid eyes on it.

Before you start slathering on layer after layer of protective coating though, you’ll want to ensure that your door has been given a good clean and thoroughly dried. If you fancy giving your door a fresh lick of paint before you apply a protective coating, go for it! It will only further enhance the look and stability moving forward.

Whilst your giving your door the care and attention we’ve recommended, why stop there? Over time your hinges will loosen so take the time out to tighten them and check for signs of cracking or degradation of your hinges. These will also be affected by the fluctuations in temperature so don’t hesitate to replace them if they start to wear. At the prices you can pick them up for, it’d be foolish to leave them until its too late.

We hope these tips will keep your doors in a1 condition for years to come, if however you find that your doors are in need of a little more than some tender loving treatment, give our team a call today. We’d be happy to help whenever and wherever we can.