Drafty Windows and Sticking Doors: What These Signs Mean

Why is my door suddenly sticking?

If it sticks in humid weather and works fine in winter, that is wood swelling and it is normal. If it sticks year round and got worse over time, the opening has moved.

Watch where it binds. Rubbing at the top of the latch side usually means the door or the jamb has shifted. Dragging on the floor points at hinges, or at a settled subfloor underneath.

Look at the gap around the door with it closed. It should be even all the way around. A gap that is tight at one corner and wide at the opposite one means the opening is out of square, and no amount of planing the door will really fix that.

Reading the symptoms

Match what you are seeing to the likely cause before you buy anything.

The draft is often not coming from the window

A lot of drafts blamed on windows are coming from the gap between the window frame and the framing around it.

When a window goes in, that space has to be insulated and air sealed. If it was stuffed loosely or skipped, you feel cold air at the casing even though the window itself is fine. You can test it on a windy day by holding your hand at the trim line rather than at the glass.

That is a repair, not a replacement. We pull the casing, seal the opening properly, and put the trim back. It costs a fraction of a new unit.

When replacement is the right call

Replace when the glass seal has failed, when the sash no longer closes tight against a sound frame, or when the frame itself is rotted.

Fog between the panes cannot be repaired by sealing anything on the outside. That haze means the insulated unit has lost its seal, and the window is no longer doing the job you paid for.

Rot in the frame or sill is the other clear case. Once the wood is soft, new weatherstripping has nothing solid to press against. We check the sill and the bottom corners first, since that is where water sits.

What salt air and coastal wind add to the problem

Houses near the water get wind driven rain at angles that a sheltered house never sees, and salt speeds up corrosion on hardware.

We regularly find locks and hinges stiff with corrosion, storm doors that rattle out of adjustment, and sills that took years of water at one corner. On exposed elevations, hardware and weatherstripping simply wear out faster.

Flashing matters as much as the window. A unit set without proper flashing and a sill pan will leak eventually no matter how good the window is, and that water usually shows up as a stain below the sill inside.

A fifteen minute check you can do yourself

Do this on a cold windy day for the clearest results.

1. 01Close the door and look at the gap all the way around. Note where it is tight and where it is wide.
2. 02Open and close it slowly and listen for where it rubs.
3. 03Run your hand along the door sweep and the threshold for moving air.
4. 04At each window, hold your hand at the sash, then at the casing, and compare.
5. 05Look for fog, haze, or mineral marks between the panes.
6. 06Press the bottom corners of the sill with a screwdriver, checking for soft wood.

What we do when we come out

We start with the cheap fixes and only recommend replacement when the unit is actually done.

That means adjusting hinges and strike plates, replacing sweeps and weatherstripping, and checking whether the rough opening was ever sealed. Plenty of houses get fixed right there.

When a window or door does need replacing, we take it out, look at what is behind it, repair any rot we find, then set the new unit with proper flashing and insulation and finish the trim inside and out. Doing it that way is the difference between a window that seals for years and one that leaks by the second winter.