The high here in Nicholasville, Kentucky today is 35 degrees.

Right now, as I look outside, there’s a flurry of white flakes.

I’m sitting at my desk wrapped up in a giant, cozy sweater and a fleece blanket because, to me, anything below 70 degrees is unacceptable and if someone offered me a house in Florida, I would take it immediately.

That’s how much I hate the cold.

So, while we discuss the havoc winter and the cold wreaks on my life, we can also discuss the question we were recently hit with: “Will cold weather damage my exterior doors? If so, what can I do to help my hardware?”

And much like I winterize myself for the upcoming months (read: leave my house as little as possible, wear nothing but fleece leggings and sweatshirts, etc.) there are actually quite a few things you can do to get your hardware ready that involve weather stripping, key covers and more.

Check Your Weather Stripping Gaps

The weather stripping around your doors exists for a reason. It’s there to prevent the outside elements from sneaking into your facilities. Weather stripping surrounds your exterior doors and helps keep rain water and cold air from seeping in through the gaps in those cold winter months.

If you look around your doors that have weather stripping, see if you can see any light peeking through. If you do, that’s a sign your weather stripping is starting to gap and needs to be replaced.

Magnetic Key Covers

The biggest selling point for magnetic key covers is they can help prevent the tampering of your facility locks. A few years ago, we had an incident where one of our clients was constantly being hit with vandals supergluing their locks shut. It was a headache and a big hit to the wallet until we placed magnetic key covers on all of their locks. This kept the the locks hidden from view during non-operating hours.

While this is a great perk, magnetic key covers are also quite handy at preventing your locks from freezing over. This is just one more thing to add to your list of items to not worry about. How great is that? Plus, they’re simple to use.

Are Your Strikes and Latches a Match?

When your exterior doors are in the closed position, everything needs to be sealed to keep the cold out. This also pertains to the latch and the strike. The latch needs to fit securely within the strike with little to no gaps.

This helps seal the door tighter and prevents even more cold air, rain, or snow from leaking into your facility.

Lubricate Your Hinges

I sound like a broken record in the winter with this one, but it really does make a difference. With all of the heaters running in the winter and cold winds blowing, it’s not a shock there is little to no moisture to be found. This can lead to dried out hinges and those can lead to damaged doors.

If the doors don’t close properly, this can allow for gaps in the door for cold air to leak in and that can cause your heating bill to take a hit. Well lubricated hinges help with the overall operation of the door and need to be checked on a regular basis.

All in all, preparing your door hardware for winter weather isn’t that difficult. It can be done fairly quickly and with little strain, and it’ll save you money in the long run. We all love the sound of that!

Have more questions about protecting your door hardware from the winter elements? Give us a ring!