How to stop dirt from coming in under front door?

April 1, 2013 5:26 PM

So. I live on the ground floor. My apartment complex hires leafblowers to come and blow leaves and dirt out of the parking lot twice a week. Every time they come to do this, I come home to dirt, in the entryway of my apartment, that has blown in under my front door. It's a new door, with a new rubber guard at the bottom. How can I prevent this from happening?
posted by sevensnowflakes to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

They shouldn't be blowing crap against the building anyway because that same dirt gets in other cracks and window sills etc. and makes the place less clean/attractive over time. Tell your complex's management company that you're finding an amount of dirt that suggests that they are pushing things toward the building.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:36 PM on April 1, 2013 [8 favorites]

Have you considered a Draft Stopper?

I think a heavy one may help so the leaf blower doesn't move it out of the way. There are also DIY versions that you can fill with rice or beans.
posted by Crystalinne at 5:36 PM on April 1, 2013

Is the rubber guard on the inside? Put one on the outside. A cheap one is self-adhesive, and.... cheap. But it'd do the trick.

Or you could just roll up a towel and duct-tape it to the bottom of your door on leaf-blowing days.
posted by matty at 5:37 PM on April 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

They shouldn't be blowing (much) towards the door, as someone else noted.

The "new rubber guard" may not be properly installed or not properly adjusted if it is failing to stop the dirt. Most of the time, these sorts of things are kind of maybe installed so that they kinda sorta look like they're working, but you might want to take some pictures (post here? show to a QUALITY hardware store, i.e. not Big Box Home Improvement, etc).
posted by jgreco at 5:48 PM on April 1, 2013

Really, they should not be blowing at all, period. Is there really that much new dirt arriving in the parking lot that blowing it out is necessary twice a week? In general blowing leaves is blamed for stirring up toxic materials including molds and chemicals in particulate form. Once or twice a year is one thing. Every three or four days is crazy, and you should complain to the management. Your rent is paying for this. Every blowing session just stirs up the dust, it settles elsewhere, and then they come back and blow it around again. What for?
posted by beagle at 6:08 PM on April 1, 2013

Complain to the management, sure (they may or may not care; they're not all responsivie), but you could also put up a big sign on the front door directed to those doing the blowing to ask them not to blow stuff toward the building.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:16 PM on April 1, 2013

Best answer: A double-sided draft stopper might stay in place better.
posted by Morrigan at 6:19 PM on April 1, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Trust me, beagle, I'm with you about the blowing. However, calling my management company incompetent would be charitable, and I'm currently locking horns with them over something lease-related, so I've gotta go with the DIY fix on this one.
posted by sevensnowflakes at 6:19 PM on April 1, 2013

Best answer: Sorry for my ignorance, but is the rubber guard like a door sweep? If not, a door sweep might help.
posted by Bokmakierie at 7:47 PM on April 1, 2013

Open your front door and look at the part the door goes over when it's closed. The door sill. Is it screwed to the floor? Tightly? If you put your eyeballs by the floor and try to look underneath it, can you see daylight through the cracks? You might be able to unscrew it, pull that sill piece up off the floor, and put down either some insulate goo or some caulk or a piece of foam underneath it. Then screw it back down on top of whatever you fill in there, and see if the problem persists.
posted by carsonb at 8:49 PM on April 1, 2013

Can you post a picture of the bottom of the door / sill? That might help people to give useful suggestions to seal this up to prevent the problem.
posted by ssg at 12:41 AM on April 2, 2013

Can you just leave the maintenance crew a note asking them to please blow away from your door? Better yet if you're there to ask them in person one morning. If you're nice they probably won't have a problem changing the routine slightly. You could also look for a number on their vehicles and call the office.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:36 PM on April 2, 2013

There's a product called collapsible water dam which is usually used for accessible showers. It stands 1.25 inches but collapses to .25 inches if you step on it. I'm not sure about the installation and how permanent it is but it could help keep dirt out without being a tripping hazard.
posted by jaimystery at 6:22 PM on April 2, 2013