Door seal (weatherstrip)

A door seal (or weatherstrip) is the flexible strip — rubber gasket, brush pile, silicone bulb or foam — fitted around the edge of a door or window so that, when it's shut, the gap to the frame is closed. In Dubai it earns its keep on three fronts: it keeps fine dust and sand out, stops hot outside air and humidity leaking in, and — the one people feel on the bill — stops your cooled air escaping, which makes the AC work harder. Aluminium windows and sliding doors rely on EPDM or silicone gaskets seated in the frame's channels (a different job from the thermal break that stops heat conducting through the metal); hinged doors often add a brush or bulb strip along the bottom — a 'door sweep'. Seals are a consumable: UV and heat make them harden, shrink and tear over a few years, which is why an old villa suddenly turns draughty and dusty. Re-sealing is cheap and high-impact — for windows and sliding doors it's best matched and fitted by an aluminium and metalwork specialist in Dubai, who seats the right profile in the right channel rather than gluing on a generic strip.