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Moved into a home which has a wooden frame strip around the front door. The strip does not extend all the way to the ground, and there's a small gap there (as shown in the attached photo). That gap leads directly into the basement. I can stick a rod straight through.

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How would you recommend I fix this, both temporarily and permanently? It's winter in my region, and cold air is just leaking into the basement. Luckily the front door has a large awning, so no direct water has been getting here.

Thanks

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    Temporarily: Caulk. – keshlam Feb 4 '17 at 22:09
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The metal sill was sized/cut incorrectly. It should have horns, cut at where the stop trim is, extending under the jamb, to the full rough opening of the doorway (to under where the jamb trim piece is).

Also, the piece of wood the leading edge of the metal sill is resting upon should not be sitting so proud. If this piece of wood can be recessed, so that only about 1/2"-3/4" extends forward of the metal sill, this may solve (though not ideally) the issue of the gap.

I'm concerned there may be a hollow space along the entire sill that isn't particularly well sealed from water infiltration. You may want to remove the aforementioned piece of wood and consider what is required to seal this area with a 1x or 2x flooring/sub-sill/framing.

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  • Yeah now that I look at it again, the sill is not sealed properly - there is a hairline crack that grows from left to right where it's supposed to meet that piece of wood. I don't think I can get any caulk in there effectively because it's such a narrow crack. – user3203425 Feb 5 '17 at 21:25

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