Design Hardware Drip Cap Sweep with Vinyl

Two lengths are offered, 36 inch and 48 inch, both in mill finish. The 36 inch covers a standard 36 inch commercial leaf, and the 48 inch is there to be cut down for openings between the two or trimmed to fit a 42 or 48 inch leaf. The body is 6063-T5 extruded aluminum, so it cuts clean with a miter saw and a non-ferrous blade or a hacksaw; trim the vinyl blade to match. Cut from one end and keep the fastener holes you need.

The aluminum section is 1-3/4 inches high and 1/4 inch thick, and it mounts to the face of the door near the bottom rail, so the vinyl blade reaches down past the door edge to meet the sill. Measure from where you plan to set the fastener line down to the top of your threshold: you need that gap to be less than the drop of the body plus the vinyl, and you want the blade to sweep the threshold with light contact, not drag on it. On a door with a large undercut over a low sill, a drip cap sweep may not reach and a taller sweep or a raised threshold is the fix.

It mounts to either. The 1/4 inch thick aluminum body screws to the face of the door bottom rail, which is how sweeps go on hollow metal, wood, and aluminum storefront leaves alike. On storefront, check the bottom rail depth first: the section is 1-3/4 inches high, so you need that much flat rail face below your glass stop to land it without fouling the glazing or the bottom rail screws. On a narrow bottom rail door there may not be room, and a threshold-mounted seal is the alternative.

A drip cap sweep does two jobs at once. The extruded aluminum body carries a projecting drip cap that throws rainwater running down the face of the door out away from the sill instead of letting it run under, and a heavy duty gray vinyl blade seals the gap between the door bottom and the threshold. Use it on exterior openings that take weather, especially doors with no overhang or awning above them. On an interior door, or a protected exterior door where you only need to stop drafts, light and dust, a plain sweep with no cap is the simpler part.

Exterior face, on the pull side of an outswing door where the weather hits it. The drip cap only works if the water running down the door face reaches it, so putting it on the inside defeats the whole point of buying the cap version. The vinyl blade seals the same either way, but the aluminum lip has to be outboard.

Mill finish is the raw 6063-T5 aluminum with no coating, and both lengths are supplied that way. Aluminum self-passivates, so it will not rust like steel, but mill finish weathers to a dull gray and picks up handling marks and water staining over time. On a service door, a loading dock, or the back of a building nobody looks at, it is fine as it is. On a storefront or a main entrance where it sits below anodized aluminum door stiles and has to match, a clear or dark bronze anodized sweep is the better visual match.

One per single leaf. On a pair of doors, you need two, one on each leaf, sized to each leaf width rather than the full opening. Buying the same part across the building is the usual approach for a property manager standardizing a fleet: same 6063-T5 aluminum body, same gray vinyl blade, same mill finish on every door, and one spare length on the shelf covers the next replacement. Order the 36 inch for standard 36 inch leaves and the 48 inch where you need to trim to a wider or odd leaf.

The blade is heavy duty gray vinyl, which is the thicker grade meant for doors that cycle constantly, not the thin insert used on light residential sweeps. It is the wear part: the 6063-T5 aluminum carrier stays put and the vinyl is what eventually goes flat or splits from dragging on grit at the sill. On a high cycle opening, plan on replacing the sweep when the blade stops touching the threshold, and set the mounting height so the blade just kisses the sill rather than dragging hard, which is what shortens vinyl fastest.