Letterbox draught - old door - how to fix?

DIYhelp76

Hi,

We have an older style wooden front door with old metal style letterbox - when we moved in the inside fitting had never been finished. It lets in a lot of draughts. We added some insulation strip but it's still draughty.

We fitted a "draught excluder metal letterbox seal with cover flap" on the inside (the kind with internal brushes). It looked great from the inside and kept out draughts but when tested we found that the external letterbox flap (which pushes in) then would not work because it "hit" the internal flap.  I'll post a photo below, but basically the external flap pushes in and overlaps the inside part of the door by about an inch.  So anything fitted to the inside of the door would have to allow an inch gap!

Can anyone suggest a solution to draught proof this and also make the inside look better/more finished?

We don't want to change the door or the external letter flap/fitting.

Photo to follow.

Many thx in advance.

kimwp

When I did my paper round, there were a few postboxes where the outer flap hit the inner brushes and it took some skills to mash the paper through the two, without getting my fingers caught on extraction.

You could fit a box with a lift up lid to the inside of the door to catch the mail?

Martin_the_Unjust

Can you not put a curtain up?

DIYhelp76

photo is below

teaselMay

I'd refit the draft excluding flap that you talked of to the inside but mount it onto a wooden frame that sits between the internal draft excluding cover and the door as a spacer. 

teaselMay

It looks as though the letterbox is letting water in too from the stain inside it, worth having a look at that it might need some rubber gasket or similar

DIYhelp76

Thanks for the helpful replies.  Yes, I thought of making a frame but it would need to be a 1 inch thick frame which would look fairly awful on the inside.  It is doable but won't look nice.  Wondering if there is any other solution?  Not sure why it was left like this in the first place when the door was put in...

There is an internal porch so no rain is getting in but you're right they do look like water stains in the photo, but definitely no water getting in.

kimwp

teaselMay said:

I'd refit the draft excluding flap that you talked of to the inside but mount it onto a wooden frame that sits between the internal draft excluding cover and the door as a spacer. 

I was pondering that, but it's a nightmare for the postie- they have to get the post through the metal flap, a gap and then the inner.

Nebbit

It seems to be a deep slot in a relatively thin door. I think you will have offset the inner flap with a frame, or even attach a lidded box to the inside of the door to collect your post and newspapers. 

kimwp

DIYhelp76 said:

Thanks for the helpful replies.  Yes, I thought of making a frame but it would need to be a 1 inch thick frame which would look fairly awful on the inside.  It is doable but won't look nice.  Wondering if there is any other solution?  Not sure why it was left like this in the first place when the door was put in...

There is an internal porch so no rain is getting in but you're right they do look like water stains in the photo, but definitely no water getting in.

Have you considered the box idea? You can make it look deliberate and nice and it'll catch the post rather than it dropping on the floor.

silvercar

We have a door like that and fitted an ecoflap. No more draughts. 

I'll see if I can find it. It seems they have discontinued the one that fits inside and instead have made an outdoor one. I can't vouch for it, other than to say the inside one works well.

https://www.ecoflap.co.uk/