How Local Conditions Play In
Miami sits in a mild temperate band, so you're not fighting ice or heavy snow load, but you are fighting near-constant humidity and long stretches of direct sun on doors that face west or south. That combination breaks down standard seal material faster than a drier, colder climate would - the material doesn't crack from cold, it fatigues from heat cycling and UV, then tears the first time wind pushes rain sideways under the door. If your house sits in one of the closer-in areas like Brickell, Edgewater, or Little Havana, where a lot of that older housing stock is concentrated, the seal on the sun side of the door is almost always in worse shape than the shaded side. That's not a maintenance failure on your part. It's what the material does after a few decades in this kind of heat and moisture, and it's why a seal that looks fine from the driveway can still be letting water and bugs through underneath.
What to Look At First
Start at the bottom seal, since it's the part doing the most work and the first to go. Run your hand along the underside with the door down - if you feel gaps, stiffness, or flaking rubber, that's your draught. Next check the retainer track it sits in; on houses from the 1960s-70s stock common across this area, that track is often the original metal and can be bent enough that no replacement seal will sit flat. Then look at the side and top seals where the door meets the frame, especially on any wall that gets afternoon sun. Last, check the slab itself for warping - steel doors from this era can bow slightly after years of heat, and a bowed panel will never seal tight no matter what weather-stripping you put on it. We won't sell you a seal kit if the real problem is a warped panel; in that case replacing the section costs less over time than re-sealing a door that won't hold a seal anyway.
