Contact the manufacturer. They should replace the short w-strip if it came that way.
Or:
Get one of those pieces of stuff known as "pile weatherstripping" like you see at the bottom corners of exterior doors. They are about 1 1/4 by 1 3/4. They appear as a piece of velvety material, and are self-stick. I'm not saying anything, but some exterior doors for sale in the aisles of home depot, etc. have them stapled to the door in a little bag. Sometimes these bags are known to fall off...
Things happen.

Casey

Odds are it is just standard weather stripping that slides in and out. Home Depot sold you the door so they know which one. Go back and ask them about weather stripping for that door.

Home Depot didn't sell us our door 4 years ago. Everyone and their brother said a new front door. I described the problem to the kid (I guessed him to be 17 or 18 years old) at Home Depot and he sold me a weather stripping kit and he told me how to do it. I had to use a screw driver to pry out one end of the original door seal then just pull, then slide the new stuff in and cut off the excess. I had nothing to lose. It took $12.99, less than 5 minutes and for two years now not even air can get in anymore.

Thanks for the replies.....but....remember these are french doors, not a standard door. Normal weather stripping does not work because there's no way to attach it. The left door has a bolt or pin to hold it stationary and the other one opens. So when both are closed, the issue is the space surounding the post - the gap between the two doors which don't meet because of the post. Casey, I printed out your suggestions so I'll remember what to ask for - the velvety material doesn't sound familar but I'll try. Gammyt, there are not grooves to slide weather stripping in at the bottom. I really did go to two H.D.'s and they insist they are all made that way. Really frustrating.

Hi,
some kind of pic would help. I thought initially I knew what area you were talking about, but now...? "the gap between the two doors which don't meet because of the post" What does this mean? I am not understanding.
Casey

suggestion: buy one of those draft protectors that has two Styrofoam pieces and a piece of material in the middle.. slide one end under the left door and the other end under the right door(one door at a time and slide it right) and you'll have the draft stopped.

Take a closer look at another door set in Home D or Lowes to compare. I vaguely recall that some of those doors have an extra gasket (brown, as I recall) that's stapled on at the bottom. Maybe it's missing.

You need corner seal pads. These should be placed on the door that most often remains stationary, both on the bottom and the top on the door edge. They look like this:

This thread is 6 years old! I'm sure they've probably solved the problem or even moved to a new house by now.

Too funny, your comment was sent by Houzz to my email today, and yes, I did sell that house and moved to another - long story short I added a master bedroom with.......french doors. Guess what? New doors have the same problem! Went to Lowe's and bought hard plastic door weather stripping that slides on. It slides across the bottom of the door and secures both sides of the door. You have to take each door off to apply but the material is longer than the width of most doors and has to be cut to fit. I bought 4 = two for the french doors and two others for 2 other outside doors. Eish. The beat goes on-

Lol!

Good idea!

Sounds to me like the door and threshold needed to be adjusted.

Dear Copanolady,

Could you further describe the part you got at Lowes and perhaps provide a picture of your solution? I am having the same issue. Thank you!

I'm still having the issue and I don't understand how the pad pictured above gets installed. We have a double door in the front and an actual space where daylight comes through.

Part of my problem is I don't have the vocabulary to describe what I'm looking at or what I need.

Here's a picture of the stationary door with the used door open...there is a big gap between the bottom of the door and the sill on the outside.

And here is a picture of the actual light coming through the space at the bottom. When it was -5, we actually had ice forming on the inside of the door around that space from the cold air coming in.

I'm sure there's a reasonably easy fix for this that won't be ugly on the doors, but I just don't know what it is or how to apply it.

I am having the same exact problem, but multiplied by 6 sets of French doors for this older home we just moved into.

The problem seems to be the "astragal" in these older French doors. That's the extra piece attached to the stationary door where the 2 doors meet in the middle--it allows for the stationary door to bolt into the frame (top and bottom) and also has a lip to stop the moving door and cover the gap between the doors. The bottom astragal bolt results in a break in the door sweep/weatherstripping and the astragal lip does not fully extend to the bottom, and thus this gap.

One solution is to replace the astragal with something like this: http://www.enduraproducts.com/product-overview/astragal/

But I would like a cheaper, less invasive option.

It seems like you could treat that as you would treat any gap in a doorway where you see daylight: put some weatherstripping vertically into that crack. Apply it to the stationary side and let the door slide in against it forming a seal. I could be wrong but that's what it looks like to me.

In the old days we had spring-brass weatherstripping for the sides of doors. It was not real quiet but it was effective and it sure was durable.

I am glad to have found this thread. We are having this same problem times three. We bought a lovely southern plantation style home, that has extra high ceilings and transoms above every door. The front, side, and master exterior doors all have this large gap at the bottom of the astragal between the two doors above the threshold. It's big enough for all kinds of creepy things (and oh boy do we have those here in the south!) to enter unfettered. Mice, spiders and snakes are all an issue. The only thing it keeps out is the gators. No amount of weather stripping or the foam rolled padding or even the tracks that slide on the bottom of the door work. I looked at the previous response that showed the awesome astragal that's sure to fix this problem. Only problem is it looks like it is for aluminum or steel doors. Ours are grand, fancy wooden doors. I would absolutely hate to replace these wooden doors with steel or fiberglass, and the wooden door replacements are about 9K each French door set. Times three.

i saw something on the internet called an astragal seal, but it is not manufactured any longer.

So short of keeping all the doors taped up with painters tape until I can figure out a solution, I'm out of ideas.

Anyone know of a place that fabricates things out of rubber? Or makes wooden astragals in similar quality to the steel ones?

Any thoughts of taking them down and extending the door itself? I've done that with a few antique pocket doors. At the bottoms.

Why not just have an astragal seal made to match your doors? It would certainly be cheaper than purchasing new doors.

Any cabinet maker, or decent carpenter with a table saw and a router, would be easily able to make astragals out of matching wood that were dimensioned for your doors. I've even made stuff like that in my own home shop.

Pictures?

You all might look at http://www.vintagewoodworks.com/tastragal.html?gclid=CK_lze3F99ACFQGPaQodNrgKdA - vintagewoodworks.com - lots of really cool stuff. Specifically look up "astragal doors" - hope it helps someone

JL Kim has the right solution for the retrofit of a Home Depot door. Thank you!

I will report back once mine is ordered and installed.

Well it is August 8, 2017 and I have the same problem. Woke up one morning with 6 spiders in house - 3 very large. Right now I have my front door taped up with white duct tape. Can't use it.

"Well it is August 8, 2017 and I have the same problem."

Which of the above mentioned problems are you having?

Just had new French doors installed today 8/9/17, having the same problem

We got the self-adhesive door seal similar to the one posted above and it worked fine. No more hole, no more daylight. Got it at home depot or lowes...

Misssing this part that comes form your door manufacturer

Having similiar issue. Left door is kept locked in place. The gap has gotten really big between the doors on the bottom but is fine on the top. Someone mentioned weather guard seal to me, but I'm not sure what they meant exactly by that. I'd like to get the doors to meet at the bottom again without having to put new doors in.

With an obvious differnce in the reveal top and bottom, this would be an installation issue I am afraid. Quite possible that the door is not installed square?

I agree: either an installation issue, or you could have had settling of the house which affected the plumbness of the jambs.

Having same issue with our French doors. Drives me crazy bc bugs can crawl right in. Ive tried every strip putty and seal strips you can think of but options are limited bc of the locking latch that has to go into the hole on stationary door side. I want to rip them out and get a normal door and window instead.

I found the solution! At least for my issue ... which looked the same as Annie Deighnaugh's picture posted above on Feb 23, 2016. This retailer calls it a "Horseshoe Astragal Seal": https://www.reflectwindow.com/products/horseshoe-astragal-seal

So, though, when your door is open you still have this little horse shoe thing there? Or do you take it out in warmer weather? Looking like it's going in the right direction for a solution, though!

I have the same problem. I have fibreglass patio doors.

Fiberglass units use the same Schlegel Pads as the steel door frame.

I bought a new set of double storm doors from Lowe’s last August 2019. Where the astragal attached to the stationary door, I saw a gap, a notch was cut into it near the bottom The installer even said it didn’t look right. I called Lowe’s to complain. They said they’d order a new part. The first ones came in looking the same. The installer was blaming larson, larson said it was the installer, and Lowe’s said nothing. Months passed. I wrote to Larson. They sent me a tiny piece of weather stripping, said the installer could put it on. I still wanted an astragal without a notch, a straight edged piece since there was absolutely no reason for the notch.

lowes kept trying to help. Then their rep then reversed course. Said nothing was wrong with the door. I disagreed. Then their regional rep said they’d get one straight edged. Yesterday I received a call from the store. They said the installer wouldn’t install the piece. They said I had to find someone myself, and they’d refund me the cost.

I still believe that this notch is wrong. Here’s the photos I took. I have to retake the so you can see it with a ruler, .

Notice the notch between the astragal and the stationary door? It goes up a few inches with the top third covered. Then the astragal itself doesn’t go down the entire door length, I thought it would measure the same length as the door. .

note mice can fit through this sized hole.

I have same frustrating issue on gap in middle of the bottom of my double doors.

Here's video on how to replace astragal boot: https://www.google.com/search?aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l7.7500j0j8&sourceid=chrome&safe=active&q=astragal+boot+replacement&rlz=1c1chbf_enus842us842&ie=utf-8&oq=astrafal+boot#kpvalbx=_9sSYXvfCBc7i-gS01Loo36

Here's best price I have found on astragals: http://store.bbwood.com/t-astragalsBoot.aspx

I'm ordering and will let you all know how it goes.

All of the answers are wrong. I recently went through this and hired a pro to fix it. For $1400 he shoved some weather stripping in my 4 sets of french doors. This is a garbage fix. Finally I fixed all 4 doors myself. What you need is a bump threshold. M-D Building Products 69709 1-Inch by 3-1/4-Inch by 73-1/8-Inch TH153 Bumper Threshold, Bronze https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YUGSCC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_6VAqMTR5lSupb

The bump threshold provides a solid aluminum bottom edge for the doors to seal against, with a silicon gasket. I used an oscillating saw to cut the bottom of the astragal so the astragal won’t hit the bump threshold.

In my last house I had Anderson Architectural French doors. What I loved is that it was a single unit that included a gasketted seal on the bottom. Essentially a jam, just like on the top and sides. You could turn a hose on for an hour and you would not get a drop of water inside. They key is that the bottom has a jam too.

So when I searched for a fix for my shitty-installed french doors on my new house, I wanted to reproduce this solid edge seal on the bottom. And after much searching I found the MD bump threshold.

In addition I replaced the door shoes with M-D Building Products 43337 M-D... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PKSFEAI?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

And I replaced the drip caps: M-D Building Products 68734 1-7/8-Inch Vinyl - 36-Inch DB037 Door Sweep with Drip Cap, Bronze https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001M58S8I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_pKixN4pHg3L89

I also recommend this adjustable stripe plate which helps make sure your door latch engages at the right place so you get that satisfying “thunk” when you close the door and feel it latch into place at exactly the right place for the door bottom to seal tightly against the bump seal.

Defender Security U 9488... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D2K39BM?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Overall, fixing a shitty French door installation isn’t easy. But if you are weekend warrior, then installing a bump seal might be for you!

That is exactly what I had to do.

I still had a peep of light at the bottom of the astragal, so I picked up M-D Building Products Weather Stripping Tape Door Corner Seal, Pack of 1, Brown - 51501 to put on the edge of the door. These are stupidly expensive for what they are, but for what they do they're worth their weight.

I have the bottom sweep. Anyone now what this part is and where to purchase? is it a astragal boot?

Yes It does appear to be an astragal boot attached to the sweep. http://store.bbwood.com/t-astragalsBoot.aspx

Following

Having the same problem with drafty French doors (luckily just 1 set), can someone point me to the right direction?

@Geoffrey Hendrey-your solution is quite impressive. Did your solutions require you to remove both doors, and if so, how difficult was it to do so?

https://absupply.net/draftseal-ds346rboot-neoprene-right-bottom-seal-for-ds346-ds348-series-inswing-astragals-only.aspx?id=8446595#