Introduction: Draft Stopper From Inner Tube

I had a problem with mice getting into the house through the large gap under the (rarely opened) door into the basement, so I wanted a stiff and durable barrier to stop them. Here's a free and simple fix I made.

You'll need:
A section of inner tube
Some plastic bags
Something to seal the ends (I used a sewing machine)

Step 1: Material Prep

Cut the inner tube to a length about 3/4" (1.5 cm) longer than the door. The exact size isn't critical, so you can just line it up against the door frame.

Shred the plastic bags. The best method I found was to pull a single bag into a elongated shape, roughly fold it in half, then in half again, and then cut 1/2"-1" (1-2 cm) slices off of the end of this bunch with a pair of scissors.

Step 2: Seal the End of the Tube

You'll need to seal the end of the inner tube. What worked best for me was to make a line of stitching straight across, to stabilize the inner tube, sew an polygonal half-round, and then trim off the straight stitching.

There's a wonderful instructable (https://www.instructables.com/id/IMPORTANT-TIPS-FOR-SAWING-BIKE-INNER-TUBE-SAWING-/) on sewing inner tubes, though I found that for such a short section, the oil wasn't really required, and you can sew it like any other material.

Step 3: Fill the Tube

Using a funnel and a stick, stuff about 1/3-1/2 of a plastic bag into the mouth of the inner tube.

Chase this down to the end of the tube with some sort of tamper. Apply firm pressure to compact the filling down at that end, and remove the tamper. If your tamper is not the full length of the tube (neither of mine were), just tug on the unfilled end of the tube to use the inertia of the tamper to compact the plastic bags.

Repeat these two steps until the tube is filled, then seal the remaining end of the tube shut.

Step 4: Use

To use, simply stuff in the gap under the door. Depending upon the width of the gap and how tightly you packed the stuffing, you may be able to place it at the gap and roll it over a bit with the door, rolling it into the gap.

This is a much less convenient than the draft blockers which are mounted on the door, but this door is seldom opened, and it does allow for more variation in the height of the floor around the door.