samedi 30 novembre 2013

Simple ways to prevent draughts

By Clint Young


Insulating your home is a great way of cutting down your heating bills and of reducing your carbon footprint. Some jobs, such as cavity wall insulation, are best left to the professionals, but there are plenty of other things that you can do for yourself. All you have to do is identify the areas where cold air is coming in and warm air escaping, and then seal them up.

When it comes to draughts, the biggest culprits are usually your front and back doors. Internal doors can add to the problem though, as the gaps beneath them tend to allow unheated areas such as kitchens and utility rooms to steal warm air away from the cosier areas.

The best way to weatherproof your front and back doors is to attach strips of self-adhesive draught excluder to the edges. This comes in rubber, foam and brush pile versions. For interior doors you just need to find something put at the bottom; you can always buy the traditional stuffed snake, or even make your own out of a very long sock!

Windows are another weak point when it comes to insulation, usually it's the gap between window and frame that's to blame. Sash windows can be particularly draughty but, again, there is a simple solution.

Again, you can attach the same type of foam or brush strips to your opening windows as you can to your doors. Brush seal is better for sash windows, although there are other sealing products that are specifically designed for them. Also inexpensive and effective are the glazing films that attach to your window frames with double sided tape. More expensive, but also more sophisticated, are the glazing panels fitted with magnetic tape. Both types of glazing are ideal for fixed windows.

Bare wooden floors are a popular feature of houses these days, but those which are over unheated spaces such as cellars or garages can let precious warmth escape, as can the suspended floors that you often find in older buildings. You can either get a professional in to fit insulation sheets between the floor joists, or you can insulate your floors yourself by other means.

Flexible insulation seal, which you squeeze down between your floorboards, is widely available in 40 metre rolls. Prices start from around twenty pounds. You won't see any difference to your floor after you fit it, but you should feel it! For sealing around your skirting boards use decorator's caulk, prices for a 300ml tube start from about one pound.

There are a range of clever products on the market, all designed to help you reduce the amount of heat emitted from your house. These include the unforgettable, inflatable chimney balloon! You can even source the materials you need to carry out your own loft insulation project. In this day and age, there really is no excuse for not making your house as snug and as draught free as it can possibly be.




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