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Draught-proofing your home: An expert guide

Losing heat in your home to a cold draught? Draught proofing is the solution and one of the best and easiest ways to save energy (and money!) in your home. Follow our advice on how to draught proof your home so you can banish those cold breezes for good.

Draught-proofing your home

Learn how to draught-proof your house from top-to-bottom with this comprehensive guide. Starting with the doors, we’ll work our way around the home, taking our draught-proofing tips all the way up to the loft space.

Draught-proofing your home is one of the most cost-effective ways to save money on your energy bills. But how much does draught-proofing cost, how do you do it, and what are the best materials to stop draughts in their tracks?

We explore all this and more, including the key thing NOT to do when draught-proofing your home.

Stop clinging to the radiator. Read on to learn how to create a warmer, more ambient, and energy-efficient home.

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Door draught-proofing tips

We’ll start by sharing a clever tip that won’t cost you a penny but could help to save money on your energy bills.

Close doors to rooms you don’t normally heat. Then, place a cushion draught excluder at the bottom of the door (or fix a draught-proofing strip). This simple action will stop the cool air from entering the rest of your home.

A cushion draught excluder at the bottom of the door

Mind the gap

If you notice any gaps between the door frame and the masonry it sits within, fill these with silicone or expanding filler. The same process can be applied to your windows.

How to draught-proof an external door

Hands up if you feel a cool breeze every time you walk past the front door.

Many people are looking for front door draught-proofing tips, so here’s one of the best ways to draught-proof a door:

  • Install a Stormguard seal designed for external doors
  • Fit a letterbox draught excluder
  • Attach a keyhole draught excluder (a metal disc cover that drops into place)

These three tasks will cost you around £100 – not bad for the extra warmth they’ll help to create in your home.

Add an extra layer

Another popular way to keep the cold air out is to hang a thermal curtain. If your door has a lot of glazing, you may feel the cold more.

Hanging a thick or thermal curtain will help to reduce draughts and keep warm air inside your home. It’ll look great too!

Hanging a thermal curtain to stop front door draughts

Draught-proofing windows

The best way to draught-proof windows is to apply weatherstripping to the frame’s opening parts and/or caulk to seal any gaps or cracks.

Draught-proofing strips for windows can be purchased online or from your local DIY store. Just be sure to select the right type for your specific windows and you should be able to complete this task with relative ease.

Applying weatherstripping to stop draughty windows

If you don’t have the time or know-how to extract your old weatherstripping and replace it with new, contact an experienced local tradesperson to help.

As a guide, completing this task will cost in the region of £50 per window.

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Floorboard draught-proofing

Floorboards are a beautiful feature of any home, but they can be guilty of letting unwanted cold air seep into the home.

Flexible filler or caulk can be applied to gaps in the floorboards and skirting boards to prevent draughts. This typically costs in the region of £100 for three average-sized rooms.

If you’re renovating, investigate whether it’s possible to take the floorboards up and insulate beneath them.

Layer it up

To seal the deal, invest in a large, thick rug to provide an additional layer of insulation to your flooring.

Chimney draught-proofing

It’s not only possible to feel the cold air that filters down your chimney, but you can often hear it too.

One way to stop draughts from whipping up a cool breeze in your home? A chimney pot cover. This is most definitely a job for the professionals and will set you back around £150.

Another option is a chimney draught excluder or chimney balloon, which sits inside the flue itself. There are many different varieties to choose from, but expect to pay approx. £50 per chimney.

Loft hatch draught-proofing

One area you may not have initially thought of when it comes to draught-proofing is the loft hatch.

Gaps around the loft hatch can suck the warm air from your home up into the loft space. This is far from ideal. Luckily, this can be easily resolved by applying weatherstripping around the edges of the hatch, costing as little as £50 to do.

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How much does draught-proofing cost?

We’ve outlined the average cost of draught-proofing some of the common areas that allow cold air into the home.

If you’re looking to retrofit your home with draught-proofing measures, expect to pay around £180.

Remember, draught-proofing is an incredibly cost-effective way to save money on your energy bills.

Addressing the cracks in floorboards and skirting and properly sealing windows and doors will help to keep your home more comfortable and could save you around £44/year on your energy bills.

draught-proofing can help to lower your energy bills

Related content: For more detailed information, take a look at our draught-proofing cost guide.

The draught-proofing mistake to avoid

Before you start plugging every gap in your home, you need to know one very important fact.

Uncontrolled cold air flowing into the home, (which we all know as a draught), and warm air escaping, is to be avoided.

Controlled air flowing into the home when needed, is known as ventilation. This helps to avoid problems such as condensation and damp.

There are several ways to encourage good ventilation in your home, including:

  • Extractor fans (especially in bathrooms and kitchens where there’s lots of moisture)
  • Trickle vents (in windows)
  • Wall vents
  • Air bricks

For a job well done, we recommend hiring a professional to get these tasks done for you. Scroll down to find the experts who come highly rated in your area.

draught-proofing windows with caulk

Find a draught-proofing expert near you

Some of the draught-proofing tips in this post you can do yourself. However, others are best left to the experts for a quality, long-lasting, effective result.

Find professional draught-proofing near you by adding your postcode to the search box below. All our members are checked and approved by us, so you know you’re getting the real deal.

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