Draught Proofing Your Home

This article takes a look at a number of ways of preventing or reducing draughts in your home. There are areas we look at are doors, windows and double-glazing, garage doors and finally some of the furnishings you could use to prevent draughts. Draughts are obviously caused by the cold air from outside being drawn into the house and replacing warmer air. The knock on effect of preventing draughts is a reduction in your heating bill and a warmer home. Draughts can be identified in a number of ways such as identifying obvious gaps, feeling for moving air around doors and windows and looking out for moving curtains.

As we mentioned earlier double-glazing can reduce draughts. It can also reduce heat loss, noise pollution and condensation, and all of these benefits reinforce the decision to get double-glazing. Reducing heat loss will obviously reduce heating bills and by making heating your property much more efficient. This in turn means you are making a contribution to reducing pollution and so benefiting the environment. The reduction in noise will give you a greater sense of privacy, particular if you live alongside a busy road, plus condensation can damage soft furnishings and create a damp atmosphere. By buying sealed units which fit perfecting onto their frame you are ensuring a draught free environment.

The most common area for draughts is a door. Not only is there often a gap between the door and its frame, but doors can also have cat flaps, keyholes and letterboxes. Modern doors and their frames have been built with excluding draughts in mind, but older doors are much vulnerable. You should look at draught proofing any holes or gaps around the door or indeed in the door such as cat flaps. An alternative is a draught excluder, which can be stretched along the bottom of the door where the draughts are more likely to come from.

If you have an integral garage then this is an area, which can let the cold and draughts into your property. You should not only draught proof the internal door to the garage but also the garage door itself. The best style of garage doors for keeping draughts down are the roller and sectional garage doors. These fit snugly onto tracks fitted onto the side of the garage, unlike the up and over garage door or the more traditional side hung door.

So, these are just some of the areas to attack when looking reduce draught and retain the warmth in your home.

Garry John is a freelance author who regularly contributes to sites such as double glazing and doors

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