Detecting draughts
Sealing up the cracks and holes through which draughts enter your home is a cheap and simple way to save fuel; at least it is a lot simpler than insulating a solid wall or building a solar heating system. Before you rush out to buy great lengths of draught excluder you need to know where the draughts are coming from. Some you will no doubt be aware of, but others may have so far gone unnoticed, so the first job is to find all undetected draughts. Smoke is the most efficient detector; don’t trust a candle flame. If you are a smoker, your problem is solved, but if you are not we would hate to encourage you to start, and we suggest you buy a packet of joss sticks. The idea is to go about the house on a windy day with a smoking joss stick clutched in your hand: even though the neighbours may well think that you have begun to seek Enlightenment you will at least find out where there is a draught. If there is no draught the smoke will rise straight up. Your house will smell of incense for a bit but if it is draughty the smell will soon clear.
The simpler solutions
Now that you know where the draughts are coming in you can start to keep them out.
You can make a draught excluding bolster from a piece of cloth formed into a cylinder with two ends sewn on, stuffed with kapok or old nylon tights cut up into small pieces. Make it about 75mm in diameter and 150mm longer than the door you are trying to seal. Start with two circles of cloth about 95 or 100mm in diameter and sew one to the end of a long rectangular piece taking a 10mm seam. Pin the pieces of fabric together, right sides facing, and sew them, leaving a gap so that the whole thing can be turned inside out when you have finished. Now put the stuffing in tightly, using a piece of dowel or the wrong end of a knitting needle to pack it in place; then oversew the gap to hold the stuffing in. The result can be quite attractive if you use the right fabric.
An even simpler draught sealer could be made from an old trouser leg gathered at one end, stuffed and then gathered at the other end. If you feel you cannot sew you could tie the ends with a piece of string. If you can knit you can also buy knitting patterns for draught excluders which are usually shaped like dogs, caterpillars or snakes.
There is an even cheaper way to seal doors or windows that you will not want to open until the warm weather comes. Take a sheet of newspaper and fold it over and over from one end to make a strip about 15mm wide and as thick as required to fill the gap. Ease the piece of newspaper into the opening and you will find
that you have successfully reduced or even eliminated the draught. This method works very well for sash windows. On casement windows and doors the strips can be stapled to the wood of the opening part (not the frame) to hold them in place.
If you can find a piece of heavy plush or velvet in a jumble sale you could use it to make a draught excluding curtain for an external door. The curtain should fit closely against the door and must touch the floor at the bottom to make a seal; ideally it should brush against the ceiling as well. Hang it from a curtain track or one of those brass rods with rings, so that it can be drawn back in the summer. You will find that it will become a popular hiding place with the kids.
Fireplaces
If you have an unused fireplace in your house it will be a major source of draughts. Here there are three choices open to you. The first is to install an efficient stove in the fireplace. The second is to brick up the fireplace, remembering to incorporate an air vent, to the outside if possible. Finally you can make a frame of 50mm x 50mm timber with a piece of hardboard or plywood nailed over it which can be wedged into the fireplace opening. If the chimney is on an external wall and you do this be sure to make a row of holes in the cover so that air can circulate up the chimney and so prevent condensation. This ventilation is unavoidable but at least it will be a lot less than the draught through the open fireplace.
When draught sealing do not forget the hatch into the loft. If the roof space is properly ventilated there may well be a flow of air round the hatch, and one of the techniques described later for the edges of doors should be used to seal it.
Doors
There are two different types of draught seal for doors, those used at the bottom of the door and those for the sides and top. Bottom or ‘threshold’ seals must be durable, particularly if you use the type which fits on the floor, because people will tread on it. All draught seals are a compromise between cost and durability, but perhaps one of the best threshold seals is the brush seal which is suitable for internal or external doors. This consists of a thin brush made of closely packed bristles usually of nylon, held in a plastic or aluminium frame which is screwed to the bottom edge of the door. You fit the brush to the inside edge of the door so that the bristles rest firmly against the floor or doorstep. The bristles will deform to cope with uneven floors and will pass over carpets or other obstructions.
It is a good idea to fit a weatherboard to the bottom of the door, if it opens inwards, to help throw off rainwater. You can buy the weatherboard moulding from a wood merchant; paint it with timber preservative and prime it before fixing it to the bottom of the door with zinc-plated screws. Cut the door stop with a narrow chisel to accommodate the weatherboard. Many varieties are available and the choice will probably depend on what you can find in the local shops.
The seals for the sides and top of doors range from the very cheap ones which have a short life to those that may last as long as the door itself. The cheapest type is the self-adhesive foam plastic strip which comes on a roll. You open the door, unroll a piece of strip and cut it to roughly the right length. Peel off the backing paper at the top of the strip and stick the foam to the top of the door frame against the stop. If the stop is not clean it should be wiped with a damp cloth and allowed to dry before you do the draught sealing, as the strip will not adhere if the door frame is greasy or dirty. When the top of the strip is stuck peel off some more of the backing and stick the strip down again.
When you reach the bottom of the door cut the strip to the correct length before you peel off the last of the backing. When you have fixed all the draught strip it is a good idea to round off the edges of the door where they will touch the strip. This will help to prevent damage to the foam when the door is opened. Even if you do this the seal is not likely to last more than a year or two if the door is often in use. There is a slightly more expensive foam strip which is encased in a PVC cover and has a reinforcing cord running down the middle. The cover protects the foam from damage and it is worth using this type in preference to the cheaper plain foam.
The next step up in the search for a long-lasting cheap draught seal is the type which has a hollow flexible plastic strip against which the door closes, held in a rigid plastic holder which is nailed to the door frame. This type is cut to length and fixed with the pins provided. When you fix the strip the flexible sealing part should be pressed reasonably firmly against the door before nailing. Check that the door closes easily without crushing the plastic after you have fixed the strip with a few pins. Do not drive the pins right in until you have finished adjusting it if you need to. A variation on this type of draught excluder has a neoprene rubber seal held in an aluminium edge section but this is, as you would expect, more expensive than a plastic one.
An old fashioned but effective and long-lasting draught seal consists of a strip of springy metal made of phosphor bronze, a copper alloy, so that it will not rust. The most familiar type rejoices in the name ‘Atomic Strip’, but do not let this put you off! The strip should be pinned to the door frame with the pins provided, positioned so that the fixed edge is towards the outside of the frame and the free edge is about 3mm from the door stop.
If it is an external door you should buy the solid brass fixing pins as the pins included with the strip are biassed steel and may rust. The easiest way to put the pins in is to use a tool called a pin push, which consists of a thin tube which retracts into a handle. You put a pin in the tube, place the tool on the spot where the pin is to be fixed, and push the handle or tap it with a mallet to drive the pin home. The strip has small indentations in it about 30mm apart and the pins must be put in at each mark.
It is very important that the strip lies flat and does not buckle at all. Nail on the side pieces first. At hinges and lock plates, cut the strip with tin snips and fold it back to clear the obstructions before pinning it in place. When both side pieces are fixed, run the Atomic springing tool along the line marked on the strip to raise the free edge slightly so that it presses against the door when it is closed. The height that the strip is raised depends on how hard you press: go carefully and press lightly to start with because if you raise it too much it will be very hard to close the door. When the sides are sprung out enough to seal the door you can cut a piece of strip for the top, cutting the ends at an angle to match the angle made by the edge of the strip on the sides of the door frame. Finally pin the top piece in place and spring it with the springing tool to touch the top of the door.
Before you leave the door it is worth sealing the letter-box. You can buy a device for this purpose which consists of two pieces of brush type seal which mesh together and are soft enough to bend out of the way when a letter is pushed through. This is screwed over the letter-box opening on the inside of the door.
Casement windows can be sealed in the same way as doors but you can use the techniques for the top and sides of doors all the way round windows because no one walks on the sills. Sash windows can be sealed as described, with newpaper or by double-glazing right across the whole frame.
