How to prevent cold air
leakage into your home

Damaged caulking around the door frame is probably the top reason for cold drafts

August 5, 2022

The average home loses about 30 percent of its heat due to drafts, usually felt around windows, doors and fireplaces, or even cold spots along walls or floors. Drafts are caused when a house’s warm air leaks out and gets replaced or even pushed out by cold air. Not only can this make you uncomfortable in your own home, but it also makes your heating less efficient.

Here are a few tips for eliminating drafts in your home with correct home insulation.

Effective tricks to prevent door air leaking

If you feel cold drafts inside your home even when your heater is working at its maximum, there is a high chance you get cold air leaking into your space via small gaps and cracks around your doors and windows. And that may lead to severe issues with your heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems working harder throughout the year and a drop in the overall thermal performance of your house.

However, sealing air leaks around your doors or windows is a relatively easy home renovation to perform today. Such home improvements do not require many investments or hard-to-install materials; you can use simple methods such as caulking and weatherstripping.

But before insulating your front doors to prevent air leaks, it would be wise to consult with window & door experts, such as Ecoline Windows or a professional HVAC technician, to ensure sealing these gaps will not affect the ventilation and air quality within your house.

Two popular methods to detect air leaks

Try to blackout the room: Using window & door treatments such as curtains, blinds or shutters to darken your room completely will do the trick. If you notice any light leaking via the corners or under your doors or windows, it clearly indicates where your draft is coming from.
Inspect the caulk: The main objective of caulking is sealing any gaps the frames of your doors and windows might have. If you spot damaged caulking around the door frame, it is probably the top reason you feel the cold draft within your home.

Three working tips to prevent air leaking

Install door draft stoppers: Even though this method is the most affordable, it is not that effective if you want to use it long-term. Anyway, door draft stoppers can be positioned at the inner base of your doors to form a temporary barrier for drafts. Besides functioning as a draft barrier, such draft stoppers also serve as a noise-cancelling unit. The most common materials for draft stoppers are plastic, silicone, fabric, or styrofoam.
Go with weatherstripping: According to many door experts, installing weather strips around your doors and windows is a more permanent solution for better home insulation. Weatherstrips, a.k.a door sweeps, are usually made from various materials such as wood, felt, rubber, vinyl, aluminum or even brass. If you want to install the most durable and long-lasting weather strips, opt for compression weather strips made of aluminum, wood, or vinyl with a flexible vinyl bulb.
Focus on recaulking: If you are confident that the lifespan of the caulk around your doors has come to an end, going with recaulking proves to be an effective way to seal air gaps. This approach works well for gaps less than ¼ inch wide. Moreover, it is affordable since all you need is a tube of external caulk and a caulk gun. The first step is removing old paint and caulk from the area. Then wipe it clean with a damp rag and let it dry before you begin recaulking. Once you’ve finished caulking the site, remember that it usually takes 24 hours to cure.

Having new doors or windows installed offers a new look, greater energy efficiency, less maintenance, and may increase the value of your home. Full door and window replacement is a considerable investment that requires you to do your research in advance for items that will be installed and who will be installing them.