Simple steps for a warmer home

Making your home more draught-proof is as straightforward as these simple steps:

l Fit brush draught excluders around, or at least along the bottom of, your home’s external doors/doorframes to keep cold air out and heat in - simply cut them to size and screw them in place. These can also be fitted to interior doors, although you may prefer to add a piece of wood along the bottom of the door if there’s a large gap, providing you can blend it in with the rest of the door.

l Don’t forget to fit brush draught excluders or a letterbox cover to the back of the letterbox to keep out draughts and also make the back look neater. Even keyholes should be draught-proofed, especially on exterior doors. You can get escutcheons with covers in all shapes and sizes, and they just screw in place over the keyhole.

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l Single glazing is rarely sufficient to keep your home warm and draught free, but if you can’t afford or don’t want double glazing, you can get various DIY secondary-glazing options. Probably the cheapest and easiest to fit is clear plastic film, which you can buy online or from DIY stores. It tightens over the windowpane when heated with a hairdryer to form a sort of secondary glazing. If you live in a listed building or a conservation area, you’ll be restricted about what you can do with your windows, so this could be a good option.

l Another inexpensive measure is weatherstripping or self-adhesive foam/brush tape, which makes windows and doors less draughty. It’s relatively easy to fit and is especially useful for period windows and doors, which tend to let in draughts.

l One of the draughtiest types of flooring is exposed period floorboards. The best solution is to take up the boards (an ambitious job for a DIYer) or get underneath them (if, for example, you have a cellar below) to lay insulation. An easier solution is to fill the gaps between the boards. You can use a number of materials for this, including thin strips of cork or wood, sawdust mixed with glue, and flexible filler.*

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