Stormguard Around Loft Attic Hatch Door Draught Excluder Seal Strip Weather Proofing Insulation. (4 x 685mm, Brown)

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Foam sealant: This special foam can be sprayed into gaps around windows or doors. It’s more expensive than foam tape. It’s important to strike the right balance between humidification and ventilation. This can be hard when your windows and doors are tightly shut to insulate your home. However, the better the insulation and draught proofing to the rest of the house the greater the impact of an uninsulated hatch. Should I Insulate the Loft Hatch in My Home? Make sure you keep outside ventilation in areas where there are open fires or flues, and in rooms where moisture is produced, such as kitchens and bathrooms.

And likewise, if you have a hinged hatch that swings downwards but rests against a post within the hatch casing/frame when shut then you’d apply the strip around that post. So the strips would be facing downwards. His interest in renewable energy and sustainability was first inspired by visits to the Royal Festival Hall heat pump and the Edmonton heat-from-waste projects. In 1979 Even if you're eager to draught proof your whole home, it’s important not to completely seal your property. There needs to be some air flowing in and out.Chimneys and fireplaces: If you don't use your fireplace, you could fit a cap over the chimney pot (best done by a professional) or fit a chimney draught excluder from any good DIY store. Existing drop-down hatches with attached ladders can be treated in the same way, with care being taken to ensure the insulation does not interfere with the ladder operation. Foil insulation might be a good alternative in this instance, as a thinner layer is required as compared with rigid foam. That said, even then the measurable energy loss is unlikely to break the bank. A 500mm x 500mm loft hatch could lose up to 40kWh/year. Add in the draughts around the hatch’s edge and the cold-bridge effect this creates, and that figure could reach 60kWh/year (varying with how draughty the loft is). The simple lift-out hatch (those without a hinge) can be insulated by gluing a plastic bag to the hatch, filling it with insulation material and taping the bag closed. It is effective, cheap and the bag prevents the insulating fibre from getting disturbed.

The amount you'll save on your bills means that your draught proofing is likely to pay for itself in a few years. Secondary-glazing film is a transparent tape that fixes to windows to create a double-glazing effect. However, we recommend you avoid using it. As heat rises, it can escape upwards through small gaps around your loft hatch. Insulate these using foam strips, as you would for doors or windows. Cut draughts with ‘snake’ draught excluders (photo, right), or similar strips of material (see over). Note that this should only be a temporary measure – while you’re trying to keep warm. Airflow between rooms is good for a home as it reduces the risk of moist air getting trapped in a particular rooms.Read on to find out what you can do in your own home – from filling in gaps around pipes to insulating your loft hatch. Plus, learn how to keep warm air in without compromising on ventilation. Draught proofing costs and savings

Tim is an expert in sustainable building methods and energy efficiency in residential homes and writes on the subject for magazines and national newspapers. He is the author of The Sustainable Building Bible, Simply Sustainable Homes and Anaerobic Digestion - Making Biogas - Making Energy: The Earthscan Expert Guide. In a new build, it will be necessary to insulate a loft hatch to comply with Building Regulations and, to be honest, it would be difficult to find a new loft hatch that is not insulated and airtight (to a degree, at least). Gone are the days when MDF or plywood is used to create loft doors in new homes. Alternatively, a piece of rigid foam insulation could be glued to the hatch but this will tend to leave gaps around the edges, allowing draughts.If you’ve got the type of hatch that rests on the frame surrounding, and swings into your loft, then a compression seal or foam strip can be applied around the edge of that frame. The strips would be facing upwards into the loft. Your house or commercial property will lose heat during cold weather partly due to poor thermal insulation, but also due to the air-leakiness of the building. This warm air loss is technically known as infiltration or permeability and is measured in metres cubed per hour per square metre of floor area. A typical building built 1900 to 1990 will lose around 20-30 metres cubed of air per hour per square meter of floor area. This is due to natural leakage through the fabric of the building, but largely through gaps around windows and doors. Good use of draft proofing could reduce your air permeability to around 8-10 metres cubed per hour which is a good low-cost way of reducing you heating bills. The amount of air infiltration to your property will also depend on its exposure to wind so if you are on a hillside or near the coast then it is even more beneficial for you have good draught proofing. And finally, if you have the very old style of loft door that isn’t hinged or even attached to anything fear not! You should be able to use the techniques we’ve talked about above to draught-proof and insulate that too. Moving in 2002 to a small-holding in South Wales, providing as it did access to a wider range of natural resources, fanned his enthusiasm for sustainability. He went on to install renewable technology at the property, including biomass boiler and wind turbine. If you don’t want to install double glazing, you can still cut down on draughts by trying the following: