Making your home airtight is one of the most cost-effective ways to maximize energy efficiency. No matter how well your home is insulated, if there are cracks and holes, the air you just paid to heat or cool will quickly be lost. But air sealing isn’t complicated and it’s pretty inexpensive as long as you know which areas to test. In this article, we primarily discuss the use of putty to make quick repairs to leaking areas. Best of all, you don’t need to be a skilled craftsman to be able to do this. However, a note of warning that this is not the best afternoon activity to do with your children. Putty can be quite sticky and messy and can quickly ruin some pretty clothes. Leave the painting and garden activities to your children.
As the seasons and weather change, cracks and gaps will expand and close, allowing unwanted air to infiltrate, air conditioning to pass through, and moisture to seep into the home. This can result in a number of problems such as mold, breezes, and heat loss in the winter season or increase in the warm months. This expansion and contraction can also lead to other, more cosmetic issues, such as paint cracking or slight movement of trim.
Leaks can be closed with caulk, spray foam, or even weather stripping depending on the problem area. A good guideline is to use caulk for holes smaller than 1/4 inch and foam for larger cracks and gaps, although each condition will vary. With foam there are two popular ones at your hardware store in blue and red cans. One expands much more than the other. Be careful not to use the one that expands the most in tight spaces, as it can literally pull things apart. So for window and door trim, unless the spaces are huge, it’s generally best to go with the least expansive one. We recommend checking these areas in your home:
On the outside of your home, windows and doors are almost always a problem area. Insulate around the frame with low-expansion foam insulation. You can also caulk at the framing and drywall/trim intersection. For your windows, you may want to consider adding shutters to single-pane units, as this will help the windows maintain temperature whether it’s hot or cold. Another key area is wall penetrations such as pipes, vents, exhausts, air intakes, etc. You will want to caulk around the perimeter of all exterior wall penetrations. Finally, take a look at your trim, as it can often be installed incorrectly. Seal around the perimeter of the trim and the trim/siding intersections.
As we move to the interior of your home, we’ll start with your windows and doors just as we did with the exterior tasks. Windows and doors will need to be caulked at the frame and drywall/trim intersection. For your doors, weather stripping can make a world of difference on all sides of the door trim. For your windows, the usual suspect is the seal at the bottom of the window and the window frame. Here you can install weather stripping if needed. A common area that gets overlooked is the attic access point if you are inside your living areas. This is an easy area to add insulation and/or gaskets/weather stripping.
Upon entering your bathroom, we will attack the tubs and showers. Seal at the intersection of the shower/tub and wall and around the edge of the plumbing fixture. Be sure to check the pipes and ducts in your toilets and sinks. Seal any type of wall penetration and wrap hot or cold water pipes with insulation, which is very easy to do. Don’t forget to tape all the joints and seams of your ductwork. You may need to go under your house if you have a crawl space for pipes.
For the other general areas of the house, don’t forget the lights, outlets, light switches, and the fireplace, if you have one. For your outlets and switches you can install a very simple gasket that fits behind the plate and you can fill in the area behind the plate and around your electrical plate with low expansion foam. For the lights, you can caulk around the trim. If possible, you should install light fixtures or enclosures that are labeled airtight fixtures. Finally, your chimney is generally best addressed by sealing the chimney when it is not being used. You can do this with the gate closed or you can install an inflatable chimney balloon blocker. You may want to consider installing gasketed doors in the fireplace opening.
We briefly touched on foundations and crawlspaces while wrapping hot and cold water pipes. While you’re there, apply caulking or foam to the intersection of the foundation wall and rim joist and seal any cracks or joints in the foundation walls.
Most older homes won’t have the problem of being too airtight, as there will always be enough cracks and air leaks to maintain a healthy level of fresh air circulation. If you are concerned about this issue, or are building a new airtight home, you can install outdoor vents to connect to your HVAC to create a constant exchange of new and stale air.
If you’re not sure where you need to seal, you can try the DIY method of inspecting your home with a lit incense stick: first turn off the HVAC and any running fans and close all windows and doors, then place the lit stick near any suspected leak, if the smoke from the incense is sucked in or expelled, then you have confirmed your leak. Also, if you see dirty spots on your attic insulation, or dirt around any perimeter walls, doors, or windows, you most likely have a leak. An even better confirmation would be to get an energy audit, an auditor/inspector can perform a variety of tests and even use infrared cameras to detect leaks, moisture and air infiltration, and insufficient insulation. In some areas of the country it is common for electricity providers to audit this free of charge. However, an independent audit professional will generally have more experience and be able to recommend local resources or companies to address individual problem areas.
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