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The Benefits of Draught Proofing

Draught proofing is a fantastic way of saving money and making your home more energy efficient.

But what is draught proofing?

Draught proofing is simply filling in the gaps that are letting cold air into your home and similarly, the warm air out of your home. The more warm air you’re losing out of your home, the more heating energy you’ll have to use to replace the warmth you lost. The more your home is going to get cold and the more you’re going to have to bother thinking about and having this problem. We know that plenty of sash windows Greenwich way need their sash windows looking at. After living in this area for a long, long time, you can just walk around and see hundreds of windows that need draught proofing or some sort of life being added to them! Some people will ask us how to replace a sash windows when all they need is effective draught proofing. We'll look into it more for the rest of this article...

Where are your draughts coming from?

Your windows and gaps between in the seals, doors that have worn away, floorboards, ceiling-to-wall joints. Sometimes people think it's their window sash locks at fault but this isn't usually the case.

How is the draught caused?

Sash windows have gaps between the sashes and the other window parts so that they can slide up and down. Gaps are a necessary condition of having sash windows. Back in the olden days when sash windows were created, there wasn’t a way to fill these gaps. The problem? This made all the sliding up and down of windows to wear down the gap and make it wider. This is where the draughty and rattly effect of sash windows comes from. People incorrectly assume it's something to do with the window balance spring and suggest a window balance spring replacement when we visit but it's really not necessary!

The solution?

Draught proofing! The best form of draught proofing is through using brushes and seals that can be installed into the box and sashes of the window without being seen. Therefore the issue of rattle and draught is solved, all while keeping the original design and style of your sash windows. The solution is also really cost-effective. There's no need to know how to remove a window sash. Not when you have local experts from Greenwich (us!) at hand :)

How does it work?

Usually, we’ll take away the sashes on any windows that are either rattling or letting through a cold draught. We’ll take what we need back to the workshop in Greenwich so that we can get to work on the parts of the sash that we’ll be draught proofing. While we’re at it, we’ll sort any rot issues and anything else that needs taking care of. The draught proofing system is created through adding grooves to the top of the sash so that element proof brushes can be slid into the gap. The brush acts as a seal. The same is then done for the lower sash too. Then we put the sash window back together.

What if I have a listed building?

It’s worth speaking to your local planning officer before you do anything with your sash windows if you own a listed building. This will save you getting into any legal trouble which could get messy. However, even listed buildings’ windows are usually entitled to a sash window draught proofing system to keep that unwanted cold out. Largely this is because you can create the system to largely be invisible and not affect the original design and heritage of the window. This is especially lucky if you’re in South East London where there seems to be an abundant amount of listed buildings and conservation areas. In our area, Greenwich, a subsection of South East London, there's also just endless sash windows and conservation areas, so yes, it's worth speaking to a planning officer first.

Using our service

We’re built up a brilliant level of service here in and around South East London and especially in our home base, Greenwich, having carried out the service for many decades. There’s essentially nothing we haven’t seen to do with a sash window and would compare our service to anyone’s. Especially draught proofing, we’ve draught proofed thousands of doors over the years. You'll be able to find us on Checkatrade soon enough where you can leave us reviews. Please leave a review on Google for now, it will really help!

Until next time
TR Carpentry.


TR Carpentry

TR Carpentry,
4 Bayfield Road,
Greenwich,
London,
SE9 6BN