Draught-proofing is one of the best-value home improvements you can make. It’s cheap, you can do it yourself in a weekend, and the savings on your heating bill can be immediate. For most UK homes, spending £30–50 on the right materials can save £60–150 per year — a payback period of under six months.

Finding the Draughts First

Before you buy anything, identify where cold air is actually getting in. On a cold, windy day, walk around your home and feel for cold air around:

• External doors (especially the bottom and sides)
• Sash windows and casement windows
• Letterboxes and keyholes
• Loft hatches
• Floorboards (especially near walls)
• Unused fireplaces
• Where pipes and cables enter through walls

A lit incense stick held near suspected gaps will reveal cold air movement even when it’s hard to feel by hand.

Door Draught Excluders

The gap under an external door is often the single biggest source of draughts in a house. A brush strip draught excluder (around £8–12 from any DIY store) screws to the bottom of the door and seals the gap. For internal doors where you want to block heat from escaping rooms, a simple fabric draught excluder works fine.

For the sides and top of external doors, self-adhesive foam or rubber draught strip is easy to apply and costs around £4–6 per door.

Windows

For sash windows, specialist sash window draught-proofing kits (around £15–25 per window) include brush strips that slot into the frame. For casement windows, the same self-adhesive foam strip used on doors works well around the frame.

Letterboxes and Keyholes

A letterbox draught excluder (£5–8) fits over the inside of the letterbox and uses a brush or flap to block cold air. Keyhole covers are even cheaper — around £2–3 — and simply fit over the keyhole.

Unused Fireplaces

An open, unused chimney can lose enormous amounts of heat. A chimney balloon (£15–20) is an inflatable plug that sits inside the flue to block cold air. Remember to remove it before lighting a fire and display the reminder tag that comes with it.

Floorboards and Skirting Boards

Gaps between floorboards and between boards and skirting can allow cold air in from below. Flexible filler or special floorboard gap filler (around £8–10) can seal these. For larger gaps, strips of wood or cork can be tapped into place.

A Realistic Budget

For a typical three-bedroom semi: door strips for two external doors (£20), window strips for four windows (£12), letterbox and keyhole covers (£8), and a tube of flexible filler for floorboard gaps (£5) comes to around £45 — well within the £50 budget, with meaningful results from day one.

Ready to cut your energy costs? Compare deals today and see how much you could save.