Stop draughts with caulk
Air leaks around the house can waste your energy dollars in winter as precious heat escapes into the frigid outdoors.
A quick and cost-effective solution is to caulk, seal and weatherstrip all cracks and large openings to the outside.
Ideally, you would start with a professional energy audit that details where heat is being lost and what areas should be prioritised.
You can find some air leaks yourself, however, by feeling for draughts. Another method is to walk around your home with a smoking incense stick on a windy day and watch for changes in the direction of the smoke.
Areas to check indoors include electrical outlets, door and window frames, attic hatches, wall-mounted heat pumps, and vents and fans.
Outside, you should check for gaps at all exterior corners, taps, areas where siding and chimneys meet, and at the connection between the foundation and walls.
Now it is time to decide which product to use.
To seal small gaps, silicone provides a flexible option suitable for tiles, metal fixtures and other common surfaces like those found around showers and windows.
For larger or irregular gaps up to 2-3cm, an expandable polyurethane foam is a good choice. If used outdoors, this should be painted over to protect it from the sun’s UV rays.
Most caulking compounds come in disposable cartridges that fit in half-barrel caulking guns.
To ensure good adhesion, clean all areas to be caulked and allow the area to dry so you don’t seal in moisture.
Hold the caulking gun at a 45-degree angle to the clean edge that is to be filled and slide the tube nozzle along the joint in a pulling motion while squeezing the trigger.
Try to avoid stops and starts by caulking in one straight continuous stream.
Then ‘‘tool’’ the caulk by pushing it into the crack. Dampen your finger – or spoon, piece of wood or foam paint brush – and glide it over the caulk, pushing it into the gap.
It usually takes about 24 hours for the caulk to fully cure.