What Causes a Drafty Home? 3 Common Issues
January is often the coldest time of the year in the Twin Cities metro area. With the temperature dropping to its lowest, keeping all the cold air out of your house can be difficult. Is cold air seeping into your home? You may have an air draft problem.
Home drafts are pretty standard, but they can significantly impact your home's comfort and energy costs. Secure your home by knowing these three issues that cause drafty houses!
1. Old Windows
The windows in your home may be causing a significant amount of draft in your home. Wood frames for windows begin to warp over time, while single pane windows don’t provide enough buffer to keep all the cold weather out.
Single pane windows are a sieve to colder air as it slowly leeches through the glass, methodically cutting down the temperature in your home. Warped frames offer an additional gap of air to flow through, which decreases the temperature in your home much faster.
Replacing your windows will provide the space with a new, sturdy frame. Additionally, double-pane installations help ensure no cold air leaks through the new window installment.
2. Roof Damage
A damaged roof from years of wear and tear or a recent fall storm may have your home feeling a bit colder this winter. When shingles become damaged or torn off, it leaves a layer of your roof exposed to the elements. Warm air will find its way out of these weak points and into the atmosphere, slowly dropping the overall temperature of your home over time.
Replacing or repairing your roof will help ensure any areas that may have taken damage over time, restricting airflow from the attic to the outside.
3. Insufficient Attic Insulation
As you may well already know, heat rises. When the heating elements are working hard to keep your home warm during the winter, they could be working too hard.
When your attic isn’t adequately insulated, the heat in your home will rise, causing the overall temperature to rise. Not only do you lose the overall temperature of your home, but the attic’s temperature rising makes conditions suitable for an ice dam to form on the top of your roof.
Adding insulation to your attic will restrict airflow from your home’s interior and the attic, keeping it at a warm temperature and decent energy cost.
4. Siding Damage
Damage to your siding is a big culprit in a drafty home. Whether from severe storms or Father Time, holes, indents, and missing siding panels leave blemishes for cold air to directly contact insulation. Insulation contacting direct cold lowers its ability to keep warm air from escaping.
Contact a trusted contractor to repair or replace your siding before cold weather sets in!
5. Subpar/Bad Doors
Old, worn, or imperfect doors and door frames are the most prominent suspects in the drafty home case. There are multiple reasons why doors let in unwanted air:
- The door frame is worn, causing the door to pull away from the hinges.
- The door doesn’t match the frame, leaving large gaps.
- An interior door is installed on an exterior frame.
Since these are the largest openings in your house, egregious amounts of air pass in and out if not properly installed or maintained; consider installing a new door to seal up your entryways.
Contact Apple Exteriors in the Twin Cities to Enhance Your Comfort at Home
Whether you need assistance with a draft house or need any parts of your home’s exterior worked on, you can count on Apple Exteriors. Schedule your free inspection online or give us a call at 651-36-APPLE (651-362-7753).
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