Why weatherstrip your home

Why weatherstrip your home? There are several very good reasons for weather-stripping. First, it will keep you both warmer and colder, and second, it will save you money. Weatherstripping will help you make your home more energy efficient.

Heat and cold are most likely leaking out of your home. Start by assuming the culprits are is your windows and doors. Look for obvious leaks, places where you can see light around your window or door frames. On a windy day stand in front of your windows and see if you can feel a breeze. These are signs that you need to add more weatherstripping.

You can begin by caulking your windows both inside and out. You can buy exterior caulking that will match the color of your siding and be invisible. For basement windows you can purchase plastic window well covers that fit right up underneath the siding and cover the entire window. This can be a huge energy saver for your basement. You also want to seal any leaks you may have around exterior spigots and around your dryer vent.

The entry door to your house is a primary source of energy leakage. If it is possible on these doors you want to use metal tack on weather stripping. Metal stripping is much more durable. You want to make sure that your door is as tight fitting as possible. This may require that you remove your door and add shims between the jamb and the frame. Adding a felt strip on the exterior of the door will also help seal the door. Always examine your door carefully to make sure that you cannot see any daylight anywhere around the frame.

With your windows, you also need to check for leaks. 

Most windows have some sort of weatherstripping if you are feeling the leak you need to remove the old stripping and replace it with new. Foam weatherstripping and self-adhesive stripping that fits on the bottom of the window on double hung windows and on the sides of casement windows are available.

In your rooms, another way to plug up the energy gaps is to add insulation to your electrical outlets on exterior walls. They are made to fit right underneath the receptacle covers and can stop any drafts and heat loss.

These small repairs should result in significant savings if they don’t result in the level that you want or expect then it may be time to consider doing an insulation audit to see where your energy is being lost.