Seal Air Leaks to Prevent Heat Loss

By Robert Robillard on Energy Saving

How To Address Sealing Air Leaks

Many people think that just because a house is insulated that the insulation is effectively performing its job.

The truth is that in order to improve the energy efficiency of your insulation you seal air leaks to prevent heat loss.

Insulation works best when air is not moving through or around it. Sealing air leaks is not hard, you just need to know where to look.

What are air leaks?

Air leaks are areas of warm air leaking into your home during the summer and out of your home during the winter.

Where To Look for Air leaks:

Air leaks typically occur in the same spots on most houses. You can often spot them by looking for dirty spots in your insulation, which often indicate holes where air leaks into and out of your house. You can seal the holes with low-expansion spray foam made for this purpose.  Learning the locations to
seal air leaks to prevent heat loss is easy, see below:

Common Sources of Air Leaks:

1. Holes around pipes and wires.

2. Recessed lights, bathroom fans and electrical boxes.

3. Attic doors and hatches.

4. Chimney chases.

5. Drywall joints between the wall and ceiling plates.

6. Sofits framed with openings to the attic.

7. Leaking HVAC ducts.

8. Any framed chases or special framed areas open below the attic floor.

How to Seal Air leaks:

The best way to deal with these leaks is cover them with a combination or metal, wood or foam and then insulate that area.  For more information on sealing air leaks read these articles for additional details and photos.  

source:  its.com

If you enjoyed this post, please consider commenting or subscribing to receive my future posts via email

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

About the author

Robert Robillard

Carpenter / Remodeler / Editor

Rob Robillard is “The Concord Carpenter” Rob is a builder, general contractor, carpenter, woodworker, and editor of Concord Carpenter and ToolBoxBuzz As a General Contractor and carpenter, Rob owns and operates Concord Carpenter LLC. A full-service remodeling and construction company. Rob is a recognized leader in home building best practices and a source for how-to information for building professionals. On this website, Rob covers all aspects of home construction, building science, home improvement, woodworking, remodeling, and some of the best product and tool reviews. Rob is in charge of our Tool and Product Review series - Concord Carpenter Videos where we post all of our tool reviews and video tutorials. Rob approaches remodeling and building construction with a pragmatic and problem-solving approach. He enjoys using his knowledge and experience to help and educate building professionals as well as DIYers on best practices in the construction and remodeling industry. He's a strong advocate for "raising the bar" in the construction trades and promoting the trades to youth. #BeAMentor #Green2Great Craftsmanship, quality, and pride guide his journey on this channel The Concord Carpenter's motto: "Well done is better than well said!" : Read more about Rob

All posts by Robert »

Not what you're looking for?

Search for more articles here. Enter keywords like roof leak, bookcase, deck, etc to find your topic.

© Copyright 2019 A Concord Carpenter · All Rights Reserved