4 tips for a warm and cosy home this winter

It’s easy during the balmy summer months to forget about your home’s flaws in winter, the draughty room where you can feel a breeze around your ankles even though all the windows and doors are closed. Or the bedrooms where you wake with condensation on the windows and where you have to have a dehumidifier at all times.

But as chillier times are ahead, now is the time to take a hard look at your house, see where the draughts are coming from and figure out ways to make your home warmer and cosier as the dark evenings close in.

John Burgess, senior scientist at BRANZ says the biggest holes in an uninsulated house are the windows, the next biggest is the ceiling, then the walls.

Older houses have a big problem with air leakage, he adds. “With those rattly double hung windows, there’s a lot of air around the fascia and frame. And then floorboards let air through, you can see the dust move,” says John. Sound familiar?

Any good intentions of making your home warmer and dryer will begin with insulation in your roof. You may think you’ve got this covered, but if you haven’t checked on it in a couple of years, it might not be in such great shape.

A number of pests may be damaging your insulation as we speak. It could be vermin, or, more likely, an electrician or a cable layer has put some insulation aside to do work and then they haven’t returned the insulation to the way it was.

What’s going on under your house is a question well worth asking too. If you can, installing underfloor insulation is a good idea. Another thing to check, is there moisture coming up from the ground? If possible, see if you can grab a handful of dirt from beneath the house and see if it sticks to your hand. If it sticks, then it’s damp. You can either put polythene down under there or ventilate it, making sure air flows under the house. Make sure vents next to the house are not covered with plants and vegetation, advises John.

Harcourts agent Erin Rush, who’s marketing the Mortimer Terrace property, says when she’s selling a home in winter, buyers always want to know what sort of winter sun the home gets, as well as the insulation and any signs of damp. Some thorough buyers will want to see what the power bills are like too.

Skylights can be a great way of allowing more sun into a home, suggests Erin. They’re double glazed and relatively inexpensive, (around $3,000) and can make a massive difference, she says.

Another area to seal are skirting boards and cornices with flexible silicon based or latex sealants, says the EECA linked website.

BRANZ’s John Burgess also advises wrapping your hot water cylinder with a blanket or foil or both.

And if you’re feeling a draught from a skirting board, it’s probably covering an average sealing job, says John.

Another easy fix if you have a chimney that you’re not using, is to block it and put in a flue, a duct or pipe which helps carry out exhaust gases from the fireplace. If you block the flue you shouldn’t have a draught.

And some old tricks still work. In the 1960s, people used to put snake draught stoppers at the front door and this still works as long as you follow where the draught will go. Put a snake draught stopper at the back door too to make a real difference, suggests John.

And don’t get too used to things like dehumidifiers, says the BRANZ scientist. They’re a symptom of a problem, a bit like cold medication you use for a cold, he argues. You’re treating the symptom of the house. It’s not a long term plan.

Double glazing is something to consider even if it’s bit-by-bit when you can afford it.

“There are some phenomenal glazing systems that work ten times better than older windows, they’re a huge improvement,” says John.