Airtightness Testing in Celbridge
Blower-door testing that measures how much heat your home leaks through gaps, and shows exactly where. Covering Celbridge Main Street, Castletown House, Hazelhatch and the surrounding area.
Airtightness Testing for Celbridge homes
Celbridge's estate homes, from the 1980s through to the 2000s, usually lose air at the attic hatch, downlights, gaps under baths and around pipes in hot press and utility areas. Older Main Street homes leak through floors, chimneys and sashes. Homes near the Liffey can have damp issues, so we always look at ventilation alongside airtightness to make sure sealing gaps does not trap moisture.
How homes in Celbridge lose heat
Estate homes make up most of the town and typically rate C to D, with partial-fill or empty cavities, attic insulation never upgraded and draughty hatches. Homes near the Liffey can see more damp, so we check walls before specifying cavity fill. Main Street homes have solid walls.
Typical housing: Older village terraces and pre-war homes around Main Street, 1980s and 1990s estates through the middle of the town, and 1990s and 2000s estate growth toward Castletown and Hazelhatch.
How airtightness testing works
An airtightness test pressurises or depressurises your home with a calibrated blower-door fan fitted into an external doorway. By measuring how much air the fan has to move to hold the pressure difference, we can put a number on how leaky the house is, expressed as air changes per hour or cubic metres per hour per square metre of envelope.
Airtightness Testing in Celbridge: questions
Do you carry out airtightness testing in Celbridge?
Yes. We cover Celbridge and the surrounding Co. Kildare area, including Celbridge Main Street, Castletown House, Hazelhatch. Older village terraces and pre-war homes around Main Street, 1980s and 1990s estates through the middle of the town, and 1990s and 2000s estate growth toward Castletown and Hazelhatch.
Is there a grant for airtightness testing in Celbridge?
Airtightness work carries a €1,000 SEAI grant when it is part of a home upgrade through an SEAI One Stop Shop. We can advise whether that route suits your project. Grant amounts are set nationally by SEAI and change from time to time, so check seai.ie before applying. We confirm what your home is likely to qualify for during the survey.
What does an airtightness test involve?
A calibrated fan is fitted into an external door frame and used to pressurise or depressurise the house. The fan measures how much air is needed to hold the pressure, which gives the leakage rate. We then trace where the air is getting in with smoke and, where useful, a thermal camera.
Do I need to prepare my home?
Close external windows and doors, leave internal doors open, and make sure we can reach the attic hatch. Fires and stoves need to be out and cold. Allow two to three hours for a typical house.
Can a house be too airtight?
A house can be airtight without being stuffy, as long as ventilation is planned. Airtightness controls uncontrolled draughts; ventilation then supplies fresh air where and when it is needed. We advise on ventilation whenever a test shows the house is getting tighter.
Is an airtightness test needed for a heat pump?
Heat pumps work best in well-sealed, well-insulated homes, and many retrofit projects measure airtightness before and after the works. A test tells you whether draught-proofing is needed before a heat pump goes in.
Book a free survey in Celbridge.
We cover Celbridge and the surrounding area. Tell us about your home and we will arrange a visit, usually within a week.