Airtightness Testing in Clontarf
Blower-door testing that measures how much heat your home leaks through gaps, and shows exactly where. Covering Clontarf seafront, St Anne's Park, Castle Avenue and the surrounding area.
Airtightness Testing for Clontarf homes
Clontarf's seafront homes are tested by easterly wind off the bay every winter, and an airtightness test simply puts a number on what owners already feel. In the Edwardian red-bricks we typically trace leakage at sash windows, through suspended floors, around chimney breasts and at the junction of the original house and later rear extensions. Mock-Tudor semis on Castle Avenue leak at bay windows and through the timber-framed gables. Marino's smaller terraces are easier to tighten, with most of the loss at the attic hatch and floor edges. Testing before and after draught-proofing shows exactly what the work achieved.
How homes in Clontarf lose heat
The seafront homes take the full force of easterly wind off the bay, so draughts through sash windows, floorboards and chimney breasts are a bigger share of their heat loss than in sheltered areas. Solid 9-inch brick walls and suspended floors are typical. Marino's terraces are smaller and simpler to improve but often still have minimal attic insulation.
Typical housing: Edwardian red-bricks along the seafront, mock-Tudor semis on Castle Avenue and Vernon Avenue, and Marino's planned terraced housing inland.
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 Clontarf: questions
Do you carry out airtightness testing in Clontarf?
Yes. We cover Clontarf and the surrounding Dublin area, including Clontarf seafront, St Anne's Park, Castle Avenue. Edwardian red-bricks along the seafront, mock-Tudor semis on Castle Avenue and Vernon Avenue, and Marino's planned terraced housing inland.
Is there a grant for airtightness testing in Clontarf?
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 Clontarf.
We cover Clontarf and the surrounding area. Tell us about your home and we will arrange a visit, usually within a week.