Airtightness Testing in Dún Laoghaire
Blower-door testing that measures how much heat your home leaks through gaps, and shows exactly where. Covering East Pier, Sandycove, Glasthule and the surrounding area.
Airtightness Testing for Dún Laoghaire homes
Dún Laoghaire's Victorian and Edwardian homes combine every classic leakage path: sash windows, suspended timber floors over ventilated voids, open fireplaces, and gaps where floorboards meet solid brick walls. Add salt-laden wind from the sea and the air-change rate in an untouched period house is high. Because many homes here are protected or in conservation areas, airtightness is often the most effective upgrade available, as draught-proofing sashes and sealing floors changes nothing visible. A blower-door test shows how much those discreet measures will achieve before you commit to them.
How homes in Dún Laoghaire lose heat
Period homes here combine solid brick or stone walls, high ceilings, large sash windows and suspended floors, which commonly puts them at E to G. Salt-laden wind off the sea drives draughts and dampness into older walls, so moisture-safe insulation choices matter more than usual.
Typical housing: Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semis between the seafront and Glasthule, period terraces around Sandycove, and newer apartments near the East Pier.
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 Dún Laoghaire: questions
Do you carry out airtightness testing in Dún Laoghaire?
Yes. We cover Dún Laoghaire and the surrounding Dublin area, including East Pier, Sandycove, Glasthule. Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semis between the seafront and Glasthule, period terraces around Sandycove, and newer apartments near the East Pier.
Is there a grant for airtightness testing in Dún Laoghaire?
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 Dún Laoghaire.
We cover Dún Laoghaire and the surrounding area. Tell us about your home and we will arrange a visit, usually within a week.