Airtightness Testing in Foxrock
Blower-door testing that measures how much heat your home leaks through gaps, and shows exactly where. Covering Foxrock village, Cornelscourt, Cabinteely Park and the surrounding area.
Airtightness Testing for Foxrock homes
In Foxrock's large detached homes, airtightness problems usually sit at the joins between phases of the house. Extensions, garage conversions and conservatories added over decades each meet the original house with a junction that leaks, and large homes have more of them. Attic rooms and dormers add more. A blower-door test with thermal tracing maps those junctions so they can be sealed, which also stops large houses with high heating bills losing warm air faster than the system can replace it.
How homes in Foxrock lose heat
Big detached houses lose a lot of heat simply because of their size: large roof areas, four exposed elevations and often extensions added at different times with different construction. Mixed wall types are common, so we check each part of the house before recommending wall insulation. Typical ratings are D, with high absolute heating bills.
Typical housing: Large detached and semi-detached houses on generous plots, mostly post-war and mid-century, on mature, tree-lined roads.
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 Foxrock: questions
Do you carry out airtightness testing in Foxrock?
Yes. We cover Foxrock and the surrounding Dublin area, including Foxrock village, Cornelscourt, Cabinteely Park. Large detached and semi-detached houses on generous plots, mostly post-war and mid-century, on mature, tree-lined roads.
Is there a grant for airtightness testing in Foxrock?
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 Foxrock.
We cover Foxrock and the surrounding area. Tell us about your home and we will arrange a visit, usually within a week.