Airtightness Testing in Goatstown
Blower-door testing that measures how much heat your home leaks through gaps, and shows exactly where. Covering Goatstown, Clonskeagh, UCD and the surrounding area.
Airtightness Testing for Goatstown homes
Goatstown's mix of period semis, post-war detached homes and mid-century estates gives a wide range of airtightness results. The older Clonskeagh-side semis leak through floors, sashes and chimneys like other pre-war homes. Post-war detached houses often have suspended floors and older steel or timber windows. The estates are tighter but leak at attic hatches and service penetrations. Testing tells you which group your house sits in and what to fix first.
How homes in Goatstown lose heat
The mix of stock means a mix of wall types: solid brick in the older semis, hollow block or early cavity in the post-war homes and cavity in the estates. Getting the wall type right is the key first step here, which a survey settles quickly. Ratings range from C3 in upgraded estate homes to F in untouched period semis.
Typical housing: Period semis toward Clonskeagh, post-war detached homes through the centre, and mid-century estate housing toward Mount Merrion.
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 Goatstown: questions
Do you carry out airtightness testing in Goatstown?
Yes. We cover Goatstown and the surrounding Dublin area, including Goatstown, Clonskeagh, UCD. Period semis toward Clonskeagh, post-war detached homes through the centre, and mid-century estate housing toward Mount Merrion.
Is there a grant for airtightness testing in Goatstown?
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 Goatstown.
We cover Goatstown and the surrounding area. Tell us about your home and we will arrange a visit, usually within a week.