Airtightness Testing in Lucan
Blower-door testing that measures how much heat your home leaks through gaps, and shows exactly where. Covering Lucan village, Esker, Adamstown and the surrounding area.
Airtightness Testing for Lucan homes
Lucan's 1970s and 1980s estate houses usually show a moderate air-leakage result, with the same handful of leaks repeated from house to house: the attic hatch, gaps behind skirting on the ground floor, the opening where the soil pipe passes through floors, and older window seals. The hollow-block houses in some early estates leak more because the block itself is porous where the plaster has cracked. Adamstown's newer homes were built to tighter standards and mainly need a test to confirm they still perform after extensions or kitchen refits.
How homes in Lucan lose heat
The 1970s and 1980s estates are the bulk of the housing and typically sit at C3 to D2, held back by empty or partly filled cavities, thin attic insulation and early glazing. Some earlier estate houses were built with hollow block rather than cavity walls, which need external insulation instead. Adamstown homes are newer and mainly benefit from airtightness checks.
Typical housing: Village terraces and pre-war semis near the centre, 1970s and 1980s estate housing through Esker and the middle of the town, and newer Adamstown developments.
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 Lucan: questions
Do you carry out airtightness testing in Lucan?
Yes. We cover Lucan and the surrounding Dublin area, including Lucan village, Esker, Adamstown. Village terraces and pre-war semis near the centre, 1970s and 1980s estate housing through Esker and the middle of the town, and newer Adamstown developments.
Is there a grant for airtightness testing in Lucan?
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 Lucan.
We cover Lucan and the surrounding area. Tell us about your home and we will arrange a visit, usually within a week.