Airtightness Testing in Stillorgan
Blower-door testing that measures how much heat your home leaks through gaps, and shows exactly where. Covering Stillorgan Village, Mount Merrion, UCD and the surrounding area.
Airtightness Testing for Stillorgan homes
Stillorgan's post-war and 1960s houses often have suspended timber ground floors, which surprises owners who assume only Victorian homes do. Air rises through gaps at the skirting and between boards, and on a blower-door test those homes show noticeably higher leakage than later estates. Other common paths are original attic hatches and the boxing around stairs on external walls. On detached houses with four exposed sides, the wind pressure across the house makes those gaps more costly.
How homes in Stillorgan lose heat
Some of the earlier post-war houses here were built with solid or hollow-block walls rather than cavities, which a quick borescope check confirms. Typical ratings sit around D1 to E1, held back by walls, thin attic insulation and uninsulated floors. Detached homes have four exposed walls, so wall insulation has a large effect.
Typical housing: Post-war and 1960s detached and semi-detached houses on generous plots, laid out in classic mid-century Dublin estates.
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 Stillorgan: questions
Do you carry out airtightness testing in Stillorgan?
Yes. We cover Stillorgan and the surrounding Dublin area, including Stillorgan Village, Mount Merrion, UCD. Post-war and 1960s detached and semi-detached houses on generous plots, laid out in classic mid-century Dublin estates.
Is there a grant for airtightness testing in Stillorgan?
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 Stillorgan.
We cover Stillorgan and the surrounding area. Tell us about your home and we will arrange a visit, usually within a week.