Home Exterior Improvement: The Best Defense Against Drafts

Starting in spring through the end of fall is a great window of time to check into home exterior improvements to save home energy. While mowing the lawn and working on new home landscaping ideas may top your to-do list, during the warmer months is the perfect time to consider various home exterior improvement ideas that can cut home costs and save you money.

Your home’s heat primarily escapes through drafts. Properly filling these drafts is one of the most important things you can do to save home energy and money over time.

Conduct a home inspection using these home exterior improvement ideas as a guide:

  • Walk around your house and closely inspect areas where different types of building materials join together. For example, where siding or exterior brick meets the foundation and where the chimney fits into the siding. Check all exterior corners as well.
  • Fill all cracks and holes that may be present in the foundation, siding or mortar.  It’s important to use the proper material when filling draft areas. It ensures the corrective action will last a long time and maximizes the energy saving house design you’re striving toward.
  • Inspect the exterior faucets and pipes for holes and openings around where they join your house. Fill them up with the appropriate corrective material.
  • Two critical energy saving exteriors to inspect are your doors and windows. Make sure they are caulked and sealed tightly. If you’re in the market for new doors and windows, make sure you buy ones that qualify for the tax credit for energy saving windows and doors. That way you can save money on your heating bill, taxes and home exterior improvement costs.
  • Check that your wall-mounted air conditioner saves energy by ensuring it’s properly sealed around the area where it enters the wall. It can be a major airway for cold drafts in the winter. Also, invest in a cover for your air conditioner. During the winter, place it over the unit to further keep cold air from entering your house.
  • When it comes to saving home energy, insulation properly installed is another really important home exterior improvement that can save you a bunch of money, particularly when it comes to your attic. Look under the attic insulation and ensure a vapor barrier exists. Water vapor can pass through the ceiling. Too much moisture without a vapor barrier present substantially reduces any energy savings attic insulation provides, rendering it ineffective and possibly causing structural damage. There are several kinds of vapor barriers all of which work well such as a plastic sheet, tar paper, vapor barrier paint or Kraft paper attached to fiberglass butts.
  • While you’re in the attic, check that the chimney, pipes and duct work are properly sealed as well.

The majority of these home exterior improvements are simple to do and not too hard on the pocketbook. It’s time to get serious about completing an energy audit of the outside of your home to correct as many draft problems as you can with energy saving home exterior improvements.

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