Draft in a keyhole

One night going to the bathroom I noticed a small but cold draft. I was passing the doors the our children's bedrooms. They sleep with their windows open at night and this was a windy night. So I could feel this draft, but their door to the hall was closed. This puzzled me, but as I got closer to the door, I realized that the draft was coming out of the key hole! I used a piece of tape to stop the draft. It is almost invisible to the eye, and does help. It is common knowledge that any drafts must be stopped. No point in adding much new insulation to your house if the cold wind is blowing through it any how. In our living room I have also insulated the keyhole. Here I have used a bit of black electrical tape on the inside of the hole, and also a bit of insulation material behind that. This door separates our home movie theater from the rest of the house. So here the motivation was originally to sound proof the door, but it works for draft proofing as well.

Summary in Norwegian: På natten sover vi med åpne vinduer og dørene stengt til resten av huset. En vinter natt på vei til toaletet merker jeg at det kom iskaldt trekk i gangen. Det kom fra nøkkelhullet! En tape fixet problemet. Dette understreker hvor viktig det er at man finner kilder til trekk i huset og så tetter dem. Det kan like gjerne være en skjev dør eller dårlig tetting rundt vinduer som lager trekk.

Insulate the trapdoor

Perhaps even more important than insulating the trapdoor is to make sure there are no drafts in between the ceiling and the trapdoor. Moist hot air finding the way into the attic during the winter season will condense. This will be a threat to wood beams and roof wall boards as they might rot. I have used a P-profile seal strip (http://www.clasohlson.no/Product/Category.aspx?id=251254#34-237) to make sure the trapdoor is properly sealed when closed.


Then I removed the ladder. For insulation I had some leftover Litex insulation that is self supporting and can be glued together. On top of this I added a 6mm plywood sheet before screwing the ladder back on top of this. I would think that the insulation now is at least twice as good as before, by judging the thickness of the insulation.

Insulate the attic

Insulating the attic is one of the best way to improve insulation with little effort, I have heard. The cost of getting insulation is limited and there are no structural changes that is needed. In theory it is just a matter of spreading out more insulation. I started out in one corner of the attic and moved around all the stuff we have up there as I added 7 cm sheets of insulation. I added as much as possible while still allowing air to circulate above the insulation. It was a lot of work. If I where to do it again, I would empty the attic completely, and then pay a company to come and blast insulation all over the place. A lot more easy, and probably slightly better when it comes to cover everything without any leaking cracks.

Summary in Norwegian: Jeg har etterisolert loftet. Skulle jeg gjøre det på nytt så ville jeg ha bestilt noen til å blåse ut isolasjon, for å krype rundt på et trangt loft var svært anstrengende. Men det ble veldig bra til slutt.