The draught-proofing kit
an EPC assessor
would actually buy

Best all-round — the cheapest fix for the 3–5mm gap around most doors and windows

The same product as the top pick above, repeated here because it belongs in the doors section as much as anywhere else: self-adhesive brush pile that sticks onto a clean, dry frame. Rated for gaps of 3–5mm, covering most hinged and sliding doors that have worn or shrunk slightly over a few decades, in black, brown, grey or white. A 5m roll covers one door frame with some left over; buy two or three for a whole house’s worth of doors.

Typically £4–£7 per 5m roll

Best for the gap under the door — where brush pile tape alone doesn’t reach

The gap under a door is usually bigger than the gap around its edges, and brush pile tape alone won’t close it. This dedicated bottom seal — a PVC-housed brush strip self-adhesive to the base of the door — is rated for gaps up to 25mm, covering most doors that have dropped on their hinges or were hung with generous clearance over the carpet. A 1m length, cut to fit, in white, brown, grey or clear. Won’t survive a stone threshold indefinitely, but suits an internal or lightly-used external door well.

Typically £10–£13

Best for a single-glazed window this winter — a temporary secondary-glazing effect

This isn’t insulation and it isn’t a permanent fix — a sheet of film taped around a window frame and shrunk drum-tight with a hairdryer, creating a sealed air gap that behaves a little like secondary glazing for the season. Covers up to four windows per 6 sqm kit and comes off cleanly in spring, no residue. On a single-glazed sash it buys real comfort for a few pounds; not a substitute for actual secondary or double glazing year-round — see the double glazing cost guide for that comparison.

Typically £10–£15 per 6 sqm kit

Best reusable option — a wool pad on a handle, in and out in seconds

A felted wool pad on a rigid handle, pushed into the flue and pulled back out whenever the fire’s lit — no inflation, nothing left behind to forget. Herdwick sheep’s wool, treated to resist moths, sized for a standard 12in flue; other sizes cover other openings. Suits an occasional fireplace, where pulling it straight back out matters more than the last percentage of airflow blocked.

Typically £22–£26

Best for blocking the most airflow — an inflatable pillow with no fixings

Where the wool pad trades airflow for convenience, this trades a fiddlier fit for more of it: an inflatable PVC balloon blown up by mouth once positioned in the flue, tested to block the large majority of chimney airflow. Nothing to fix or glue — it wedges under its own pressure — and deflates for storage between uses. Remember it like any chimney excluder: nothing goes up that flue, and nothing gets lit, while it’s in place.

Typically £20–£28

Best for the gap around a loft hatch — a common EPC recommendation on its own

A loft hatch is rarely built to a door’s tolerance, and the gap round the frame is one of the more common items on an EPC recommendation report. Four lengths of brush-in-PVC-housing seal, pinned around the hatch frame, rated to close gaps up to 7mm — enough for the ordinary worn or slightly undersized hatch, not one badly warped. Sold in small and large sizes, white or brown.

Typically £8–£12

Best for an older cylinder without a factory-fitted insulation layer

This is the one item here I wouldn’t send anyone to a specific brand for — a cylinder jacket is a commodity, and the numbers that matter are on the base of the cylinder, not the box. Buy an 80mm jacket kitemarked to BS 5615, measure the cylinder first, and check the size band covers it; most are a four-piece wrap, on in about twenty minutes without draining the system. A cylinder with no jacket, or an old flattened one, loses heat round the clock — a quietly expensive gap for something this cheap to fix.

Typically £33–£45 depending on cylinder size

Best for the front door letterbox — the gap most households never think to check

A letterbox is one of the largest uncontrolled openings in an average front door, and it’s rarely on anyone’s list to check. This anodised aluminium plate has a twin intermeshing brush seal and hinged outer flap, sized for a standard aperture, in a choice of finishes. A straightforward swap using existing fixing holes, and it noticeably cuts the draught felt standing in a hallway on a windy day.

Typically £13–£16

Best for a mortice keyhole — a five-minute, five-pound fix

A plain, uncovered mortice keyhole is a small gap individually, but it sits at chest height in a room people stand in, and it’s one of the cheapest things here to fix. A spring-loaded covered escutcheon, chrome or gold-effect, drops back over the keyhole once the key’s out — a five-minute job worth doing alongside the letterplate above.

Typically £5–£8

Not draught-proofing at all, but the same afternoon’s job — reflecting heat off an external wall

Worth including honestly: this isn’t a draught fix, it’s a heat-retention one, and it only makes sense behind a radiator on an external or otherwise uninsulated wall. A laminated foil panel goes up behind the radiator, cut to size, reflecting radiated heat that would otherwise pass into the wall back into the room. Three sheets with adhesive strips and clips, enough for three to six radiators, five minutes’ work per radiator, off and cool. Does nothing for a radiator on an internal wall — check which ones qualify first.

Typically £20–£23