Fitting a letterbox draught excluder

If you have a letterbox fitted into your front door, you can help reduce heat loss and draughts if you be draught proof it. Modern doors such as PVCu door will come fitted with a letterbox pre-installed and will have a flap on the outside as well as the inside so no further draught proofing is required.

If however you have an older door and only a flap on the outside of the letterbox, for only a few pounds you can add an internal flap or a draught excluder. These are easy to fit and only take a few minutes.

These draught excluders are readily available at DIY and hardware stores. Once you have bought one you simply need a drill, drill bit and screwdriver, an optional extra is a small level to ensure you fit the excluder level. The screws should be in the packet when you buy the excluder.

Types of draught excluder

There are two types of excluder available, a brush type that has brushes that help stop drafts, the same idea as the brush excluder you fit to the bottom of the doors. Two rows of brushes reduce the draught from coming into your property. The other type is a brush with flap, these are slightly more expensive but do look neater.

To fit both types of excluder simply align on the door, using a level to ensure it is straight, then drill pilot holes to take the screws. Then simply screw the two or four screws into the door to compete the job.

Both types of letterbox draught excluder are fitted internally.

Save money on paint

In these hard times we have to save money where we can, this tip is simple but so easy to do but you will be amazed at the amount of paint you save! And another benefit to this tip is it also help the environment so your carbon footprint will be reduced too.

When you have finished painting with a roller or brush by scraping out as much paint as possible will save your money as your tin of paint will go that little bit further. Take your roller and with a scraper scrape the paint out of the roller back into the tin or paint tray, you will be amazed how much comes out, especially a thick piled roller sleave. Do this also with your paint brushes. Also, take time in removing as much paint from paint trays when your finished for the day.

Wrap it up

If you are using a roller for a job but don’t finish in a day, don’t wash your brushes or roller out, wrap them up in a bag they will stay usable overnight and you can come back to them and start work straight away and you save time as you didn’t spend ages washing out the brush or roller the night before.

Going green

The added benefit to this tip is to the environment, less paint is washed down the drain, less water is used and the paint lasts longer so you don’t have to use your car to buy more.

Saving money

If you use this tip you will be saving money, which in today’s economic climate we all need to do.

Removing paint video

Here is a quick video of paint being removed from a roller, the thicker the roller pile the more paint you should be able to recover for next time.

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