How to seal 80s home?

G’day,

In need of some advice. We have just moved into a new home and we often are finding the smell of smoke in our house as it is not sealed off. We live on farm land so constantly burning going on and it fills the house. We are wanting to try seal the house to keep out the smoke. We have a large living kitchen area that is wooden and is full of gaps. Not sure where to start to fill it up? Any advice would be handy. See pictures for the layout and the gaps.

Another place we think air is leaking in and out is the sliding doors, the house was build in the 80/90s so the seals aren’t too flash anymore. I have attached images of the frames and would love to know how to reseal these again. All help is appreciated so much as I’ve truly got no idea and really want to wake up in a smoke free house. Thank you!!

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Comments

JacobZ

Hi @tillysprojects,

I'd like to start by extending a warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

I'm sorry to hear that you're having trouble with smoke getting into your house. I'm sure we'll be able to get you headed in the right direction towards a solution.

While not the same issue, a lot of the tips provided in How to keep your home warm in winter will help, as the main goal is the same, keep the air outside out, and the air inside in. This might be a good place to start.

Unfortunately, there are going to be several things you'll need to look at if you want to make the house airtight. It is something that is best addressed during the build process, so retroactively sealing the home can be quite difficult.

Is it possible to get some photos from outside the house?

Is your house built on stumps? Is the floor timber or concrete? What is your roofing material?

These are all questions you'll need to look at if you want to seal it completely.

The timber gaps you have shown can be sealed using a timber-coloured gap filler such as Selleys No More Gaps Timber Gap Filler. You might like to check out How To Silicone a Gap for some guidance on how this can be done.

With the windows, the seals are often proprietary to the specific window unit, but you might find some success using a general weather seal such as this Syneco 6 x 9mm x 5m Black Self-Adhesive Door Window Weather Seal.

Allow me to tag some of our helpful members to see if they can offer any insight or assistance, @Dave-1, @Noyade, @DIYGnome. @Jewelleryrescue.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob

Jewelleryrescue

Hi @tillysprojects

@JacobZ Has pretty much all the bases covered re smoke and air invasion so a good job done there his ideas work the trick is to find your homes weak spots and seal them. Some whirly bird openings and a tiled roof will not stop smoke on the exterior of your house so focus on interior . linings and hole through the ceiling like bathroom exast fans the best one have a flap that closes when the air flow stops others will let smoke pour in.

Try find the smoke gaps.

I would roll up some paper or cardboard and lite it and then blow it out so it is smoking away and walk around the OUTSIDE of house with the keenest nose indoors hold it 30 cm away from door openings and windows etc and watch the smoke drift patterns

I would like to chime in as I have being defending my house against a smoker neibour one of the hells of smaller residential blocks and close living. So my problem is 24/7 365 days of the year randomly. there back porch is 3 meters to the fence line and 1 meter extra to my house. Plus at bush burn off times is similar to your problems extra solutions

I have won that smoke battle. I tell you this so yuo will get a chuckle My lastest strategy against directional cigarette smoke is an industrial fan as we also have built an outdoor BBQ area that is nice to sit in with out being gassed. This dosnt apply to your situation directly. I use an industrial fan and blow his smoke away pointed alone the fence line mounted on the house as it is close by. At full power it sounds like a small plane taking off lol when we are out side I hope the slight increase in noise pollution dosent bother them. It is low in power consumption so run it on medium when outdoors I run it a max when they smoke other unknown substances. and is 97% effective. Yeah I reclaimed my out door space.

There is talk of a new law for smokers living in close suburban settings and apartments but not yet delivered.

@tillysprojects For your house the ultimate solution is pressurize your living space with clean air. ( Called Positive Pressure Home Vent System) Depending on your house size one unit may be enough in a centeral location if you no " more gap" all the interior cracks this will help and use new foam seals on doors and windows.

So The idea is to pressurise your house interior slightly so any gaps, or a door opens air flows out pushing smoky air away and out. And if a bit gets in re door opening closeing it will be filtered or pushed out too. The ideas is to do it so it wont cost the earth so do some research on a system.. I had a sales man try sell me one after I spent years sealing the house from cold /hot air and smoke. so I didnt need one at the time/

How is this done? There are roof filter units avaliable that will take outside air and filter it to a high degree and pump it into your living space increaing inside pressure slightly almost like and air conditioner the key difference is the outside intake is needed to increase air pressure is important.

Closed systems. Air conditioners recirculate avaliable air inside the house with some low grade flimsy filtering but can not create the positive air presssure needed for air to flow out the cracks not in. Like a fan in your house it blows air in a positive direction and creates a negative vacuum behind it but the net pressure increase in the room is zero. There are small interior ceiling mounted ( fans + lights + filter + ionising units) that sit where your light is. I am not fully convince ionization works effectivly. ?

They wont stop smoke getting in just filter the air in a room to reduce it. Called ( Ceiling mounted purifiers) cost approx $400 ea/room.

Make your bedroom a smoke free zone so at lest you can sleep well for starters.

Follow @JacobZ ideas too as they will help warm and cool your home too.

DIYGnome

Hello @tillysprojects drafts are a constant annoyance during the colder months, I would agree with the sealant suggested by @JacobZ always a handy cartridge gun application 👍

We have just recently replaced the runner (support) rail on our back aluminium sliding back door (circa around 1980s) and had similar issues sourcing replacement parts, Bunnings supply an alternative adhesive foam seal that proved exceptionally well suited to use as a weather strip (also to keep unwanted insects out on a screen door/frame making surface) 😉

https://www.bunnings.com.au/moroday-grey-econo-self-adhesive-weather-seal_p4061873

Dave-1

Evening @tillysprojects

Welcome to the Bunnings community 🙂 Definently a good place to ask your question. I am sure you will find a bunch of solutions in here for stopping smoke entering your house.

I was thinking timber trim around the top edges you have shown to fill that gap. I do like @JacobZ 's suggestions, maybe a mixture of both? The sliding door is a little harder to seal, especailly an older door. I have the same issue with mine. My solution to stop draughs (smoke) enetering so easiyl was a heavvy rubber backed curtain. This really seems to work for my draughs. I considered replacing my door... considered is the word, no $$$ was the answer 🙂

One last suggestion, I sometimes will close only one side of the house windows to stop my cross breeze. That way the breeze going past the house will draw air out through the other side. Burnoff smell would be a pain to handle. 😕

Dave

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