Daily Home Renovation Tips

Our youngest daughter (who’s away at university) mentioned that her bedroom was too cold in the summer.

So we did a few things to try and help, including stopping the drafts coming through from the cold cellar door by putting on the door sweep at the bottom of the door and weather stripping against the door jams along the door frame. Even though the cold cellar is at the opposite end of the basement from where her bedroom is located, we thought that may have been part of the issue.

It didn’t help. When she was home last weekend she advised that her bedroom was fine in at night but still too cold during the day. This morning I thought to check the cold air return in her room and sure enough, it is not pulling much air out of the room. There’s a good amount of warm air coming out of the heat vent, but the cold air is not being pulled out of the room through the cold air return.

If the cold air return is not pulling sufficient air out of the room that would cause a tissue to be held snug to the cold air return grill when it is on, then it needs to be improved. This weekend’s task, in between painting the French Doors in the Living Room, is to try to find the leaks in the cold air return shaft and plug them (remember, duct tape is your friend).