How does a door draught excluder work?

A door draught excluder works to stop draughts from entering indoors through the gap at the bottom of the door. In a lot of houses, particularly older ones, door draughts are an ongoing issue. Even in a new home, you might have removed a carpet to reveal a wooden floor but there is now a gap between the door and the floor. That gap may seem small, but it lets in a steady stream of cold air into your home. The result? A room that feels cold and a heating system that must work a lot harder to maintain a warm home (and yes, that does mean higher heating bills). Not what you want in the middle of winter!

To stop any draughts, the solution is to fill the gap. And this is exactly what our door draught-proofing cushion does! By sitting at the bottom of a door it is a really simple and cost-effective solution to a draughty door.

Our door draught excluders are filled with Swaledale sheep wool. Our 90cm x 30cm door draught excluder cushions are not only larger than standard door draught stoppers but are also more robust. The weighted design allows the cushions to stay firmly in place, making them an efficient draught excluder. And they look great! Investing in a Chimney Sheep door draught excluder has been compared to sand-bagging your door against the cold – and we think that this is the perfect way to describe it!

What is this door draught excluder made of?

The outer covers of our door draught excluders are made using organic cotton. As you’ll see, we make them in a range of colours and patterns to ensure there is something to suit most home décor styles.

The filling for our door cushions is Swaledale wool which we get ready-scoured from Standard Wool in Yorkshire. It is from farms in Cumbria, Yorkshire and Northumberland. We used to use Herdwick wool but we need that for our precious chimney blockers! Just like Herdwicks, 'Swaleys' are also found out on the fells and are hardy sheep. However, their wool is much softer than their 'Herdy' cousins which makes perfect stuffing for our door draught excluders.

Why is using organic cotton good for the environment?

The purpose of organic cotton farming is to eliminate highly toxic substances (like toxic hazardous pesticides) from the growing process which benefits both people and the planet. This process is natural. To do this, farmers go back to the ‘old fashioned’ way of doing things by using natural systems and cycles to help grow crops. This includes crop rotation, green manures, no-till methods and composting. All of this makes the soil healthy which leads to better crop harvests without the need for harsh and potentially harmful chemicals.

Non-organic cotton farming relies on synthetic chemicals to grow such as nitrogen fertilisers and artificial pesticides, many of which are fossil-fuel based (and we all know what they do to the environment…). Removing these chemical inputs not only reduces the use of fossil fuels but also means that biodiversity can improve. This results in more bugs, bees, birds and worms! Any pest control that is used is completely natural and is only permitted under very restricted circumstances. You can read more about organic cotton here.

What are the benefits of using wool in this door draught excluder?

We use wool as the filling to our door draught excluders. Wool is a natural product. Sheep spend their lives grazing and growing wool. This is clipped in the summer when it’s hot for their welfare. Then it all grows back in time to keep them warm in the winter as it is a natural insulator. This makes it the perfect material to keep our homes warm!

It also has remarkable properties that enable it to absorb high volatile compounds (VOC’s) such as formaldehyde. Studies have shown that VOC’s bind permanently to the wool fibre, so they absorb it and never release it. Wool has been used to clean up environments where there are high levels of VOC’s. Having wool around your home will make it a cleaner, healthier and better environment to live in.

What other ways can I draught-proof my home?

Draught-proofing your home will make your home more energy-efficient which will reduce your gas bills (or electricity bills depending on your heating system!) and make your home a little bit greener.

If you have an open chimney, we always suggest starting there! An open chimney is often the biggest source of heat loss, actively sucking warm air out of your home. To stop this, you’ll need to use a chimney blocker of some sort which will stop that lovely warm air from escaping. This can be done with something like our fantastic Chimney Sheep® draught excluders. We don’t recommend chimney pillows or duvets to block your chimney as they don’t work particularly well and can cause damp issues!

Some draughts aren’t quite as obvious as a giant chimney and they can often be quite hard to detect with the naked eye. Something like our Smoke Pencil will help you to detect draughts. Depending on what draughts you find, will depend on what measures you need to take to draught-proof your home. Doors, random wall gaps, windows, keyholes, letterboxes are all common draughty areas. To fix these, you can look at our range of draught-excluders which include our wool door and window tape, wool gap filler, keyhole covers and more!