This £3 DIY draught excluder trick has council tenants raving about warmer rooms

The wind always found that gap. Along the bottom of the front door, under the bedroom window that never quite shut flush, round the frame where the paint had cracked years ago. On calm days it was a gentle whisper; on cold nights it was a thin, relentless river of air that made the thermostat work overtime and your toes feel like they belonged to someone else.

For one tenant in a tower block in Birmingham, the breaking point was an energy bill that jumped by £40 in a month, with nothing to show for it except a living room where you could still see your breath on a February morning. She’d done the obvious things - extra jumper, lower thermostat, fewer hours with the heating on. The flat stayed stubbornly chilly. One evening, scrolling in a dressing gown with the hood up, she watched a 30‑second video of a man stuffing old tights with fabric offcuts and taping a pool noodle to a door. “That can’t work,” she thought. Then she saw her curtains swaying from the draught and thought again.

It started with a rolled-up pair of school tights and a charity‑shop duvet cover.

The £3 trick that calms the winter wind

The idea is deceptively simple. Take something soft (old clothes, leftover cushion stuffing, the inside of a cheap pillow), something long and tubular (tights, a cut‑up leg of jogging bottoms, even the sleeve of a worn‑out jumper), and something to cover it (an offcut of fabric, an old sheet, a remnant from the £1 bin). You’re essentially making a sausage of padding that sits snugly along the base of a door or window. It doesn’t look heroic. It just quietly blocks the bit of your home that’s behaving like an open vent.

Most people spend far more than £3 on temporary fixes that don’t touch the main problem. Plug‑in heaters, extra throws, even just running the boiler harder. A tenant in Hull told me her first DIY draught excluder cost her £2.69: two pool noodles from a discount shop and a roll of tape. She slid the noodles into an old pair of leggings, taped the ends, and wedged the whole thing under her paper‑thin front door. “The difference was immediate,” she said. “My hallway didn’t feel like a bus stop any more.”

There’s a bit of physics and a lot of common sense behind it. Warm air wants to escape; cold air wants in. The gaps along the bottom edge of doors and sills leak heat constantly, especially in older, minimally insulated flats. By blocking those invisible leaks, you stop the coldest, fastest air flow, which means your room stops losing heat so quickly. You’re not turning a G‑rated building into a Passivhaus; you’re just closing the window your landlord pretends not to see.

How to build one in ten minutes with what you’ve already got

Start where the draught is worst. You’ll know the culprits: the front door that rattles, the bedroom window that whistles, the balcony door you dread opening in January. Wet your hand and run it slowly along the edge on a windy day; the cold will hit your skin wherever air is sneaking through. That’s your target. One excluder under the chilliest gap makes more difference than five scattered randomly.

The basic version needs three things: a tube, a filling, and a cover. For the tube, old tights work well because they stretch, but a cut‑off trouser leg or long‑sleeve top can do the same job. For filling, use whatever you have that doesn’t compress too flat - shredded carrier bags, old socks, scrap fabric, the insides of a tired pillow. For the outer cover, a strip from an old duvet cover or sheet stops bits poking out and makes the whole thing easier to clean. No sewing machine needed; a few safety pins or a length of string will do.

1. Measure the width of your door or window with a tape measure, or just run the fabric along and mark it with a peg.
   
2. Cut your sleeve/tights slightly longer than that measurement so you have room to tie or fold the ends.
   
3. Stuff the tube firmly but not solidly; it should bend but not sag.
   
4. Wrap the stuffed tube in your chosen fabric and secure the ends with string, elastic bands, or a quick running stitch if you’re handy with a needle.
   
5. Lay it snugly against the gap. For doors used all day, some tenants tape a thin strip of card to the floor as a “track” so the excluder slides with the door rather than being kicked across the room.

Council tenants who’ve tried it say the trick is to treat it like a small appliance, not a decoration. It lives by the door, gets moved with your foot when you go out, and straight back into position when you come home.

The council‑flat tweaks that make it actually work

Social housing and older rentals bring their own quirks: metal fire doors, shared corridors, rules about not fixing things permanently. You can’t screw a brush strip into a door you don’t own, and you might not be allowed to alter thresholds at all. That’s where this £3 hack shines - it’s removable, non‑damaging, and you can take it with you when you move.

In blocks where cooking smells pull straight under doors, tenants use twin‑tube versions - one roll inside the flat, another outside, both tied to a length of ribbon that loops over the door handle. Open the door, and both sausages move together; close it, and they drop back into place, sealing the gap on both sides. No drilling, no adhesives, just clever gravity. It softens noise as well as draughts, which makes late‑night corridor conversations feel further away.

For windows with deep sills, people pack smaller rolls along the frame: one along the bottom, two short ones up the sides where the rubber has failed. A tenant in Manchester swears by using cheap microfibre cloths as filler because “they grab every bit of air trying to get past.” Another in Bristol lines the inside of her letterbox with a folded excluder at night, turning the cold metal flap into a quiet, padded barrier. You can still open it for post; you just don’t get a mini wind tunnel with your bills.

If you share your flat, agree a simple rule: whoever opens the door after work puts the excluder back in place. Visible habits matter. When it’s left leaning in a corner, it may as well not exist.

Warmer rooms, lower bills, no permission slip needed

Tenants talk less about degrees on a thermostat and more about how their homes feel. “Before we made them,” one council tenant in south London said, “my kids would sit on the sofa with blankets and still moan. Now the room holds the heat. The heating goes off and it stays comfortable instead of dropping off a cliff.” Her smart meter reflects that feeling - less frantic spike when the boiler kicks in, shorter bursts to maintain temperature.

Energy advisers who work with social housing families often start with draught proofing because it’s cheap and immediate. They’ll bring foam tape for window frames and brush seals if landlords allow it, but they also encourage DIY excluders when budgets are tight or rules are strict. You don’t have to wait for a grant scheme, a visit, or a contractor. You can turn a bag of tired clothes into a barrier in one evening and feel the difference that same night.

No, a £3 draught excluder won’t fix mould from structural damp, or make single glazing perform like triple glazing. But it will buy you a gentler winter, a hallway that doesn’t greet you with a gust, and a living room where one radiator does more than it used to. It’s not about pretending your flat is something it isn’t. It’s about squeezing all the warmth you can from the heat you’re already paying for.

Where to use it	What to use	Why it helps
Front doors & balcony doors	Pool noodles, tights, jogger legs	Blocks the biggest, windiest gaps fast
Sash or older windows	Pillow stuffing, fabric offcuts	Slows cold air sneaking round loose frames
Letterboxes & cupboard gaps	Rolled cloths, microfibre cloths	Cuts tiny but constant leaks in kitchens and halls

Keeping it clean, neat, and landlord‑proof

The nicer it looks, the more likely you are to keep it in place. If the sight of a lumpy grey sausage on the floor makes your heart sink, spend an extra ten minutes using fabric that matches your curtains or rug. One tenant stitched old tea towels together into a long strip and turned her excluder into something that looked like it belonged in a shop window. Another used a child’s outgrown dinosaur duvet cover, and now his son insists the “draught snake” guards the door every night.

Cleaning is easy: once a month, shake it outside, then vacuum the surface or give the cover a quick wash if it’s removable. Avoid stuffing it so tightly that it traps damp; it should be firm but slightly squashable. If you smoke indoors or fry a lot, expect to refresh the cover more often - better the fabric takes the smells than your walls or curtains. When you move out, it lifts away without a trace, and there are no screw holes for the inventory clerk to frown at.

If you’re worried about tripping, keep the excluder the same colour as your flooring so it blends in visually but remains obvious enough not to surprise your toes. For older relatives or small children, low‑profile versions filled with flatter material (folded towels rather than bulky stuffing) reduce the risk of stumbles while still easing the draught.

FAQ:

• Will this actually lower my heating bill, or just make me feel warmer? Both. Blocking draughts reduces how quickly warm air escapes, so your boiler doesn’t need to run as hard or as often to keep the room at the same temperature. Tenants who’ve tried it notice fewer “on” cycles and shorter bursts.
• Is it allowed in council or housing association properties? In most cases, yes, because you’re not drilling or gluing anything permanent. If you’re unsure, check your tenancy agreement, but loose fabric excluders that lift away are usually fine.
• What if I’m not handy with sewing? You don’t need to sew at all. Tie the ends of tights in knots, use elastic bands, or twist the fabric and secure it with safety pins. The goal is snug, not pretty.
• Will it block the fire door or cause a safety issue? You must be able to open doors easily in an emergency. Keep excluders light and loose so they slide or kick aside without effort, and never wedge or nail anything that stops a door closing or opening properly.
• Where should I start if money is really tight? Focus on the coldest single spot: usually the front door or the worst window in the room where you spend most of your time. One well‑placed excluder made from clothes you already own is better than waiting to do the whole flat perfectly.