Ofgem has confirmed the energy price cap rises 4% from 1 October 2026, taking a typical direct-debit household from £1,663 to £1,723 a year. Every October in Derby, that news triggers a wave of searches for loft insulation, smart thermostats and double glazing — all genuinely useful, all genuinely expensive, and all overkill if the actual problem is a house that's simply draughty. Before you book anything big, it's worth booking the small stuff first.
Why draught-proofing is the cheapest fix in the book
A typical UK home loses a meaningful chunk of its heat through gaps around doors, letterboxes, loft hatches and old window frames — not through the walls or the glass itself, but through the gaps around them. None of that requires new windows or a new boiler. It requires someone to go round the house methodically, find every gap, and seal it properly — which is exactly the kind of half-day job a handyman is built for, and exactly the kind of job that's easy to keep putting off because no single gap looks like it matters much on its own.
The draught-proofing jobs that make the biggest difference for the least cost
- Letterbox and keyhole brushes/covers — a surprisingly large, constant source of cold air with a fix that costs a few pounds
- Loft hatch draught-stripping — heat rises, and an unsealed hatch is effectively a permanent gap into an unheated loft
- Door and window seals — foam or brush strips around external doors and older windows, replaced where they've perished
- Keyhole and letterbox covers on external doors, particularly on older Derby terraces where original fittings are often original from decades ago
- Gaps under internal doors between heated and unheated rooms — often overlooked because the room itself feels warm enough
What a half-day handyman visit typically covers
A full draught-proofing pass on a typical three-bed Derby semi — checking every external door and window, the loft hatch, letterbox, and any obvious gaps around pipework where it passes through external walls — is realistically a half-day job. That's noticeably cheaper than a single new double-glazed window, and it starts paying back on the very next heating bill rather than over several years.
"Nobody notices a draught until they stop feeling it. The houses we draught-proof in October are, without exception, houses where the owner had no idea how much cold air was getting in until it stopped."
What we won't touch, and why
Draught-proofing is squarely a handyman job — sealants, strips, brushes and covers, all straightforward fixing work. What it isn't is an excuse to go anywhere near your boiler, your consumer unit, or any gas or electrical installation. If your real problem is an inefficient boiler rather than a draughty door, that's a job for Cor, our sister emergency plumbing and electrical service. We'll tell you honestly which one you actually need rather than trying to sell you a half-day of draught-proofing that won't fix a genuinely inefficient heating system.
Booking before the October rush
Like most seasonal home maintenance work, draught-proofing bookings spike hard in the two weeks after every price cap announcement, then again once the first proper cold snap hits. Booking now, before either of those rushes, gets you a slot that suits you rather than whatever's left in three weeks' time.
Book a draught-proofing half-day before the rush
Kirk Group Handyman covers Derby and Derbyshire. A half-day visit, sealed doors, hatches and letterboxes, and a bill that starts falling from the next reading.
Published by Kirk Group Editorial
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