A few areas of the house deserve special attention, but don’t limit your detective work to just these places. From inside the main living areas check the following:
- Window panes for tightness, and around both the window sash and the window casing
- Around the door, including the threshold and around the door frame
- Electrical outlets, including those on interior walls
- Exhaust fans and vents. These should vent to the outside and close properly when not in use
- Corners where two walls meet with an imperfect seal
- Light fixtures in the ceiling
- Interior trim and baseboards
- Cracks in the wall finish or ceiling
- The joint where a wood frame wall joins a masonry wall or chimney
- Doors and hatches into unheated attics
- Fireplace dampers and fireplace bricks
- Around chimneys
- Behind bathtubs and under sinks
- Above sliding pocket doors
- Around plumbing pipes and ductwork
- Around the plumbing stack and any other pipes entering the attic
- Around wires or ceiling light fixtures that penetrate the attic
- Around ducting that enters the attic from inside the house
- At the junction of the ceiling with interior wall partitions
- Along any shared walls
- Ceiling areas over bathrooms and stairwells
- Where the wood frame wall (sill plate) meets the masonry (concrete or stone) foundation or where joists penetrate the masonry wall
- Any holes or gaps where the electrical lines, plumbing, gas lines or oil fill pipes go through the external walls
- Leaky ducts or poorly fitted hot air registers or cold air intakes
- Cracks in the foundation wall and slab
- Floor drains