How to Winterize Your Home with Window Shrink Film

After the holidays, I got an amazing opportunity to work with an old Victorian house in the historic district of Knoxville, Tennessee. Being an older house, it needed to be winterized for the colder months. So *FrostKing partnered with us and provided all of the supplies we needed; pipe wrap insulation, door sweep, and window shrink film to make this drafty old house warm and cozy for winter.

In order to save these historic home from being condemned, the city of Knoxville took them over and converted them into apartments. This home is separated into 3 apartments. I worked with Karen, the top tenant, and then Karen helped the other tenants winterize their apartment/portion of this historic home.

The first project we tackled in Karen’s historic Knoxville home was insulating the windows with the indoor shrink window kit. This kit was incredibly easy and FUN to use!

Step 1

Starting off, like with any project… read the instructions. Then re-read them because you weren’t paying attention the first time. Because you never read instructions.

Or maybe that was just us. I really hate instructions. These weren’t too bad though, once you get into them.

Step 2

Make sure the windows are free of dust and debris, then apply the provided super sticky, double sided tape to the window frame. Wait 15 minutes.

You totally would have just stuck the window shrink film on right away if you hadn’t read those instructions! Or, I would have!

Step 3

Next, remove the paper backing to the super sticky tape, and apply the window shrink film. Start at the top, then bottom, then sides. Pull the plastic taught to reduce as many wrinkles as possible.

Step 4

For this next step, you can use a hair dryer. However, I was grabbing tools from my workshop and didn’t want to run upstairs for a hair dryer so I grabbed my HomeRight Heat gun instead, and it worked like a charm!

Apply direct heat, approximately 8 – 10 inches away, to the shrink wrap and tape–and, before your very eyes, the wrap will become tight and crystal clear! It was super impressive how clear the wrap became, and it was fun to watch it tighten.

Step 5 (If Necessary)

Try not to get distracted while shrinking your film. The wrap can melt. Especially if you touch the gun to the wrap! But, if you do, we found that it can be patched!

I don’t know how long this patch will hold but this is what we did when we accidentally melted our film. I promise, we just looked away from what we were doing for a second!

• Cut a section of wrap from the excess
• Apply tape directly to the plastic
• Activate it with the heat gun
• Heat the entire patch area to ensure adhesion

Again, pay attention while you’re shrinking your window shrink film. Don’t touch it with the heat gun.  It will melt.  You can patch it but the patch kind of ruins the “practically invisibility” factor.

Step 6

The excess can be removed with a sharp razor blade but, as always, use caution when cutting with a sharp object. Do this carefully and make sure you are “cutting” not tearing the plastic.

The window shrink makes a world of difference. It also looks way better than the duct-taped plastic my dad used to put over our windows! 

You don’t even see this plastic!

I hope all of you enjoyed this tutorial to winterize your home. I found the window shrink film to be pretty easy to use–as long as you pay attention the whole time–and it seems to work very well! Stay tuned as I will be covering more of the winterizing process soon.

Next, we moved onto installing a door sweep on her metal entry door, which was interesting because I didn’t think to brink a drill bit!

*This post is sponsored by FrostKing.  All opinions are my own.