Draughty house

Dilbert75

Our house is a 3-bed semi, 3 years old, 4" block-built cavity wall with dry lining on all walls. However, we have noticed over the couple of winters we've been here that there is a fairly strong draught coming in under the sitting room door from the hall. I've tracked it down to somewhere around the skirting at either side of the front door (not the door itself) and also through the fuse box. There seems to be nothing to seal that up.

But we've just put our 7 month old baby into the box room at the front corner, where her brother spent his first two winters. But we've noticed that there seems to be a strong draught coming in under the skirtings in the room. For her first night in the room, we've put some blankets along the skirtings and the room is now noticeably warmer.

The question is: what's the long-term solution? I know that houses have to have ventilation (ours has room vents) but this is ridiculous. Is this normal or do I need a pallet load of expanding foam and a nail bar?

rooferPete

Hi,

Your description suggests either bad or no cavity insulation, the draughts could be follwing where the joists were allowed into the wall and may have gaps between the joints.

If your house has twin leaf cavity walls it may be a candidate for the warmfill insulation referred to in here a short while back.

.

GreeBo

Or you might have the same problem that I have..
Do you have a lean to roof at the fron of the house?

    ____
   /     \
  |_____ |
 /|      |      <- back of house
| |      |

The problem that we seem to have is the wind is getting in under the tiles/felt in the lean to and then has free access to the insides of the house via the floor boards etc at the front.
Might be another candidate...

(apologies for the crappy picture!)

Dilbert75

No lean-to, but thanks for the post anyway.

Pete, your reaction was similar to mine. Its a twin leaf cavity alright and there is insulation (aeroboard) in there. But its obviously not well enough done.

Just strange to me that its only apparent in that room, not in the others. Incidentally I was trying to secure the top screw in the cooker wall switch tonight and when I took the switch off the wall, I thought I could feel a breeze in between the plasterboard and the inner leaf. I must check the other rooms. Other than full cavity fill, is there any other (less expensive) method of correcting this?

GreeBo

Dilbert75 wrote:

I thought I could feel a breeze in between the plasterboard and the inner leaf.

interesting that you also appear to have this problem.
I discovered it while fishing cables behind the plasterboard.
Accidently cut through the plastic vapour barrier and can feel a pretty constant cold breeze from it.
That cant be good!
Lemme know what you find.
Though Id also suspect things like overflow/waste pipes phone/esb cables.
anything that comes from the outside really.
I discovered tonight that whoever installed the toilet cistern in the toilet broke right through all the plasterboard, down to the blockwork. Nice breeze coming in there also.

GreeBo

Ok, some possible news for you on this.
Do you have wall vents in your house?
I was doing some work today and had one of the vents off the wall (on the inside)
There is no ducting, just a hole on the outside and a hole on the inside so basically the air blasts in the external vent and then roams around the cavity/behind the plasterboard and pops out all the sockets etc.

Could well be the same issue for you.

Im going to get some wavin and build a duct and then just seal the rest off with expanding foam or something.
Explains why the walls are always cold to the touch and also the bloody breeze!

hope it helps you.