9 inch Hollow Block with internal Dry-lining but cold house

leonlafrite

Ok, So I looked again and there is a 1 cm gap in between blocks and insulation from PB

Total thickness from block to room side PB is 7 cm so I presume we have about 40/50 mm insulation on a 12.5 board

Pics attached

It was installed using the dot and dab method which looks widely used... BUT there should not be a draft going on (I am now convinced this is main reason for the heat loss)

Looks like I will need to find a way to stop the draft coming thru the block... sound expensive to fix...

The house gets warm very fast but the heat escapes quite quickly over a few hours, it is impossible to keep warm.

kadman

Dot and dab by its nature, was used for fast expedient method of preparing walls for finishing
with minimal input.

Dot and dab crew could fly around a room in minutes. But its method of fast fitting does not seal
either at the bottom of the plaster board sheet, or the top of the sheet.

So if you have air movement here, its either coming down from above, or up from below.

The fact that you have an unsealed low level roof area, in line with your existing first floor level,

may be worth more investigation. Air entering below the slates here, have access to the ceiling/joist level,

into the floor zone, depending on build method. And then free access to any of the dot and dab sheets

near that zone, and then onto the rest of the house.

Thermal imaging camera will yield loads of answers.

2 cents

Calahonda52

IIRC the fire regs require a fire stop top and bottom so maybe there is a bigger issue here

leonlafrite

Thermal imaging/heat loss survey is probably the way I will go in order to pin point the root cause(s) as It should allow me to pin point the fixes with the highest return on investment...

I did some math and our gas bill over last winter was 650 (November to March)
Best case we will save 25 % or about 160/year
I will need over 15 years to recover a 3 k investment (probably less as prices will go up)

This does not account for the extra comfort of a warm home :-)

kadman

Calahonda52 wrote: »

IIRC the fire regs require a fire stop top and bottom so maybe there is a bigger issue here

Little use in having regs, and no policing of the same.

Even when the government came up with the insulating homes scheme

after the 2008 crash. It was an absolute joke.

Groups of ill trained home insulators, and rule bending sign offs .

I saw my own family home half done, and wrongly fitted with roof ventilation

areas blocked.

It was a joke then, and still the same now. I spent many many years on sites

both as an architectural joiner, through to timberframe / steel detailer and

insitu concrete form designer. I've seen things to make you cry, and i dont

scare easily

Calahonda52

kadman wrote: »

Little use in having regs, and no policing of the same.

Even when the government came up with the insulating homes scheme

after the 2008 crash. It was an absolute joke.

Groups of ill trained home insulators, and rule bending sign offs .

I saw my own family home half done, and wrongly fitted with roof ventilation

areas blocked.

It was a joke then, and still the same now. I spent many many years on sites

both as an architectural joiner, through to timberframe / steel detailer and

insitu concrete form designer. I've seen things to make you cry, and i dont

scare easily

.

Not disagreeing with one letter in the above , I was pointing towards the OP perhaps having stumbled on a bigger problem

kadman

Calahonda52 wrote: »

.

Not disagreeing with one letter in the above , I was pointing towards the OP perhaps having stumbled on a bigger problem

I think we are both singing from the same hymn sheet.

Good god man, dont be telling the op that things could get worse the

more he digs:eek::D:D

leonlafrite

Hi Guys - I suppose I have to ask now but what are these fire stop top and bottom?
How can this be checked?
I know an architect was involved back when this was built but that probably count for very little....

kadman

I worked on many different sites, block, steel,timberframe.

At the time Homebonds housebuilding manual was the rulebook of the day for timberframe.

And for the dot'n'dab merchants, firestops were alien technology, so I doubt very much if

you have them.

https://passivehouseplus.ie/magazine/help-desk/fire-compartmentation-timber-framed-party-walls

A quick google will explain the purpose of fire stops. Its to stop both fire and smoke permeating through the building.

If you dont have them, it would be a pointless expensive thing to refit.

Look at all those apartments in Dublin a couple of years ago, that had no adequate fire safety fitted.

Like i said before policing and inspection for this sort of thing is a joke. Always was, and nothing will change

TheBoyConor

Things are marginally better now with the BCAR. However, it is only a modest improvement. There are still far too many "sure it'll be grand" merchants and contractors and trades only interested in doing the most convenient, handiest and cheapest thing with the mentality of get it all closed up quickly and what is out of sight is out of mind.
Until a few of the more lax assigned certifier and contractor engineers are strung up by the courts and struck off as an example, not much will change.

Calahonda52

leonlafrite wrote: »

Hi Guys - I suppose I have to ask now but what are these fire stop top and bottom?
How can this be checked?
I know an architect was involved back when this was built but that probably count for very little....

Here is the text from a supplier

Fix metal frame system/timber battens to the wall in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Sections should be placed around all wall edges and around openings and services.


https://www.xtratherm.com/app/uploads/2018/11/100680-Xtratherm-Thin-R-XT%EF%80%A2TL-MF-v2.pdf

and
Fire Stops
An important factor when drylining a wall is to provide fire stops along the top and bottom of each board and around all openings (doors, windows, etc). These are provided by the battens and prevent fire penetrating behind the insulation layer. This also helps to prevent thermal looping, leading to an overall improved U-Value for the wall element.

kadman

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Here is the text from a supplier

Fix metal frame system/timber battens to the wall in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. Sections should be placed around all wall edges and around openings and services.


https://www.xtratherm.com/app/uploads/2018/11/100680-Xtratherm-Thin-R-XT%EF%80%A2TL-MF-v2.pdf

Perfect. But he does not have metal struts or battens.

he has the good old tried and trusted (:eek: never to be seen again) dot'n'dab.

What should have been an asset to building construction methods at the time, was high strength adhesives, and silicone mastic, and expanding foam.

This introduction to the building trade threw proper construction methods clean out the window into the next county.

And along came the " have silicon gun" will travel brigade. Thats stuck, filled, and smooth finished every item in a house, quicker than you can say handy Andy.

And not much has changed at all.

I passed a local building site today, that has stack towered multiple pallets to wall plate height, in order to stand on them to roof an extension.

And numerous council vehicles passing these al day long, and no visit from anybody.

Dont get me started