How to retrospectively check dry lining insulation

Black_Knight

Bought our house a few years ago, already drylined, but our daughters room gets very cold overnight compared to other rooms. It should be dry lined, but we were never able to get certification regarding what insulation was used on the walls. (Pain in the ass for BER purposes but that's for another time).

How might I go about inspecting to see how much insulation there is in the walls (useful now to know if that's the cause of the cold room, and later if I need a BER)? Ideally with as little impact as possible, but i'm open to understanding more.

Calahonda52

any elec sockets?

any wall vent you could take off inside?

johnb25

Depth between the inside surface of the wall and the window frame, compared to other rooms?
Have you checked the attic insulation overhead that room?

listermint

No offence but dry lining a room may have absolutely negligible impact on BER assessment.

.they tend to look at things they can see like radiators , led bulbs and things they can't see they want SEAI installer documentation.

Be a waste of time certifying a room with dry lining on it.

I'd also suspect the dry lining had f all impact of the room is still cold which would mean the source of the problems in the room was not limited to insulation.

Air tightness. , Ceiling insulation , floor insulation, crap windows, heat source.

Lumen

FLIR camera is the best way, this time of year.

Black_Knight

Calahonda52 wrote: »

any elec sockets?

any wall vent you could take off inside?

Nothing on the external facing walls.

johnb25 wrote: »

Depth between the inside surface of the wall and the window frame, compared to other rooms?
Have you checked the attic insulation overhead that room?

All rooms would be drylined, so their depth between wall and window frame should be similar. Even at that, it wouldn't indicate the thickness of insulation.

listermint wrote: »

No offence but dry lining a room may have absolutely negligible impact on BER assessment.

.they tend to look at things they can see like radiators , led bulbs and things they can't see they want SEAI installer documentation.

Be a waste of time certifying a room with dry lining on it.

I'd also suspect the dry lining had f all impact of the room is still cold which would mean the source of the problems in the room was not limited to insulation.

Air tightness. , Ceiling insulation , floor insulation, crap windows, heat source.

Forget the BER, it's not my concern in this post.

I don't know what impact dry lining had on the room, since we never lived in this house prior to it being dry lined. The room is on our south side of the house but with neighbours it gets very little/no sun these days.
It heats up fine, but doesn't retain the heat like other rooms overnight- granted we (in our room) generate more heat than our 2 year old does. Eg. Our room dropped about 2 degrees over 6 hours last night, whereas her room dropped 6 degrees in those same 6 hours. There's some legit reasons I can see though.
1. Our room is on the semi-detached side of the house, hers has 2 external walls
2. Our room is above the living room, her's is above the hall/front door

Air tightness:
1940s house... good luck with air tightness. One big concern I have is there's a conduit for power cables etc in the corner of her room, which is not insulated. It could likely be/is a source of a draft.

Ceiling insulation: There's an attic conversion, but in eves i've them well insulated.

Floor insulation: None. I've plans to replace the floor at some stage (it's a tongue and groove laid over the original floor boards), and while i'm at it I could insulate between the ceiling and floor. Any guidance on what i'd use for this?

Windows: Windows are fine. Nothing amazing, but all are alike, and sealing well. Nothing about that rooms window suggests it would be a cause of heat loss.

Heat source:
New radiator 2 years ago, new boiler 2 years ago.

Black_Knight

Lumen wrote: »

FLIR camera is the best way, this time of year.

I've a cheapo version of that. It works with poor resolution, but I used it to identify and fix a few gaps in my attic insulation. Must give it a go again though. See if anything can be spotted.

Idioteque

Sounds like it's not insulated or something wrong with how it was done given the difference in temp drop. Can you feel any noticiable draught in the room?

You could just cut a square on 3 sides (somewhere out of sight), fold flap back and take a look, then put the flap back and fill.

Edit: also knocking on wall to see if that room might be dot and dab vs batten's might be worth doing first

Black_Knight

Idioteque wrote: »

Sounds like it's not insulated or something wrong with how it was done given the difference in temp drop. Can you feel any noticiable draught in the room?

You could just cut a square on 3 sides (somewhere out of sight), fold flap back and take a look, then put the flap back and fill.

Edit: also knocking on wall to see if that room might be dot and dab vs batten's might be worth doing first

Actually. Totally forgot I got a socket moved and installed on the external facing wall. I can pull that off and take a look.
What should I be expecting to see? A few inches of foam board?

mickdw

Is the front door recessed from the front line of the house? Could be air enteri g overhead there.

Black_Knight

mickdw wrote: »

Is the front door recessed from the front line of the house? Could be air enteri g overhead there.

It was previously, we replaced the door and brought it out to the external block work. Ie. There's no internal rooms above anything external.

Black_Knight

Black_Knight wrote: »

Actually. Totally forgot I got a socket moved and installed on the external facing wall. I can pull that off and take a look.
What should I be expecting to see? A few inches of foam board?

Checked the socket. Behind the metal back box on the socket is the external wall. Around the sides of the back box (definitely not called that) is foam player board, so only about an inch worth of insulation.