Assessing my house for further insulation / weatherisation ?

[swayzak]

hi

I recently moved into a 1963 detached house with the first floor in the roof e.g. kind a chalet style with dormer windows.

This was in the summer.

It has (old) cavity wall insulation & I had Mark Group insulate the loft for me.

However, now it's winter I've noticed how cold it can become, especially upstairs.

I've put this down to the style of house ie. the upstairs rooms are not surrounded by brick but are really partially under the roof space.

I recently located very cold drafts coming through my bedroom units - took the draws out and noticed raw floorboards (with gaps) under the bottom draws. This was where most of the drafts were coming from, so I've covered them with rubber backed carpet & this has helped.

I'm now beginning to realise that previous occupants' modifications were maybe not to the highest standards

But it is still not that warm upstairs.

What I would really like is for a "weatherisation" expert to come round and assess the whole place & suggest remedies.

Do such specialists exist ? I guess they would not just be insulation people but maybe have building / roofing expertise as well .. ?

Advice would be very much appreciated.

thanks

 

[^woody^]

You need one of the new "Home/Domestic Energy Assessors" to do a survey

 

[stuart45]

Unless you are selling or renting your house I wouldn't waste your money on an EPC. I have done a few on a part time basis and all that is involved is collecting some data and letting the software do the rest. It would be better to pay for a specialist surveyor.

 

[^woody^]

Stuart, please get with the programme.

The new breed of instant surveyor with his HIP and DEA 3 day training and handheld computer is the future.

A proper experienced/specialist surveyor is simply not qualified to comment on energy efficiency or insulation

 

[swayzak]

Thanks

Hmm .. I'm still unsure as to who I should contact for this.

What sort of "specialist" surveyor do I need ?

 

[stuart45]

Some councils give grants to homeowners to make their houses more energy efficient. My daughter lives in Bristol and got a grant towards loft insulation and draught proofing. They also sent a surveyor to give her advice and he also checked that the roof space was adequately ventilated to prevent condensation due to the extra insulation.

 

[swayzak]

thanks again

Am I right in thinking that these "chalet" style first floors (if that's what they're called) are prone to cold (more than traditional houses) ?

 

[stuart45]

When your house was built there were no Regs for U values on external walls. These were introduced in 65. RIRs were usually colder.
How high do you need to set the TRV to achieve a comfortable temperature? An average for a bedroom is usually about 18F, but this can vary with different people. If a room is draughty or damp the air temperature could be 18F but still feel colder than than one with the same temperature and dry, still air. If the walls are cold your body will lose heat to them and this can also make you feel colder with the same air temperature. Thats why most people feel more comfortable with heaters that radiate rather than convect heat.

 

[stevebamford]

18F

brrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[jeds]

DEAs coming in for a bit of stick here. They can't all be bad though, can they? The couple I've met had been through literally hours of training and certainly showed encyclopeadic knowledge of the rules.

 

[^woody^]

The couple I've met had been through literally hours of training and certainly showed encyclopeadic knowledge of the rules.

That is the exact probelm. They have done a short course learnt everything from the course guides and now know quite a bit - but in a narrow sort of way, and don't really have the experience/knowledge to apply what they have just learnt to every day building situations.

Sure, they can punch the numbers in to a computer and tell you that you need x amount more of insulation. But so can a monkey at the zoo

 

[stuart45]

Being a DEA myself I would agree with Woody. To get qualified all you need to do is 5 unsupervised EPCs and a 20 question multi choice exam that a first year apprentice could answer. Most people don't bother looking at the computer generated recommendations which is probably just as well. For example Elmhurst tell their DEAs to record any cavity wall built before 1935 as solid. This is so that a recommendation for internal insulation comes up. They reckon that any cavity before that is too narrow to fill. So if you buy a small terraced house built in 1905 and follow the recs you are going to pay out a lot more money than your neighbours cavity fill and loose room space. You may also get problems with a damp cavity receiving less heat from the house.
You only need to look at the technical questions being asked on the Home Inspectors Forum to see the level of knowledge of some DEAs or Home inspectors.

 

[^woody^]

Fair play to anyone who is HI or a DEA - its a job.

The problem is really with the idiots who created this nonsense system of HI's and DEA's, which has very little actual value.

 

[stuart45]

The idea of having a good quality survey for a would be buyer to look at is quite good. If the government had 7,500 experienced surveyors to carry them out it may have worked. The problem was that most of the RICS boys kept out of it leaving the government with the stupid idea of training up 7,000 new entrants with no construction experience in about 12 months. In the end they realised it would never work with all these new entrants. Imagine the lawsuits that would have followed.

 

[jeds]

CSs kept away from it for two basic reasons.

First, they were being asked to pay thousands of pounds to train to answer basic questions that they allready knew the answers to - and knew those answers in a great deal more detail than most of the people asking the questions.

Second, most realised early on that it was a croc of sh1t that ex burger flippers would end up doing for half a Crown.