cold bridging around window and door cavitys

[marshan16]

Hi Everyone , im looking for some advise with the closing cavitys around doorways and windows. 1 year ago i had an extension built, and to make the story short its been a nightmare ! anyway it looks like the builder has not fitted cavity closers on any opening built into the new extension, as a result i have extensive cold bridging around these areas,even air traveling down dot and dab plaster walls.i decided to investigate by drilling a hole through the plaster board in one of the downstairs doorways end cavity, and when put a light through , suprise suprise theres no cavity closer ! even worse is theres missing batt insulation upto the edge of the plaserboard closer. ive included a pic of where the cold bridging is happening. i would call the builder back but he is a complete **** and i dont trust him to do the work satisfactory. ive come up with two ideas , remove all plasterboard and fit cavity closers and board back up and re plaster, or two maybe have holes drilled and insulation foam injected into these areas. could anyone please advise me on the best way to solve the issue. Andrew









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[noseall]

What do you mean you have cold bridging?

How is this cold bridging manifesting itself?

Drafty voids behind plasterboard is down to build quality issues that are resolved as a building is being built. For example there should be solid beads of dab behind the plasterboard, in particular a solid perimeter bead all around the edge of the board then a couple more vertically.

We also apply a solid wodge of dab around all back boxes.

We don't bother with proprietary cav clodgers, rather we cut celotex and foam this in place, and achieve a better seal and a more solid finish.

Your builder should have fitted cavity insulation right up to the jambs then closed off the cavity. However, this omission would not necessarily cause cold bridging nor the inclusion of it automatically cure cold bridging.

This is a particularly vulnerable location regards cold bridging whereby all the correct building elements need to be in place to negate cold spots.

For instance the position of the frames is just as important or else the cav clodgers become useless, i.e. showing any external masonry inside, after the frames are fitted is a big no-no.