Ground Level: Cold Floor & External Walls

[freddiemercurystwin]

I had a look through my house type archives and I’ve got some Taylor Woodrow stuff, don’t know if I’ll have your housetype or any construction drawings for it for that matter so best not to get hopes up! Big developers use very few drawings for construction! And if your house was a bit odd (ie with odd ground levels) then those bits won’t be standard anyway!

 

[JasL]

Bryant
Fairfield
(3 story)
2 dormers in roof (front)
2 Velux in roof (front and rear).

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Sorry, JasL, I've got about 50 Taylor Woodrow housetypes but no working drawings for yours or any of the others. Would be pointless to try and guess.

 

[JasL]

Thx for trying.


Spoke to a surveyor. He wanted an 1.5 sq ft hole to be made in my floor so he could see what was down there. similare for the walls.

Spoke to build regs dept today. They thought my problems sounded like insufficient insulation within the floor. Advised me to get a thermal test.

Assuming insulation prob in floor. Possible solutions put forward by Build regs: 1. Add height to floor, with more insulation. All doors to be adjutsed, but problem for 1st step of stair case! 2. Dig up screed, put in suspended timber floor: 22ml glued chipboard with 25ml insulation. Should be roughly equal to heith of existing screed so no adjustments to doors / stair case. Messy and expensive!!!

Any thoughts? Would a thermal test prove if there was insufficient floor insulations? Any other way of proving this, without intrusive holes!!!!!

THx

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Never heard of a thermal test tbh can't see how it would work unless whoever carries out the test knows the construction throughout!

Can't see why a 1.5ft² hole would be required, you only have to dig through the screed, a small hole would do it, just enough to expose the insulation and the thickness assuming some is actually present. There is no magic answer to this, if you really want to find out you have to dig a hole. It may be possible to go in from the wall but this could be messy/expensive unless great care is taken.

You need to find out how thick the screed and insul is before you can go guessing at remedies as you say the bottom stair rise needs to stay as it is.

Some houses are just cr*p and get cold as soon as the heating is turned off as mentioned I live in one myself. Combine standard Building Regs standards with a poor quality developer and a good house it does not make!

 

[JasL]

Doh...... meant to type thermal imaging report!

 

[JasL]

I can live with losing the heat once it is turned off. However, some parts of the wall and floor do not warm up at all, regardless of how ling the heating is on - particularly the areas that are adjacent to the vents (for the floor void) on the outside of the property. It is as if the venting leads directly into my wall and floor (not the floor void)!!!!!

 

[ivixor]

But what are you comparing it to? Expecting walls and floors *not* to be cold to the touch is perhaps asking too much. I presume being a modern house it has wooden floors all over?

Certainly no house I have ever lived in had walls which could be described as "warm" during cold weather, even in a modern house (cheaply built). As others have pointed out, you can build a house to the minimum required by regs, or you can build it well...

 

[JasL]

You've hit the nail on the head......

I think its cold. I took the trouble of speaking to my neighbours at the weekend. ALL of them (wihtout exception) think their houses are cold - cold compared to previous houses. Energy bills are a lot higher.

I think there is a problem. But I want to know for certain. Once proved, I want to fix it, by remedying what is wrong. If necessary, removing the c**py build areas and replacing with something more appropriate (probably over std)

I'm not expecting warm walls/floor. But I don't expect to be in a room where the heating has been on for hrs, and feel cold! The floor and walls are very cold, and it not that they are not warm, they are VERY cold. As explained earlier, where I have removed the skirting, VERY cold air is blowing in throught the gap where the floor meets the walls. The floor should not be this cold, and the walls should not have very cold air blowing around in them. I think there is air leakage, and I also think the floor is poorly insulated.

I see you are in Cambs? Are you in building/Surveying?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

JasL, you can ask as many people the same question as you like there is only one sure way to find out what insulation you have under the floor! Even if you had the drawings it would only tell you what should be there in theory. There is bound to be air leakage/draughts, your house is built from blockwork, an inherently air leaky construction method.

 

[JasL]

Ok. I've got a leaky house, I know that I can feel it. I want to fix it, and any other roblems that should not be there. (E.g. Floor insulations). I do not want to move, only just moved!!!!

What do you suggest. This is what I'm thinking.

1. Check cavity wall insulation (in hand)
2. Check floor insulation (by digging a small hole in screed). How deep is screed, how deep is the inulsation.
3. Conduct air leakage & thermal imaging tests, with a view to fixing as many leaks as possible.

Any one got any better ideas?

JasL

 

[brig001]

Remove the skirting board on the outside walls of one room and seal floor to blockwork to plasterboard. Then see how that feels.

 

[JasL]

Thx a lot for your help Brig001

Can I please check:

1. What do I seal it with?

2. Also, do I also need to remove some of the plasterboard?, or do I drill holes every 6 inches or so tto pump something in? As when the skirting is removed, the gap is only a couple of ml, not sure how I would get anything in the gap between the plasterboard and the block with removing some of the plasterboard and making holes.

Thx for yor advise, I appreciate your help.

Jason

 

[brig001]

Assuming the plasterboard doesn't go right to the floor, you should be able to get some flexible caulk or mastic underneath the edge. If it does go right to the floor, I'd be tempted to remove 1/2 inch or so along the bottom edge and fill there. As long as the plasterboard, blockwork and floor are all sealed to each other you should be OK.

Chances are that the air is getting in through unfilled mortar joints in the blockwork, incomplete mortar bed under the blockwork or through the floor itself - probably because the screed doesn't go right to the edge. Either way sealing it like this should help.

HTH,
Brian.

 

[aerikas]

We bought a similar house recently and it looks like it has the same problems. Did you manage to improve your home in the end? Any advice is very welcome.